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As We Die for BP, Our Military Rots in the Wrong Gulf
As you read this, the life of our bodies, nation and planet is being blown out a corporate hole in the Gulf of Mexico and into a Dead Zone of no return.
The apocalyptic gusher of oily poison pouring into the waters that give us life can only be viewed--felt--by each and every one of us as an on-going death by a thousand cuts with no end in sight.
Yet our government--allegedly the embodiment of our collective will to survive--has done nothing of significance to fight this mass murder.
As it did while New Orleans drowned downstream from a willfully neglected levee system, our most potentially effective counter-force dithers on the other side of the world, in the wrong Gulf.
We squander our treasure on the largest conglomeration of people and weapons the world has ever seen. It's bloated with hardware designed specifically to destroy and kill. Hundreds of thousands of Americans sit on our dime in more than a hundred countries, rotting in the outposts of a bygone empire.
Why aren't they in the Gulf of Mexico, fighting for our truest "national security"?
The depth and scope of this catastrophe is impossible to grasp because it is just beginning. The entire Gulf, the west coast of Florida, the Everglades, the east coast of Florida and all the way up, wherever the currents go... they are all at risk.
This is the most lethal single attack on the life of this nation since December 7, 1941. It is a time that will live only in infamy.
The moment it happened, a sane president, a functional government, a society worthy of survival, would have marshaled every mobile resource available and moved it down to the Gulf.
Except by hitting a nuclear power plant and rendering this all radioactive, no terrorist could dream of igniting the kind of havoc now destroying our most vital, precious and irreplaceable resources.
Our mass media should be filled with stirring images of a focussed, determined President mobilizing all available assets to curb the damage. Instead, Barack Obama defends offshore drilling and endorses the resumption of whaling--if this underwater gusher actually leaves any alive. It is a suicidal tribute to the power of corporate ownership.
Instead of a seeing a Gulf population deputized and mobilized to fight for survival, we are subjected to a loathsome trio of corporate stooges--apparently named Larry, Curly and Moe--blaming each other for the catastrophe. They should all be clamped into orange jumpsuits and locked onto a clean-up vessel.
Thus far the only armies officially mobilized are of the corporate PR departments and ubiquitous lawyers savoring the gusher of billable hours sure to stretch through the decades.
Our collective non-response to this cataclysmic reality now includes the introduction of a pathetic "climate bill", concocted by another woeful trio, in service to the very corporations that have brought us this lethal gusher.
This bill will do nothing to solve this particular problem. Nor will it address the root cause of our addiction to obsolete and suicidal fossil and nuclear fuels at a time when the clean, cheap renewable alternatives are readily available. It is, in short, Beyond Tragic.
Make no mistake: in our lifetime, the Gulf will not recover. Nor will our species.
There are no corners of the Earth that we can pollute without poisoning it all... and our own bodies. We cannot squander our resources on killing people on the other side of the Earth while leaving ourselves to be destroyed by the mayhem at home.
Either our species learns this lesson, and acts on it--Now!--or we do not survive.
- Posted in
53 Comments so far
Show Allvisitingprofessor. I second your request.
I agree. The only thing the military would be able to do in this situation is mop up oil on the beaches, or try to gather some of it before it hit the beaches by operating skimming vessels. But the Navy doesn't have many ships that are designed to mop up oil, and the ones that do exist are (or should be) already there or on their way. I suppose the military could just drop a nuke on the wellhead, but most people would think that's a stupid idea or 'the absolute last resort'.
I suppose the real reason for his screed is that Greenpeace has another fund raising campaign to be getting on with. (Note; I do care for the environment, but I'll bash Greenpeace and the Red Cross for being corporations that care more about the money coming in than the good work they're supposed to be doing...)
I recommend that we all call for ways to grow our own oil such as hemp and algae so that we can avoid those wars for oil and drilling. We could also call for businesses to allow for more teleworking and/or making businesses closer to homes so that people don't have to travel too far where there is no public transportation.
Righteous, justifiable indignation eloquently expressed. We are in a era where we know the consequence of our actions and far to many are complacent, lost in Dancing with the Stars.
Weekly vigils for peace and justice here in Regina marked our 3rd anniversary last week.
Don't be silent!!
If we do not find a way to save the planet, the planet will certainly find a way to dispose of us. The irony is that fossil fuel, the discarded carcasses of already extinct species, will be the source of our own demise.
I am old enough to appreciate the irony, but I still believe young people have a right to a better future. I just don't see the Democratic or Republican parties providing anything in the way of real leadership to save the planet--or the human race.
Yes, there is much irony in this article. We have built a civilization so dependent on fossil fuels that we are virtually impotent with out them. What the author seems to have in mind is some sort of "miracle at Dunkirk" (a bullshit myth in itself) effort on the part of the government to send thousands of boats and ships to the gulf to clean up the mess, even though this would likely not work, and would use up hundreds of thousands of gallons of fuel in a futile effort.
We are like a a society of chronic alcoholics that insists on having a 'good stiff drink' before we sit down and honestly talk about our alcohol problem. We have no idea how to face any crisis without more oil. like using fantastic amounts of diesel fuel and natural gas to produce more ethanol and become' energy independent' (LOL!), or environmentalists flying in jets to meet with each other to discuss how to save the world.
I also question why you believe young people have a 'right' to a better future. This also seems like part of the problem. Do you mean a 'right' to a materialistically better future? More stuff, longer lives, more 'economic opportunities' ? If so I disagree. They have a 'right' to live, struggle, procreate and die. The same as all other life. Nothing more, nothing less.
"If you're not idealistic when you're young, you don't have a heart. If you're not nihilistic when you're old, you don't have a brain." - Sydlitz
"This is the most lethal single attack on the life of this nation since December 7, 1941. It is a time that will live only in infamy. "
It would take a "Pearl Harbor" type of event/media blitz to get Americans to stop paying attention to the morbid fraud of Goldman Sachs.
So that's what they got.
I taught environmental science and biology in community colleges for years. It is VERY difficult to teach science/earth science in this country. I went to seminars where we tried to work out ways to deal with the individuals in this country and in our classrooms who believe the earth is 6,000 years old, or that oil is just rotten rocks, or that the theory of evolution is in opposition to religion.
How are we going to get people seriously involved in issues of biology and geology if they (a) are untaught or, (b) refuse to believe it?
A better question might be, how do we set up a decision making system that doesn't get monkey-wrenched by 17th century belief systems?
I think it goes even deeper - midaeval -
until we recognize that the direct corollary of of the current situation is the "externalization" of the greater portion of humanity, the log in our eye prevents us from seeing not only the precipice but the wealth of diversity of experience and perspective of billions of people. solidarity is not a Polish banner of the past, but a call to awakening.
Wade Davis is a good cold splash - enjoy!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bL7vK0pOvKI
I agree with the sentiments expressed in this article. This catastrophe calls for a national emergency to bring all hands on deck to try and mitigate the damage as quickly as possible. There will be plenty of time for the blame game later. The problem is America Inc. is too busy and entangled in its game of monopolies to pillage and plunder this living planet to fatten its pockets as it brings home the material goodies to its Consumer Nation. The simple logic pointed to in this article is too simplistic for the country's political class to embrace and too inconvenient for the consumption addicted masses to take to heart. The reprehensible actuality is people are too busy blaming each other to look at themselves just long enough and recognize how much they too are part of the problem. Until they do we can expect the circus of Presidents, Congressmen, Industrialists, Partisans, Buyers and Sellers, etc. to go on propping up their three ring theaters while they bleed the planet to death.
Not until people become grateful for life, not until they realize that they do not even deserve this day of life, not until then will they give up the illusion that they deserve to be rich.
Tiresome. Most tiresome. I didn't ask to be born, but now that I'm here I damned well DO deserve another day of life. Go pound salt.
Sez you, Kent Shaw.
Let's say we have two identical planets, both resembling Earth as we know it.
One is populated by humans espousing Truth_Light's modest, grateful attitude.
One is populated by humans espousing your entitlement-Go-pound-salt attitude.
Which planet do you think would be more pleasant to live on?
Which planet do you think would wind up with the more sustainable human culture?
Kent's planet of course.
Dim-bulb's world would start slaughtering the unbelievers, or torturing those who uttered curses towards 'gawd'. They'd also be much more prone to slaughtering each other because one group will 'worship' their gawd in a slightly different way than the other one.
"I didn't ask to be born"
That's the gift, given freely, no strings. It is your choice what to do with it; be grateful or feel entitled to more because, uh, well, uh....
I would rather not have been born into this world, thank you very much. But, I am here. I did not ask to be here, but now that I am I have to cope. Some gift.
WHAT DO WE DESERVE?
We all have blind-faith in a religion, a conscience if you will that controls our every action. For what a man feels he deserves, this is his goal in life to achieve, and it controls every aspect of his mind, character and personality.
For a few by faith believe that this day of life is more then they deserve, and with such a grateful mind they do give all they can give.
Whereas everyone else, the vast majority, by faith believes they deserve more. Not just more days to live but the wealth needed to live, the wealth needed to be all they can be, and so they do always strive to take all they can take. The root cause of greed.
For the definition of insanity is not knowing what you deserve. As our every action in life is to satisfy a need to give what we owe, or take what we deserve.
And surely a matter of blind-faith is it as to whether this day of life is deserved by us, or a free gift impossible to repay.
More blustering a farting for action. We've all been reduced to Kb commandos haven't we? Oh wait a min. the next interesting device ( shiny object) or the next Youtube vid. has my attention. Wait I want an IPAD ..OIL where not in my yard. Drill Baby Drill as long as it's off New Orleans I mean. Nothing will be done except another Corp. bail out by Obama and Congress so why bother.
Above poster is acting in perfect harmony with a goal needed to be achieved by the rich, to keep us all feeling hopeless as it makes enslaving society super easy for the rich.
I liked your writing...thank you...
weren't the Hopi believers in the notion of jealousy as the root of all trouble?
dissatisfaction with one's own, and the desiring of another's?
probably..........jealousy is an evil thing.
i once saw two films about the hopi prophecies...........i can't remember the name of the films but they were very arresting for their visual content and music.
if anyone else has seen them please tell me the titles/director/labels/etc.
ShadowDancer, you speak of "the Europeans" as though they were somehow distinct from other Homo sapiens. Can that be so? Or is it just their particular culture?
Europeans have indeed wreaked much of the havoc that has been wreaked on a global scale. But so many other cultures are now proving eager to emulate them.
You don't mention either the rising wave of interest in Native prophecies among Europeans these past decades. How is it possible for some Europeans to destroy their habitat and others to have a deep affinity for Native teachings?
If I'm not mistaken, much Native cosmology tells of numerous past civilizations that have gone through self-obliteration. Buddhist, Hindu, and other cosmologies contain similar features.
The unpleasant truth may be much simpler. Homo sapiens does not, as we like to think, represent the pinnacle of the evolutionary process. Is it not instead just one evolutionary experiment among millions whose inadequate adaptation will end in near extinction?
Sioux Holy Man, Black Elk had a vision of Native Spirituality aiding the regeneration of the humans following a near genocidal calamity.
The Tree of Life lives on.
general strike...
seems to be generally acceptable...
not sure we all agree on what comes after, but just agreeing to do such a thing is huge...do we?
I've been suggesting such an act on September 22, 2012, but am seriously wondering if we can wait...
does anyone else have a date in mind? what would be the extent of such an act?
I espouse the cessation of jobs, industry, energy, private property, etc.
If we had a general strike sooner, what would y'all be envisioning? what would the strike entail, for who and how long, and what changes would the strike hope to bring about?
I keep coming back to growing local foodstuffs...which I am, to a fair degree...
If you guys want to go sooner than 2012, I'm listening...
circumstances are worsening right before our eyes...
I went on strike over ten years ago. I first refused to do business with a phone company. They, Verizon Wireless, would over bill ever month. Upon talking with friends about it, the ones also contracting service from Verizon, had the same story. It was clearly intentional. My guess is that a certain percentage don't look and just pay the bill. Anyway, as the lights kept going on over my head, I decided that I wouldn't do business with any corporation. I sold and gave away 95% of my stuff and don't miss 94% of it. I still drive a truck and have this laptop computer, some tools, some books, camp style cooking setup, clothes.
Then along came the cheney administration, you know that story, so I decided to boycott the government.
I'm waiting patiently for everyone else.
Consider me in.
I think there should be calls to impeach Obama for his complete abdication of this spill to the very corporation that caused it. Only an incomptetent president would allow BP engineers to run around like chickens with their heads cut off, trying one failed thing after another, while he poses for photo ops with Karzai. Obama accepted each and every penny these corporations tossed his way and then governed by their will. He is a walking disaster, and the sooner we begin the process of ridding ourselves of him, the better. He's doing grave harm to this country, and I hate to think of what kind of country we'll have if he's allowed to continue.
And so somehow, you imply here, lefttown, the incentives to take corporate money are individual moral failings, particularly Obama's?
As though it has been possible for some candidate in the past hundred years to gain high office without that kind of funding?
As though we the people were not ultimately responsible for allowing political and legislative campaigns to be funded this way? As though our rejection of publicly funded campaigns has had no effect?
If so, your argument is founded on something other than reason, fairness, and realism, lefttown.
Arrest and behead the Bush Administration for treason would be helpful.
It's all well & good to implore people to be more environmentally sensitive, but it's going to take much more: a paradigm shift. When people understand that the greed, cruelty, & selfishness fostered by corporate capitalism are at the root of our worldwide crises, it & its feudal abuses will go away, as did the conviction that the Earth was the center of the Universe.
"Capitalism is the astounding belief that the nastiest of men for the nastiest of reasons will somehow work for the benefit of us all."
— John Maynard Keynes
"I see in the near future a crisis approaching that unnerves me and causes me to tremble for the safety of my country.... corporations have been enthroned and an era of corruption in high places will follow, and the money power of the country will endeavor to prolong its reign by working upon the prejudices of the people until all wealth is aggregated in a few hands and the Republic is destroyed."
— Abraham Lincoln, Nov. 21, 1864 (letter to Col. William F. Elkins)
Wasserman, people won't care until the oil bubbles up in their bathtub. The reality is that BP oil will ruin the Gulf and the Congress will provide massive tax credits for additional offshore drilling. It's this simple, life is insane when sociopaths run things.
ok, visiting professor, here we go for starters:
1. withdraw ALL US forces from all foreign bases;
2. line them up with all available tools that can stop oil from washing ashore;
3. deploy any and all ships that will be of use to the Gulf and put them to work however the situation demands;
4. cease all non-essential consumption of oil by all military engines;
5. immediately cease all hostilities in Afghanistan & Iraq and bring all troops home as quickly as possible;
6. cease all production of all weapons by the US military;
7. re-deploy all budgetary set-asides for military spending for use in environmental clean-ups wherever needed, starting with the Gulf (of Mexico), through Nashville, Prince William Sound, the Everglades, New Orleans, you name it.
8. begin meaningful medical and psychological treatment for all veterans harmed in our wars;
9. begin meaningful compensation for all those harmed by US warfare in Vietnam, central America, the (Persian) Gulf region, etc.
10. begin rapid-as-possible conversion of all government energy consumption to maximum efficiency and post fossil/nuke energy sources to renewables.....
how's that for a modest beginning?
We are perhaps seeing the Federal government's approach to dealing with the next nuclear power plant meltdown. "Let the operator be responsible for everything, we have important overseas commitments to deal with!"
This is what the corporatizing of government produces. Like the financial bailouts: only the creators of the disaster are perceived as capable of fixing it.
That the overall effects of the Gulf's oil 'volcano' are akin to a nuclear bomb blast or a tremendous earthquake seems lost on most of us.
Someone suggests using sandbags to stanch the flow. (Is this technically feasible? Who knows?) I wonder if the reason the big hat "didn't work" was because it "floated" or because the accumulation of icy slush would have made it impossible to get the value out of the reservoir without the cost of drilling the thing all over again from the top. In other words, is the oil continuing to kill the Gulf because BP doesn't want to lose its sunk costs. Surely simply closing the leak without regard to future productivity could have been accomplished long ago by some means or other.
Sioux Rose
Thank you, Mr. Wasserman for not giving up. You've been on the quest to teach alternative fuel technologies for years, so it must be incredibly painful to see the full scale impact resulting from the calcified efforts of those that would not listen or begin to implement your more earth-friendly ideas. I share your passion, outrage, and pain and I live in Florida. I purposely chose this region for its pristine waters. None of us knows if our wells will end up contaminated, if some of the most pure and precious water emanating from the springs (a river runs UNDER Florida) will become besmirched in deadly oil.
You are right that this is a major calamity in slow motion, a trainwreck where the screams of the birds, dolphin, and fish cannot be heard. We indeed FEEL them.
SHADOW DANCER: Thank you for sharing the prophecy. There are several, and they all agree on certain basics, if differing in their modus operandi.
Yes, I FEEL their deaths. For over 2 weeks now I have been so emotional. My friends too. A death by a thousand cuts indeed.
Read "The Road" by Cormac McCarthy. It will give you a pretty decent picture of where we are going. I don't know that the movie adequately portrays McCarthy's novel, but the book will tear your heart out as you think about your children and grandchildren and what the future holds for them. Nothing will change until the American people rise up for change.
I would instead recommend David Brin's "The Postman" for an equally bleak future but with a possible positive outcome if people take responsibility.
However DO NOT watch the Postman movie. It was absolutely terrible.
I really liked the Postman movie. It was long though.
Brin is a really good author.
Our Democratic form of government has outlived its usefulness. Recently Corporate America has become the ruling authority here. The government we have has become so corrupt it can no longer function on behalf of the people. It has ceased to put the interests of the people first and instead wastes trillions of dollars on illegal wars that are useless to wage while incurring criminal loss of our military personnel and murdering innocent people in Iraq and Afghanistan.
This "government" must change course and address the most pressing problems this country has ever faced. There are so many demanding solution but the most important now is the oil "spill" in the Gulf of Mexico. If the oil company responsible cannot stop the flow and that is a possibility, the entire gulf will become one large dead sea and the coasts of our country will become polluted for a very, very long time.
But it seems as though the "government" does'nt think that that possibility is likely. But no one that I know of has faced the possibility of an unstoppable flow of oil. The "government" will do something when the oil company throws its hands up, declares bankruptcy and gives the problem to Obama to solve. By that time it will be too late. Maybe the anticipated catastrophe of 2012 will prove to be reality, only a little early!!.......and the beat goes on.
Money, greed and plunder versus human well-being and preservation of the planet. We must choose well or perish.
The "right to a better life" I would hope future generations could have is the one described so eloquently in Henry David Thoreau's Walden Pond, which is as relevant today as it was in the middle of the nineteenth century. The first chapter on "Economy" describes the necessities of life we all must address. However, the rest of the book describes the importance of transcending the mere accumulation of things as somehow being the goal of human life. Unfortunately, that muck spewing out of the Gulf and polluting everything in sight is the very symbol of the human greed that is destroying this country and our planet.
It's time for everyone to start reading Thoreau again.
Welcome to the greatest environmental disaster our nation has ever known.
This will strangle the US as a whole.
No one will be guilty. No one will be happy.
All the money required to adress this is being pissed into Afghanistan and, etc.
Obama always with the perpetual, Super Smile.
Things have gone very wrong here, haven't they?
Yeah, I voted for him.
I think he "gets it". I'm afraid that I get it too.
Such melodramatic posturing by Wasserman is uncalled for. After a few years everything will back to normal.
Nanoo
After a few years everything will be back to normal, I think NOT. This is many times worse than another careless spill in Alaska, while 20+ years later is still a dead zone.
Well stated Old Guy May! I wonder what kind of world we would have had if other folks back in the middle of the 19th Century would have bought Thoreau's book, instead of him having to buy them from the printer himself.
Old Guy May 12th, 2010 11:38 pm
The "right to a better life" I would hope future generations could have is the one described so eloquently in Henry David Thoreau's Walden Pond, which is as relevant today as it was in the middle of the nineteenth century. The first chapter on "Economy" describes the necessities of life we all must address. However, the rest of the book describes the importance of transcending the mere accumulation of things as somehow being the goal of human life. Unfortunately, that muck spewing out of the Gulf and polluting everything in sight is the very symbol of the human greed that is destroying this country and our planet.
It's time for everyone to start reading Thoreau again.
"
[The "right to a better life"]
Umm, another nineteenth century book was called 'les Miserables' by Victor Hugo. Just saying...
We need large headlines on the NYT front page every day exposing the money that Obama recieved from Goldman Sachs and the oil companies. Time for Obama and his Democrat buddies
to retire and live the rest of their lives in Chicago.
Leave us the working classes alone. We will find othe leaders.
Yes Harvey: I do think Rainbow Warrior should get itself arrested protesting more drilling.
If the story makes it on CNN; it will raise eyebrows and awareness a few centimeters.
If it doesn't: it will raise consciousness just a few mills.
Where is Paul Watson of Sea Sheppard? Probably in jail or in a hospital. Together GreenPeace and Sea Sheppard could ram a Drilling Rig.
Whoops Bad idea. Unintended consequences might just open another mile deep leak.
SO, Visiting Professor - There really isn't much we can do except keep talking!
Centimeter by centimeter until their are enough people to carry out a national/international strike.