The excerpt describes the violent impact of oil extraction on the environment, using phrases like "A thousand explosions in the belly of the earth," "Bleeding rigs" and "bursting pipes". The poem (identified as Nnimmo Bassey's "We Thought It Was Oil but It Was Blood") depicts the earth as a "sickbed" that "bleeds". Despoliation refers to the act of plundering or stripping a place of its value and natural beauty, which perfectly matches the