How many more ecological disasters is it going to take until America wakes up? Today, after a third leak was discovered at the Deep Waters Horizon rig that exploded and sank fifty miles off the Louisiana coast on April 20, 2010, some officials are now estimating that 210,000 gallons of oil are leaking from the site every day. While this accelerated pollution of the gulf waters takes place, British Petroleum (BP), which reported 4.4 billion dollars in gross profits during the fourth quarter of 2009, is finally admitting that they don't have a clue on how to handle the disaster.
BP's Chief Operating Officer, Doug Suttles, announced today that "we'll take help from anyone" in an effort to stop the leak and clean up the oil spill, which is rapidly advancing towards the Louisiana coast. How can a company that makes every penny of their profits from drilling for oil not know how to cap the leaking oil at its source? Even worse, how can the most profitable industry on the planet not have contingency plans for disasters?
The only logical answer is greed on the part of big business and our own stupefying indifference to the consequences. From the oil companies and their shareholders reaping record profits, right-wing pundits like Sara Palin and her obscene "drill baby, drill" motto, our elected officials like President Obama (who recently announced his intentions to allow oil drilling off the east coast of the United States), and our own selfish gluttony to consume and ignore alternative energy resources, we are killing ourselves.
While the fall-out from this disaster will be witnessed in the months and years to come in terms of government and business declarations to "protect the environment" and the reality of dead wildlife and contaminated coastal wetlands, we continue to deny the absolute fact that some day the last drop of oil will be pumped out of the earth, and all we will have to show for our ravenous consumption is dead oceans, rampant air pollution and poisoned drinking water.
It's been twenty-one years since the Exxon Valdez catastrophe, and we haven't learned a damned thing.
6 comments:
Sad, isn't it.
Time to take matters into our own hands. Lead! Be an example. Opt out. Vote Green. Set the agenda. Send some money to Greenpeace. Walk to work. Put in a garden. Put some solar panels on the roof. Agitate! Go for hikes. Take your children hiking (as you did). Sit in front of a bulldozer. Live on less. Read all those great Greenies who are working so hard to save the planet. Be a pain in the ass!
What did Margaret Mead say about one person's efforts? Never, ever underestimate the power of one person's good example.
Best,
allan
Until there’s a cultural & economic shift away petroleum powered transportation on this planet, oil spills will persist. It all comes down to profits. Greener options, sadly, will only cause such a shift after they’ve proven to be grossly profitable for someone.
In the meantime though, as Allan implies, we should be good examples when we can.
Alan- All good examples. My family is going to try eating vegetarian two nights a week in an effort to educate the kids on the amount of money that goes into producing livestock vs growing vegetables. I need to dig out my copies of the Monkey Wrench Gang and Desert Solitaire. Edward Abbey spoke the truth...
Tim- I agree with you completely. If there isn't a huge payback to be made on the deal, corporations and the government will never pursue the options wholeheartedly. With China and India's economies roaring full bore and the world's population growing unabated, I have to wonder if our children won't see the end of the world's oil supply in their lifetimes.
Well, if McKibben is right (and I suspect he is), Peak Oil is here...
We might be saved by the buzzer...
Obama has called for a new farm bill with the emphasis on regional agriculture. The Department of Defense expects oil shortages as soon as 2015 (or even 2012), the Dept. of Energy floated a Peak Oil scenario for 2015 last month.
I hope that we will garner the collective will to move along soon. Or are we a really stupid species? :)
Allan- I hope we figure it out but I suspect the environment is going to pay the price. I just read this morning that BP is estimating it will take three months to drill a relief well to cap and end the spill in the Gulf. If that is indeed the case, this is going to be the worst ecological disaster in the history of off-shore drilling. Absolutely sickening.
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