Pictures of the Year International

Red Skies, Green Waters

Venezuela’s oil industry, which helped transform the country’s fortunes, has been decimated by mismanagement and several years of U.S. sanctions imposed on the country’s authoritarian government, leaving behind a ravaged economy and a devastated environment.In eastern Venezuela, rusting refineries burn off methane gases that are part of the fossil fuel industry’s operations and are important drivers of global warming.Even though Venezuela produces far less oil than it once did, it ranks third in the world in methane emissions per barrel of oil produced, according to the International Energy Agency.

In western Venezuela, oil seeps from deteriorating underwater pipelines in the lake, coating the shores and turning the water a neon green that can be seen from space. Broken pipes float on the surface, and oil drills are rusting and sinking into the water. Birds coated in oil struggle to fly. The collapse of the oil industry has left Cabimas, once one of the richest communities in Venezuela, in extreme poverty.Meanwhile, in the capital, teachers are earning around $4 per month, resourcing to farming or bartering for basic needs.But the collapse of the Venezuelan oil industry has consequences far beyond its borders: In a 2021 report, the United Nations Commission on Human Rights expressed deep concern about the state of Venezuela’s oil industry.“It is imperative that the government effectively implement its environmental regulatory framework on the oil industry,” the report said.There is no reliable data to measure the polluting effects of the Venezuelan oil industry, but it can be felt from the ground and seen from space.This project begun following satellite images from NASA to locate the worst environmental catastrophes in the country and it led me to the westernmost state of Zulia, where years of continuous oil spills have left its waters fully covered with with a green algae that is slowly killing the fauna. It subsequently led me to the further east, where the state of Monagas is burning under continuous gas flares that is slowly killing all vegetation. Finally, the project examines the economic effects of the collapsed oil industry in the country's general economy.