I’m so sad about the Gulf Coast right now.
Throughout much of my childhood my family made yearly trips to beaches along the Alabama and Florida coasts, and it tears at my heart to hear that globs of oil are now washing up on those same beaches. At the time, I took those seaside excursions for granted, but now I am realizing how much they meant to me. I can’t imagine the heartache experienced by my friends who grew up along those shores.
I’ve mostly been avoiding news coverage about the oil spill, preferring to remain in a state of denial about the scope of this thing. All those dying animals, the lost jobs, the marred water….not to mention the human lives lost in the initial explosion….it’s just too much to take in.
Today I did succumb to looking at the pictures of oil-covered pelicans (warning: not for the tender-hearted). I was grousing to Paul about BP and their evil-ness, and he remarked that he is surprised at all the blame levelled strictly at BP. Why are we boycotting BP stations when this spill could have happened to any of the companies? I mean, yes, BP is handling this terribly as far as I can tell, but need we look at them alone?
Paul’s point was that a disaster of this magnitude might cause us to reflect again on our oil dependence and seek ways to free ourselves from it. Instead of boycotting BP stations (and the hard-working, independent owners who run them), why are we not encouraging each other to drive less? Yes, we can send a message to BP, but what about sending a message to the oil industry — hey, to the whole country — that it is time to move ahead. It’s time to move to a different type of energy.
Now I don’t mean to demonize the oil industry here. I have family members who have worked hard for oil companies for decades, and I appreciate the contributions that oil has made to our society and economy. Like it or not, big oil has made the U.S. a prosperous nation. But it’s time to move on.
For our part, Paul and I have started discussing whether we want to convert our diesel cars into “greasel” (able to run on peanut/soybean/canola oil). We’re also talking about buying an alternatively-powered car like a Nissan Leaf for our next vehicle (whenever we can save up for one — um, 10 years?). No, it’s not a perfect solution – for one thing, to be oil-independent we would need to make sure the electricty powering the car was generated by wind power or some other clean happiness. But this is a step we can take to start moving in a better direction for the future.
One of my strongest feelings about this disaster is powerlessness. Honestly, that’s what most of my anger boils down to. Sure, it seems like BP has been twiddling their thumbs and pointing fingers and in general being useless. I think they should be working day and night to find a solution to this while also cleaning the water and rescuing the critters trapped in this mess. (I’m pretty sure the guys who saved Apollo 13 would have solved this by now.) But for all I know, BP could be doing all of those things and just have an ineffective PR department to tell us about them. I don’t know.
So for my part, I can pray for the beautiful Gulf Coast, support the groups taking action to help, and look for ways to reduce my own dependence on oil. I don’t want this to happen again. I sure hope that one day soon I can head to Gulf Shores and take Paul and Ian on one of those dolphin-sighting cruises that I loved so much as a child. But the odds aren’t looking good.
You realize, of course, that a Nissan Leaf is powered by coal. And hydro once in a while. 😉
I was listening to an LSU professor on the radio while in New Orleans last week and he was saying that IF we stop the leak as planned in the next 60 days. the long term damage can be avoided, and the Gulf would return to normal in about 2 years. That’s too long, and this never should have happened, but it doesn’t have to be the end of families enjoying the beach.
He also said of the 7,700 miles of coast, “only” 200 are being affected so far, so there are 7,500 miles of shore line still to be enjoyed. Small consolation to the pelican doused with oil, but we can and will recover from this, and hopefully learn some lessons to avoid the situation in the future.
Nashbabe – Ideally, if we had a Leaf, we would purchase “green” power from TVA’s green power switch program. I think it’s wind power.
Gary N – interesting info! Thanks!
Just spent a few days with my sister and her family. Her husband works on the rigs for BP as a welding engineer. I had a very interesting conversation about the oil spill and what is being done. He is currently working 14 hour shifts along with everyone else at BP, night and day. They are in the testing process for multiple solutions, since every one of their back-up plans failed so far. I gained some interesting info from his P.O.V. I don’t think there’s a lot of twiddling going on over there, but I wonder how much of that is getting to the media and if it does get there, does the media actually care to publicize that angle? It’s so much more fun to bash big oil. My B.I.L. also said similar things about how much demand there is for oil in our economy, not just in fuel, but beauty products, diapers, clothing, and on and on. He also mentioned how most Americans aren’t willing to cut their consumption, so drilling continues.