I am a lawyer working to stop dangerous deep water oil drilling off the coast of Guyana. Guyana’s petroleum reserves are 120 miles off-shore and 2 miles below the sea bed, under immense pressures. This ultra-deep drilling is extremely dangerous and poses a grave threat, not just to Guyana but to the Caribbean. ExxonMobil’s maps show a spill scenario in which oil hits the Caribbean and reaches as far as the Dominican Republic.The proposed oil production will also emit nearly 4 billion tonnes of greenhouse gases that will help to destroy the climate system, make the ocean more acid and make the earth hotter and more hostile to life.
In 2020 I won a case that cut ExxonMobil’s environmental permits down from 23 years to 5 years. In May 2021 I filed a constitutional climate change case on behalf of a university dean and an indigenous youth.
Melinda Janki 