Stefan Lorimer

Thank you for the feedback from yesterdays post on oil eating microbes. It was brought to my attention  the preparedness of such a solution was greatly over exaggerated and only exists in very small quantities in labs too unstable to produce in massive amounts. That doesn’t however stop the fact that the US is facing the largest environmental disaster possibly in recorded history. How big is the spill compared to your city?

This big : Gulf Coast Oil Spill Map

by Googler Paul Rademacher

creator of Housingmaps.com the first Google Maps Mashup

But what does that mean for us?

No more driving our cars?

Rachel Maddow has a point and I’d like to discuss it, please watch the movie if you havn’t already for some context the please leave your feedback after you’ve read my essay.

An Essay on Ignorance

This isn’t just another event. It is a catastrophe. It is a test of a system. Our culture made this happen. Our governments let this happen. It is happening now. It isn’t stopping any time soon. It is likely to affect many many more people than we think is likely or even possible. A system that is the product of a culture is likely going to have to end to prove that it won’t be allowed to happen again.

The irony of the destruction of the environmental wealth in the Gulf of Mexico by the BP Deep Horizon event, is that the spill results from cultural practices that are part of a system that emphasizes the pursuit and conservancy of wealth. The preservation of wealth is however in a singular form that can only apply back to the human system and not the natural systems. The human system we have created is in fact so good at preserving wealth in the form of currency, it has evolved globalized production of commodities disempowering the influence of citizens and globalized production of deregulation influencing governments to remove rules where operations exist to maximize potential profits by whatever means necessary.

The prevailing message for the past few decades has been one of deregulation in the name of economic growth and job creation. The message of a strong economy has begun to replace the meaning of safety, health and environmental conservancy, different kinds of wealth that in many ways cannot be purchased. Regulation is the application of laws and rules of operation for business. These laws are the responsibility of the government and duty of democratically elected officials to ensure so safety of citizens is maintained. Regulation often comes from citizens whose efforts to prevent harm bring a message from their community to their local elected officials who then work collaboratively with the community to change policy and law. However, the US has come to be known as a country where deregulation of industry in the name of profit and capitalism are not just a norm, but an ideal to pursue.

Deregulation apparently aids in the growth of industry, but it has also prevented development of health care and development of restrictions on companies gaining control of the political process. Lack of knowledge and awareness of the activities of companies prevents citizens from being able to part of the political process. Citizens and communities being removed as a source of production of regulations allows companies to pursue maximizing profits unencumbered by the political process. Change is being prevented by the system and the political process effectively no longer works.

Activities once carried out in our communities have been relocated and scaled up with the means of production hidden away from places we live as their very existence shames us for the benefits we draw from them. Nowadays, large companies benefit from complacent government officials and a public unaware of gross misconduct as it is out of sight and out of mind. Complacency for the ugliness and destruction behind our culture’s need for easy access to energy has perpetuated a relationship to exist past the point of abuse, mistrust and into criminality.

If you experience this relationship via TV or the internet it can’t convey the same message as an oil well spewing toxic fluids and gases into your community until everyone is either leaving, sick, or dying. We have enabled this relationship with gas and the creation of a system that relies on this industry. It is us who will need to leave this abusive relationship and start over. If oil and gas production can’t be done within 50 ft of your home without any type of destruction, then it shouldn’t be done at all.

The BP Deep Horizon event should mark a point in history where humanity faced a collective ignorance and chose to change. However, no amount of positive forward thinking championed by the elders of today will change the grave disrespect and shameful abuse of trust this event represents for every child of the future.

This I know, if this spill had happened in my neighbourhood perhaps anyone’s neighbourhood where children are raised, it would be enshrined in monuments and local history, institutions, and family stories  so that the conditions for this kind of thoughtless destruction of our collective futures would never be allowed to happen again.

My big picture hope for the future is that we learn about our culture and how we feel about the proximity of our immediate environment and the political process that maintains it. I hope for a global treaty on the production of offshore drilling and oil production. I hope for a return to regional self-succiency from globalized production and to the ugliness of our needs not going unseen by future children. Let us see our meat being butchered, let us see our crops harvested, and let us see what evils are necessary to produce gasoline.

Please, be sure to include this in a family talk at your kitchen table this weekend. Let us all hope that we learn a lesson about what we allow to happen to keep a roof over our heads, shirts on our backs, and food on our plates and what it will take to change.