The British Petroleum oil spill currently poisoning the Gulf of Mexico and saturating the American coastline with a thick, brown, three-inch, frosting of petroleum gunk, is both tragic and completely expected. When “Drill, Baby, Drill” becomes the hubristic political mantra of a radical wing, the end result of such an insane and insensitive notion is the punishment currently shattering the shores of Louisiana that will shame the previous, and preventable, Katrina damage by a magnitude of suffering humanity and rotting wildlife.
Yesterday, I heard a Purdue University science professor on the radio explain that the amount of oil gushing from the deep water well is well over 100,000 barrels (4,200,000 gallons) a day and not the 5,000 barrels a day BP previously claimed in sworn testimony to Congress.
The gusher will be active for at least three more months.
The economic and environmental damage to the entire USA in situ has yet to begin and we have only ourselves to blame for electing politicians that favor Big Oil over the smaller interests of the people who have to actually clean up the mess and live amongst the aftermath.
BP are currently using chemicals to try to disperse the oil before it reaches shore, but since the oil is spewing from deep water, and not sloshing out of a topside oil tanker, the environmental damage done by the chemical treatment may create an even more devastating end result:
In directing BP to select a less toxic dispersant, the Environmental Protection Agency said it was exercising caution because so little is known about the chemicals’ potential impact.
BP has sprayed nearly 700,000 gallons of Corexit dispersants on the surface of the gulf and directly onto the leaking well head a mile underwater. It is by far the largest use of chemicals to break up an oil spill in United States waters to date.
Scientists and politicians have questioned why the E.P.A. is allowing use of the Corexit products when less toxic alternatives are available.
It’s hard to grasp the magnitude the problem of the impending oil invasion, but Paul Rademacher has created a fantastic website that visually relates water to land to demonstrate just how much oil is out there with no place to go but the Homeland.
Here’s how my hometown of Lincoln, Nebraska would fare if the amount of Gulf oil currently spilled over the gooey Cornhusker heartland:
An entire city of 250,000 citizens would be completely obliterated and wiped off the map with an single slick of oil.
Will this local Gulf war disaster bring home the message that we have to take care of the land before it breaks us?
Or will we continue to share a convenient, and frequent, resetting of our morality, and the obliteration of our national values, all in favor of the almighty vested interests of deep water drilling in our culturally septic brackwater backyard?
I hope they get serious about fixing this spill, and soon.
Something bold must be done soon, Gordon, or it will be too late to make any significant difference.
Maybe sun and wind and water would be better power and heating sources.
Yes, I certainly agree. We’re hollowing out the earth with oil drilling. There are cheaper and more bountiful energy resources for our cars and homes and computers.