This oil leak is a disaster that has already killed 11 people.\u00a0 Today it was reported that the Gulf’s loop currents are going to carry it around Florida.\u00a0 Gooey, red oil has come ashore, past the booms that were used to try to stop it.\u00a0 New BP video, as reported by NBC, reveals that most likely,\u00a0 double the amount of 70,000 gallons of oil per day are pouring into the ocean. Most of us have no concept of what damage this oil will do.\u00a0 Criminal charges are probably next.\u00a0 So let’s determine blame.\u00a0 Should BP pay for this mess, or Halliburton, or Transocean?<\/p>\n
It would be convenient to have several large corporations to choose from when pointing the finger of blame for this disaster, but we need to look at who is at the root of all this.\u00a0 That would be us.<\/p>\n
The American people should be on trial. We should pay damages and we should pay for this at the gas pump.\u00a0 We are the ones with the oil addiction.\u00a0 We have an automobile culture that we are not willing to give up or even alter.\u00a0 That mind-set is now destroying the Gulf coast.\u00a0 We have supported the need for dangerous drilling with our 1) unwavering support for offshore drilling and our 2) insatiable “need” and use of gas and oil. \u00a0 Have any of us stopped driving our cars, or stopped doing anything that uses gas and oil,\u00a0 since this oil leak happened?\u00a0 Have the drug addicts stopped using the drug, or are we just upset that our habit is causing such damage and pollution? So far, Americans seem really upset with ourselves but want to blame someone else.\u00a0 Sure, BP is legally responsible, but who is ethically responsible?\u00a0 No one forces us to use the massive amounts of gas and oil that we use.\u00a0 Americans\u00a0 buy millions of dollars worth of gasoline and oil a year and we are obsessed with the price of it, not the use of it.\u00a0 By now, most Americans feel that it’s our birthright to use as much gasoline and oil as we want to. Who has ever tried to stop us?<\/p>\n
Our whole economy is based on fossil fuels and the obtaining of them, whether through drilling, digging, exploding tops off mountains,\u00a0 or waging wars.\u00a0 Oil, gas and coal keep capitalism and never-ending growth humming along, and Americans accept that as the way things ought to be.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
The price of fossil fuels we use also includes the climate damage, ocean damage, and climate change burning these fuels causes.\u00a0\u00a0 Climate change in the sky or oil-soaked coastlines down on earth; \u00a0 it’s all bad. \u00a0 It’s very bad.\u00a0 It’s going to end up destroying our civilization, but that’s too hard to think about, so most people don’t.\u00a0 Like most addicts, we are in deep denial.<\/p>\n
We are oil addicts by choice, though, and as addicts we should pay for our expensive, dirty, damaging habit.\u00a0 But we don’t, we blame the big fossil fuel corporations,\u00a0 because they [...]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
This oil leak is a disaster that has already killed 11 people.\u00a0 Today it was reported that the Gulf’s loop currents are going to carry it around Florida.\u00a0 Gooey, red oil has come ashore, past the booms that were used … Continue reading