Friday, June 11, 2010

second verse...

I know this will sound cynical, and I don't necessarily mean it that way. But I do find it interesting that we have already had this oil spill before. (For comparison, here's the current spill.) The quick solution doesn't seem to have many fans outside Russia, and the solution they went with on the Ixtoc I (the first Gulf of Mexio spill in '79) was to drill a relief well... that's not going to be a quick fix. What I'm wondering about is how quickly we will all lose interest in this horror. I actually have the sense that it is already kind of waning. Even shock photos of oily pelicans aren't really getting much more than a weak "awwww, that's a damn shame" from most people at this point. The Persian Gulf "spill" during the Iraq war, was several times the size of the Exxon Valdez spill, and never really subject to any clean up efforts. There's still oil blobbing up all over the place there 20 years later. Yet, mention it in conversation, and you're just as likely to get "oh yeah, that's right, that DID happen!" as anything else.

Do I have a solution? No. Nor am I here railing about how someone should do something. Mostly I'm mourning what appears to be a crapload of apathy. People forget so easily what happens, and I think that really contributes to these things repeating. Because when it comes time to set limits, regulations, safety measures, and so on, no one is truly shaken to the core by the horror of the things we do. We have become jaded and disaffected about our Sodom & Gomorrah scenery.

3 comments:

Rufus said...

I poked my head out of the dissertation the other day to see what CNN was making of all this. What struck me as bizarre was the pure servility of their commentators. They kept saying, basically, of course Americans are super pissed about this, but there's nothing they can really do. After all, they're "addicted" to oil. Also, BP closes a single rig Americans will be out of work and forced to forage a desolate hellscape for bits of grass and salt before suffering a lingering death. So, nothing anyone can do. Time to move on.

Actually, the same stuff is said here in Canada whenever the Alberta tar sands are criticized.

Holly said...

I'm looking forward to running out of oil. I realize it will mean TREMENDOUS suffering on an enormous scale, and I'm not really looking forward to that part, but I sincerely hope it will mean a serious reduction in the global bullshit quota.

Rufus said...

It seems like everyone's aiming to run out anyway. Or not clear on the "finite natural resource" idea.