I don’t like to watch the news. I find it depressing, scary, often violent. I don’t really need the gory details of the unspeakable acts humans perpetrate upon each other. I don’t want a tally of yesterday’s car wrecks, train derailments, rapes, murders, plagues and natural disasters. I have a vivid enough imagination to conjure up for myself the myriad things that lay in wait just around the corner from those I hold dear.
I don’t live under a rock but I do live on one. And that makes it easier for me to avoid much of the tragedy and generally bad news brought to us twenty-four hours a day seven days a week via CNN, MSNBC and the like. But even I can’t hide from the fact that the explosion at Deepwater Horizon is a catastrophe of epic proportions.
Millions of gallons of oil and natural gas are spewing into the Gulf of Mexico. Transocean, the company that owned and operated the rig, is nowhere to be seen. BP is trying to pretend that everything’s under control. They didn’t plan for the worst, there was no backup. (But what do you want to bet that a more than a few executives will be in line for huge bonuses at the end of the year for all their hard work in helping with the cleanup of the mess they made?) The American government has taken way too long to register the massive scope of the disaster and seems mostly content to let those that caused the problem handle it.
Lately BP has been spreading a dispersant that is supposed to break the oil down and make it magically go away…I guess. Of course there are a few problems with this dispersant. It’s toxic. It depletes oxygen levels in the water. Even in the ocean, most plants, animals and organisms need a steady supply of oxygen to survive. And the dispersant is breaking down the oil into such small bits that it can be absorbed through the skin of the fish and birds that live and swim there. Do you want to eat the ones that manage to make it through the bog alive?
And We the People? Frankly, I’d have expected more indignation, more outrage. More anger at the loss of life, livelihood, habitat, business, wildlife, watershed, marsh, pristine shoreline. The shrimp boats are out laying containment booms instead of catching shrimp. The oil-covered pelicans are starting to die. Children are playing in paddling pools on the beach because they can’t go in the water. Louisiana is still trying to rebuild after Katrina and now this. What about my beloved oysters? Have you seen this mess? It’s horrifying.
Maybe the outcry is slow in coming because we finally get it. Who do you think all that oil was destined for anyway? You and me, baby, you and me. I certainly don’t know the way out of this mess. There’s no AA for the oil dependent. But it’s clear that we need to be looking for viable alternative sources of energy. Looking hard and fast. Are we really willing to deny a habitable planet to our children because we’re too lazy to come up with a solution? Come on, we’ve got those big human brains. Let’s use ‘em. Think, baby, think.
We cannot kill the ocean and expect to survive. It would do us all well to remember that the planet can rid itself of humankind in an instant and no one would miss us. The earth was here for billions of years before we got here. It’ll do just fine after we’re gone. Just ask the dinosaurs.
{ 6 comments… read them below or add one }
Abigail — this is a very powerful and moving essay. I agree with you and I despair about the oil spill. I’m so upset that I look away and want to hide my head in the sand. I don’t have the courage to look at the photographs. The seafood industry in the gulf coast is an annual 6 billion dollar industry that is destroyed for the next decade or two, so sad. Thank you, Bah.
I actually do sense anger and deep, deep sadness about this siuation. It’s one of those things that is going to take us a while to work through, however. In the meantime, keep writing!
I thank the outcry has yet to come due to collective shock. It’s the realization that BP didn’t act alone. We did this. Our insatiable dependence on that ooze caused us to turn a blind eye and not, at the least, insist on better safety standards for the oil industry and, at best, find ways to leave our oil dependence behind. We to want to continue to live our lives with minimal disruption. Well, this is going to disrupt it a bit. Maybe it will shake us into action.
Bah – Thank you. The photos are so sad. Let’s hope this top kill works and at least the oil stops gushing out and then they can focus on cleanup.
Tinky – Yes, I’m starting to see a lot more of that on now too.
Amber – Too right!
A marine biologist friend of mine is there now and his pictures have me so sad. The worst part of this is that it could have been avoided. I don’t think there has been a big enough show of outrage that this huge oil company plain out refused to follow safety procedures!
Hopefully this will put the agencies responsible for overseeing the oil companies in the spotlight too.