We Are All To Blame For The Oil Spill
The BP oil spill (is that even the right word?) has been on our minds a lot lately. It’s a disaster unfolding before our eyes and we are powerless to stop it. Yesterday we discussed whether we know how to clean up the BP oil spill or not. There’s been a lot of people with ideas that sound simple but really aren’t (Bobby Jindal’s let’s build miles of barrier in 5 minutes idea comes to mind). Al Giordano at The Field would like us all to have a little reality check.
I don’t know how to cap the big oil leak in the Gulf and truth is neither do you. And even if it is capped in five minutes from now, the damage is already done.
That said, as a longtime vocal opponent of off shore oil drilling, and proponent of renewable energy, I wish to publicly disassociate myself from all the newly concerned voices screaming at the top of their lungs that the government must “do something” if they don’t come with concrete suggestions for what exactly can be done. They do not represent me and please don’t ever confuse me with them, okay?….
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Okay, just this once, I will point fingers. You know who is to blame in addition to BP and the government that allowed this oil rig to be built? Every single one of us that ever drove a car, got in an airplane, or drank from a plastic bottle (they’re made from petroleum, too). The heavier our “carbon footprints” the greater each of us is to blame. Go yell at yourself now.
Yell at yourself especially if you live in the United States, because you use up twenty times the earth’s resources as people in other countries. You are, therefore, twenty times greater to blame for this civilization’s addiction to oil that created the market for which BP and others went drilling in the seas.
Exactly. Go read the whole thing, it’s good.
This doesn’t mean that I don’t think the Obama administration deserves some criticism. It’s not that they’re not responding to the crisis because they are. There are something like 22 government agencies responding to the spill and more than 22,000 personnel. The problem I see is that the Whitehouse does not seem to be in charge of the response and is letting BP run the show. It’s not acceptable that BP refused to let people see video of the leak (until forced to by the government), refused to use a less toxic dispersant (this may be an availability issue more than anything else) and kick reporters off of oil-covered beaches at the behest of BP.
Basically, there’s a lot we don’t know. We don’t know if we’re doing the right thing by using a dispersant. A dispersant simply disperses the oil in the ocean, which keeps it from building up on the coastline. All the ideas to cap the flow of oil have been only modest successes at best. BP is going to try a “Top Kill” procedure today, which has never been tried at these ocean depths. It’s hard to think of clean up if we can’t even stop the bleeding.
I guess I don’t share the pessimism of a lot of people who think that the Gulf is dead. We don’t know that yet and I’m optimistic that some things will survive this crisis. We just won’t know for years what the real effects have been. My hope is that we’ll learn something from this crisis – that strong regulations are necessary and vital and that those crazy environmentalists were right. We need to stop and think about what we’re doing and consider the worst case scenarios. We need to break our addiction to oil because of the negative consequences to our foreign policy (we’re stuck in the Middle East) and environment. This crisis is trying to tell us something important – will we listen?
Tags: BP oil spill
“I’m optimistic that some things will survive this crisis.”
those “things” are BP, Halliburton, Transocean, offshore drilling, and that good ol’ american ideal that if ya just let companies do whatever they want, they will do the right thing…
thank god for sarah palin and rand paul!!
What bullcrap! WE are not responsible for this travesty but corporate America is. It was Dick Cheney’s secret meeting with energy who took away every safety requirement. Obama’s administration is also responsible for appointing Salazar the oil company lover who pledged to clean it all up and did nothing. Salazar should be fired immediately. The EPA has for decades permitted these corporations to do as they pleased giving them light weight fines as a deterrent. This writer is either ill informed on “the gulf is dead or dying”, obviously hasnt read the reports from the scientists not corporate media whose reporters are not permitted on the beaches or marshes to see the devastation.
This writer person would have us believe that “we” are responsible because we use the energy? What crap. We all need the energy but we wanted clean energy. Literally every Prez since Nixon have claimed they wanted to fix it…none did and none will. These corporations have the government by the short hairs as the government has no one on staff with the ability to fix it. All the government agencies involved are nothing but shysters who are on the take. Its time we start jailing CEO’s, their top staff, heads of these government agencies who didnt monitor these corporations! Lets not have another Wall Street debacle where NO one goes to jail for crimes against humanity. To the writer, check out Propublica as one resource who would disagree with your take.
Depends on what you mean by “we.” Unless you’re living off the grid, you’re contributing to the problem whether you like it or not.
We need to be part of the solution to break our oil dependence.
I agree we need to “do” something, but what can we do?
We HAVE to raise demand for gasoline by driving to work, or a rally, or anywhere. I know I dont have the money to go electric. we have to heat our homes and buy plastics and do the thousands of things we dont even realize use oil. It is disgusting.
But again, what can we as individuals do… short of finding the CEO of BP’s house and duping a barrel or 2 in his pool, and on his lawn, and tennis court and private running track and rugby field…which would only serve to make me feel better.
I would very much like to “be a part of the solution” But until we change our economy so the bottom line of a non living company is NOT more important than our survival as a species, (because that is the way it is, and the libertarians keep on fightin’ for it) we will NEVER change the status quo.
If you are an employee, ask to work from home. If you are a manager, say yes. If it doesn’t seem possible, figure out how to make it happen.
We have to demand that our elected officials do something.
We need to drive the Democratic party to the left and elect a new President so that we can get real environmental reforms that are focused on creating a sustainable planet for the next 1,000 years. What we don’t need is another Democratic President who thinks that environmental debates are “tired:”
“Ultimately, we need to move beyond the tired debates between right and left, between business leaders and environmentalists, between those who would claim drilling is a cure all and those who would claim it has no place. Because this issue is just too important to allow our progress to languish while we fight the same old battles over and over again.”
President Obomba coming down in support of off-shore drilling and on the side of the right, business leaders, and those who claim drilling is a cure all shortly before the BP catastrophe.
Mandate ground loops installed for all new residential construction (in areas where it is technically feasible based on climate and topology). It’s not that expensive when you do it as the house is being built.
Provide hefty tax incentives or subsidies (at least 50%) for installing heat pumps connected to ground exchange loops. They actually work pretty well and are very efficient.
Invest in natural gas. My community for example was built when oil was cheap and therefore there are no gas lines to the neighborhood. Gas is better than oil but still not really green, so exhaust the greenest options first.
What bullcrap! WE are not responsible for this travesty but corporate America is.” You are so right !!!!! itsall..
I dont feelguilt for their greed and shortcuts and careelesness
When the next nuke plant”blows”
should I feel guilty because I have to use electricity ?
We have to demand that our elected officials do something.Indeed. if they are not paid off
BP will atleast have to endure a mass of lawsuits, Nukes are exempt, you get 2 cents to the dollar maybe 3
from the Government. No suits allowed
Viva laFree enterprise ! Yap, read the Pice Anderson act.
feeling guilty for their greed ? Not in this lifetime