Way Too Much
The Gulf Oil Spill has exceeded all imagined horrors.
A first, it was a tragedy focused on an explosion and 11 deaths.
Then it was about 40,000 gallons of oil leaking into the sea.
Then it became 200,000 gallons a day.
And now it is about an immense human disaster, eating away at wild life, the oceans, local communities, jobs, livelihoods and everything else in its wake.
It was somewhat encouraging to see President Obama being truly angry not only at BP and Halliburton and their complicit partners in this crime, but also the US office of Minerals Management Service.
While this anger and determination may be a bit of theatre and a bit of how we all feel, in the long run it may mean next to nothing.
Every weekend, the newspapers publish their biggest and no doubt most lucrative section called "Driving."
Oil is built thoroughly into our culture, our thinking, our very assumptions about how we live.
There is an old adage.
"Do not s--t where you eat."
We have, as an entire species, been ignoring this quint idea and we are running out of time and space.
2 comments:
David this is a sad situation. I am not an environmentalist. I dont worry about global warming or all of the current trendy causes. I do however believe that we all need to use common sense. If we cant get the oil we need in a safe manner then we must find other means of keeping the planer warm and mobile. Nuclear power springs to mind. Remember I am NOT an environmentalist. So I dont want to look at a million windmills atop of the local mountains .
Tar sands okay . Drilling underwater not okay.
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As fishermen many years ago, we'd use Joy Liquit Soap to cut the sheen of oil on the surface of the sea. We were told this was wrong and so we stopped. We cleaned up our act and stopped the wanton polluting.
Today in the Gulf of Mexico, an international water body, they are using surfactants (soaps) to do the same thing. The pollution is still there, but it is being driven unseen below the surface. I't polluting the Atlantic Ocean like hell and we'll pay the price later. There will be a time to pay the piper, and it will be a huge cost. Much more than will meet the eye for some time.
BP want's to drill in the Arctic Ocean and so does Shell. The hell you say!
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