Posted
by Jill Ensley
June 4, 2010 at 6:54 p.m.
Errl. Errl Evrywhrr.
http://media.lawrence.com/img/blogs/e... (by J.Ensley)
From the looks of the homepage, you guys could use some content that doesn't involve movies, porn, or the internet. Or, maybe you couldn't. In that case, boobs. There, everyone's happy.
I stopped at the local no-name petrol station this afternoon after a hellacious rainstorm (the words, "we have flying debris" escaped my lips at one point) to get a grape soda. Yes, a grape soda. There was a young man in line behind me who came in just for the paper. He grabbed it and uttered, "I'm so sick of this shit, this oil." He walked home reading the increasingly dire news and I drove away, justifying my four-wheeled transport by the fact that I try not to drive, and when I do, it's usually for work. But in the end, let's face it, we had this coming. I won't bring up other tragedies that we probably had coming, but it's increasingly obvious that we simply don't, or won't, understand risk. And when we outsource that risk to large corporations with pockets big enough to buy and sell us all, this is what happens. There was/is no incentive for BP, or any other big oil company, to avoid this, to make sure it wouldn't happen, or at the very least, be able to stop it if it did.
So yes, BP is evil. Let's all boycott. Even though, that would probably hurt your neighbors more than big, bad British Petroleum, "In fact, BP spokesman David Nicholas says all of the company's 11,700 filling stations in the U.S. have been sold off in recent years and are now independently owned and operated. "We supply the fuels and branding. That's it," he says." (full article) Or, we could accept some of the blame for this ourselves, for letting corporations run amok, being too lazy and overwhelmed to do anything about our dependence, and turning an awful situation into a red and blue mud-slinging contest. In the end, this could have been any of them. It could, and has been Exxon. It could, and IS, Shell in the Niger Delta. So let us not frame this as Us vs. Them, even if They are primarily responsible, it's still OUR job to hold them accountable. You can't look that flowering green logo in the eye and cry out, "we trusted you!" It's a logo, a brand designed to invoke feelings of goodness and security in order to grow ever-larger on capital. And that logo, that brand, is only concerned with saving its own image and future endeavors because that is the system we have chosen. Our safety and security is merely a by-product of its goals. So let's all stop being surprised and instead start asking for some accountability, from all of them, they, we, and us. And this time, let's try not to forget. I believe Garland Robinette, of WWL Radio said it best today when talking about Cajuns, politics, and the oil: "When the plane is going down, you don't look left and right."
I'm not chastising. I'm not grand-standing. I'm equally to blame for not demanding more, or less as the case may be. And if there's any good, ANY good, to come from this, it's that maybe for once we'll understand the risks of how we choose to live and remember there is a third coast, a beaten-down, battered and beautiful Third Coast that is losing by the minute and damn if you won't miss her when she's gone. http://media.lawrence.com/img/blogs/e...
Links: Some heartbreaking images, including the one above, that you should probably see.
Risk & disaster in Grand Isle, LA
Hurricane Season started June 1
A great discussion, world call-in show that aired today. Listen to the full podcast here.
LA and Offshore Oil Revenue: an Editorial
How you can help & more info. This is a list of organizations I personally trust.
Coalition to Restore Coastal Louisiana
Comments
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godjilla (Jill Ensley) says…
I had so much more to say, and probably could have said it better, but it's just one of those days. Been awhile, purge purge.
DOTDOT (anonymous) says…
What is weird is that this whole crisis, with all it's environmental and geopolitical resonance, was probably caused by one long haired pot belly sub-contract inspector who plays bass in that gray haired cover band in the shit hole bar down the street.
Sayin.
godjilla (Jill Ensley) says…
Orrrrr a $500,000 acoustic trigger. Just sayin' sayin'.
smerdyakov (anonymous) says…
Have you been to the coast? I'm wondering how pervasive images like those are. To think that this...
http://blogs.tampabay.com/.a/6a00d834...
...was caused in 40 days, and the supposedly sure-fire fix — the relief well — won't be done for another 60 at least. It's mindblowing that with all our engineering and technological prowess, BP or the gov't can't stop the spill. My crackpot mind wonders why by now they couldn't have constructed a mile-long (or whatever the actual depth is) sleeve to lower down and extend from the gulf floor to the surface...
DOTDOT (anonymous) says…
My crackpot mind wonders if the level of technological prowess needed to invent a mile-long sleeve, along with the method to install it, is related to that required to safely produce nuclear power and dispose of nuclear waste.
You know what I'm sayin?
godjilla (Jill Ensley) says…
There is also the theory that circular charges placed around the well would cause it to collapse upon itself long enough to seal it. There are many theories. I don't know, I just don't know. When all the scientists and engineers disagree (and some simply because they're being paid to do so), it's hard to get a handle on it. The simple fact is, we started doing this shit unprepared for the consequences of something like this. It's only going to get worse. I'm not being pessimistic here. It's just started gathering on the shores and there are two identified large plumes (vertical, not just horizontal) out there. Let's not even talk about the dispersants because I cannot handle that right now. I can barely handle all the people who are supposedly on "my" side.
I haven't been down yet, but I've talked to fellow photographers who have been down in the last few days and seen their photos. Clearance is an issue, of course. It doesn't seem to ALL be as dramatic as that image, but it depends on where you are, and when. It's a big, broken-up coastline here and there are plenty of places for this to go. Before this, football field of wetlands every 45 mins. Now?
I suggest following this for news: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Oil-Vol...
And the Gulf Restoration Network has some good images on Flickr.
godjilla (Jill Ensley) says…
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/20...
DOTDOT (anonymous) says…
OK.
I won't be so obtuse.
1) There is NO WAY to avoid these disasters with technology. Technology is as human as the greed that calls for energy in the first place.
2) The only way safe, renewable energy will be developed and widely used is after it is cheaper than oil. That won't happen in our lifetimes, but probably in our great grandchildren's.
3) Between now and then, ALL the oil that can be found will be burned. Nuclear power will be exploited until it, too, has been depleted. Every environmental disaster that is possible through human error of lack of government/corporate oversight will happen.
4) bp isn't going to pay for this spill. You and I will. As always.
The bell is tolling.
DOTDOT (anonymous) replies…
Thanks, DOTDOT, for repeating and expostulating upon that which has already been said. You are a pessimistic fuck, so what is your point? The bell is tolling?
Dumb shit.
DOTDOT (anonymous) replies…
Well, first of all, your over-use of the prepositional phrase is akin to wrapping a telephone pole to show off your hazards. If you know what I mean.
Secondly, my pessimism is not. There is hope in the truth. Recognizing that acoustic triggers that call valves that are under-specified, or not installed at all, is pointless leads to the real answer, which is shut ALL these platforms down until they are inspected and fitted. Deal with the economic disaster that results and then move on from there.
The bell is tolling. Yeah, well, I've been thinking that same thought since I was 11 years old, so sure it comes off as a bit lame. But doesn't it beg some thought about connections? Do you make a connection between your 1 1/2 hour commute and dead pelicans? Do you make a connection between systemic rape and murder of women in the Congo and your iphone? Do you make a connection between the distance you look down your nose at the plumber in your dorm and the blood being spilled in Mexico?
DOTDOT (anonymous) replies…
I make a connection between the weirdness of looking back on your own comments and the patheticality of actually responding to them when nobody else does.
Creep.