You can see the oil slick from space. What was once permanently sequestered underground was released in our ever-increasing lust for oil, and with a haste spurred on by that lust, we tapped more wells, wells that were more dangerous, more nearly inaccessible, and more seemingly remote from human civilization, to the point where we started tapping some wells with the deck stacked against us without any idea as to how to mitigate damage in the event of a catastrophe. A catastrophe that was bound to happen.
BP, arguably one of the most environmentally conscious oil companies (though that’s like saying “most tolerant televangelist”), has admitted to having no fucking clue how to plug the Deepwater Horizon tap now that the rig is sunk and the pipes are spewing oil like a firehose at a rate of 795,000 litres (about 5000 barrels) a day. This despite the accident happening on a day when several BP execs were on that very oil rig to celebrate their safety record, and their repeated protestations that offshore drilling is incredibly safe and efficient and nothing could ever go wrong. What’s worse, BP scientists have projected a worst-case scenario of ~9.5 million litres (60,000 barrels) a day if the pressure continues to shear at the comparative pinhole that exists presently. BP claims to have the capacity to handle a worst-case scenario of 162,000 barrels a day, but no action has yet been successfully taken despite the disaster happening 20 days ago and counting.
To compound the issue, Obama’s newfound love of “drill baby drill” appears completely unabated by the situation at Deepwater Horizon. Regulators are rubber-stamping new oil leases and waiving environmental impact studies at an alarming rate, despite the acknowledgement that this is on track to become a worse spill than the infamous Exxon Valdez. Granted, this is well down on the list of worst oil spills of all time, but knowing the damage the Valdez caused, due to human error and finger-pointing, it’s galling to see the current round of blame-game, the Shaggy Defense, between BP, Transocean and Halliburton:
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And frankly I’m getting sick of people dodging blame. It’s also sickening to see people honestly thinking that they can pray the oil away, because I see that as another way of dodging the blame.
We are all to blame, to a degree, for our complacency in maintaining an oil-based economy and energy policy. We are to blame if we give corporations cover to make profits without any repercussions when something goes wrong — as is the case if BP, Transocean and Halliburton all get off the hook for their part of the liability for the cleanup efforts. We are to blame if we elect into office people that deregulate and remove restrictions regarding protecting not only the environment but the sustainability of our present actions. And we are especially to blame if we do not shout loudly and with as much anger as we can muster about the vicious cycles of burning oil and drilling oil and spilling oil despite all the obvious long-term detrimental effects this will have for humanity.
This goes double for you idiots that are on your knees praying for relief from the oil disaster. Understand that there are people with as expansive of faiths as yours, who are praying for the acceleration of an apocalyptic final battle where everyone dies and some select few get to go to heaven. There’s something you can be doing instead — figure out the underlying reasons (hint: our dependence on oil) for our problems (hint: the environmental impact we have on our planet in pursuit of oil) and do whatever it takes to raise awareness and/or elect officials that give a shit about the problem (hint: people that recognize that the vast majority of scientists agree that the evidence shows we need to get the hell off of our addiction to fossil fuels ASAP).
And if you’re one of those people, you can run for office yourself. You know, in a last resort.