The decisions we now make, the decisions our elected leaders now make, will define our collective future as few decisions in history ever have. We may soon be beyond our decisions being able to make a difference
Updates from the New Orleans Times-Picayune and The New York Times, here and here. The American Petroleum Institute has a discussion site about the blow out and more updates.
Note: The biggest news nationally is British Petroleum's deep water oil well explosion and spill now spreading catastrophically along the Gulf Coast. It is already being described as potentially the worst oil spill in U.S. history – a "mega-disaster" – before and after the Exxon Valdez nightmare in Alaska 21 years ago. We might take a moment to reflect on those who lost their lives in the BP accident, and the people, fisheries, wildlife and delicate coastal wetlands and ecosystem that stand to be dreadfully impacted by this spill. What good can we uncover from this terrible injury to man and nature? Consider the essay below borrowed from Daily Kos blogger Turkana.
Send your comments and news tips to roundup.editor@gmail.com, the White House at http://www.whitehouse.gov/contact, to BP at http://www.deepwaterhorizonresponse.com/go/inquiry/2931/, to Turkana at my username at ix dot netcom dot com or click on the "comments" button at the bottom of the story
by Turkana
Fri Apr 30, 2010 at 10:09:12 AM PDT
As the oil makes shore, and British Petroleum eyes horizons deep in something quite other than water, the real question lands on the desk of the one man who can make of this tragic disaster an historic turning point for the common good. Beyond a welcome temporary moratorium on new offshore oil drilling, will President Obama now rethink his entire energy strategy? Will he seize the opportunity that circumstance has handed him? Will he finally declare that we no longer have time even to worry about liberating ourselves of our dependence on foreign sources of oil, because the moment demands that we rid ourselves of our dependence on oil and fossil fuels, altogether?
A mining disaster. An oil rig disaster. Honest working people killed just trying to make a living. Environmental devastation that is beyond our imagining, despite our imagining being based on truly terrifying scientific facts. There is no clean coal. There is no safe oil production. From those that suffer on the front lines of the extractive industries to all of nature suffering from the burning of what is extracted, this has to end. It has to end as soon as is possible. In the short term, that will mean much mutual sacrifice, but in the long term not only will it mean jobs, opportunities, and a new wave of economic growth, it will mean the possibility of a sustainable future for all humankind.
Even some right wing politicians now seem to be awakening to the specific dangers revealed by the Deepwater Horizon disaster. We must build on that awakening. Because it is but the merest glimpse, in the bruise light of dawn, of something so much larger, something so much more ominous, something so much more urgent and imminent. A future now cresting into being, while we stand dazed, oblivious, and distracted before the exigency of its inevitability. No matter how horrific the coming days, they are as nothing compared to those now careening toward us, just a bit behind.
We have to be rid of fossil fuels. We are junkies, and we are dying. We are killing not only ourselves, but so many of the beautiful and wondrous creatures with whom we share this spinning blue garden oasis. If a biosphere fails in a far corner of an obscure galaxy on a distant edge of what may be but one of countless Universes, will anybody hear? This is us. This is on us. No one will rescue us. There will be no redeeming such a catastrophic collective failure. Myths and fantasies will not save us.
This is 9/11. This is Katrina. Not in terms of immediate human impact, but in what it tells. This is larger than it seems. This is a statement about who we are and what we have become. This is a lesson about our own willful blindness, our callous disregard, our foolishness, our stumbling in mere semi-consciousness, as zombies through the cultural detritus that defines, numbs, and blinds us. If the overwhelming accumulation of science hasn't been enough. If the changing migratory patterns of seabirds hasn't been enough. The facts and our fellow creatures, screaming alarms that it takes considerably more effort to ignore than it would to heed.
We can't drill ourselves out of this. We drilled ourselves into this. We can't rely on miracles. Our reliance on miracles has been a symptom of the disease that has brought us to this precipice of global crisis. The decisions we now make, the decisions our elected leaders now make, will define our collective future as few decisions in history ever have. We may soon be beyond our decisions being able to make a difference.
George Carlin used to say that when you start experimenting with drugs, a door opens in your mind. But as you continue to experiment with drugs, that door closes again, you just don't notice it. The burning of fossil fuels is our collective drug of choice. For a century, it opened doors. Those doors are closing. Will we catch them before they seal? Will we even hear them if they lock behind us, as the very air we breathe becomes a countdown of expiring existence?
This is us. This is now. Are we up to it?
19 comments:
The oil issue is merely one small facit of our insanity. Our entire way of life is on us. Our management is destroying our way of life.
It no longer matters what we do as we have no voice or control over our government and what it does. There is only a 1-Party system and it is the Corporate-Military Complex.
Former President and WWII General Dwight D. Eisenhower warned us in his 1961 Farewell Address of the Industrial-Miltary Complex, but we didn't listen. Currently, short of a national revolution, our government no longer listens to us nor does it act in the best interests of our national community. It has trickled-down to the state and local levels.
Obama is part of our downfall. He and his administration are merely the next step that seals our doom.
The Liberals one day will open their eyes, but it's already too late.
The high-stepping GOP and Democrat Fascist bases are equally enmeshed in the game.
There is little hope for any of us for some sort of future for our children. This is not a doom and gloom outlook, simply the reality that is in front of us. I wish I could say it is different. It is ALL on us.
Wow, Peter, lighten up a bit.
You need to distinguish between fascism and a corporatocracy. The former is more the Republican Party, the latter the Democrats. The Reps are a corporatacracy with hate (racism, xenophobia and homophobia), the Dems are pretty much without the hate.
The backslide demise of America started with Ronald Reagan when corporate rights became more important than people rights. Then we had Clinton and his financial charlatans set the stage for our economic failures. Then we saw all sensible capitalism get trashed with the Bush-Cheney years.
One party duopoly for sure. All Americans are responsible from our ignorance and complacency.
Now we have another disaster.
anyone for clean renewable energy?
Those definitions are no longer so simplistic. Democrats and not the Liberals or the Socialists and Republicans are not the Conservatives or the Fascists.
Both parties are Neo-Fascist with now Socialist tendencies, while the Corporate-Military Complex runs the show. It controls both parties.
I can't "lighten up" because I see it clearly. I've been writing about it for the past 10 years but no one listened. This isn't an "I told you so" but only the reality. It is a terrible mess.
The illegal immigration issue is another one we let get away from us. We never seem to deal with things until it is too late. Illegal immigration is biting us in the ass. What can we do now? How do we make it better? We can't. People are going to get hurt on all sides, mostly American citizens because our government already screwed all of us.
Americans have been too complacent. Now, it doesn't matter much. We are in a situation where we have runaway management over our lives. Our votes really don't matter. We vote out officials and still poor leaders get elected. It's money and power and little else. The majority of us are struggling to survive. That's how it is.
I'm sorry if you don't see it. You tell me to "lighten up" and I tell you to "get serious" but already it is too late.
In a lifetime of seeing almost everything that can shock or disappoint, I cannot believe I have lived long enough to see the Gulf of Mexico destroyed. It is impossible to comprehend or even begin to absorb it. It was destroyed by greed, arrogance and all manner of political expediency--this is US--ours, the American people. We have had 40 years to get our house in order by weaning ourselves from a dependence on fossil fuels. These fuels are neither clean or sustainable. Producing them is dangerous. There will be more disasters. No, we will not solve our energy problems by rubbing two sticks together, but it sure would be nice to see Americans of all stripes working together on the solutions. Like Peter Stern, I am nearly out of any hope for the future.
What a bunch of over reactive, overblown alarmist crap! The “Liberal America Haters” have really lost it here due to their desperation over their failed President and his attempts to trash our Constitution and destroy our nation’s economy. The national news media is right in there, as usual, acting a their cheerleaders.
The oil platform explosion and leak is indeed a tragedy but in no way the end of the world. It will be fixed and cleaned up and in short time; no trace of it will be seen. Remember the Exxon Valdez oil spill of March 24, 1989? Try to find it now. This explosion my well turn out to be an act of eco-terrorism to advance the agendas of the ones that want “fossil fuels” to go away. I am sure the Obama administration will use this “accident” to push for Cap and Trade legislation to rob more wealth and control from our citizens.
This is so horrible. It strengthens my committment to supporting renewable energies. NPR did a great story on the state of ethanol as an alternative fuel. The awesome thing is that they are on the brink of being able to take corn husks and wild grasses and breaking down their polymers to make ethanol instead of using edible corn crop. Also, there is some really interesting advancement going on in the Cape with off-shore wind energy. So exciting!
Capt. get you head out of your a$$. The alarmists you refer to are every day people who are concerned about their nation and its direction.
Obama isn't only their President, he is OUR President. And you don't have to be a "liberal" to be concerned and scared.
You don't want to see it? That's your business, but don't put these good people down and pooh-pooh their opinions and concerns. At least they are real. Are you?
Captain, I am a Republican and I detest your reaction to the responses on here. The comments are not liberalist disillusionists speaking about their disappointment of "their" President, but it very well should be.
I am dissatisfied with both parties and with the last six Presidents. Am I being overblown, alarmist, etc.?
Truth is that we Americans ARE a mess and it is only getting worse. We cannot depend on our current leaders. We ARE at the mercy of the corporate sector.
These people are 100 percent correct.
'Captain America' is the "liberalist" title of the Peter Fonda character of the 1960s "liberalist" movie Easy Rider.
So, are you "the pot calling the kettle black?" You sound pretty damn Liberal yourself.
Amanda's picture with Bill White and her link are pretty cool. Thanks Amanda. Go Bill White! Down with Perry. I'm very tired of Perry's cowboy bullsh!t.
Stern, you are not some ignored prophet. Howard Zinn, Nader et al have been saying all the same stuff for a lot longer than you. Quit acting like a legend in your own mind.
Captain America, you are nothing more than Private Hays. You are one out of touch dude. Get a brain, let alone a life.
Ralph, you are the most repulsive SOB on this Blog! If it is not leftwing, socialist or communistic, it is bad, that is your creed. I can only imagine you sitting in your dirty diaper in a wheelchair being mad at the world for your situation. You are typical of the ne'er-do-wells who are jealous of anyone or anything that is successful in life and want to tear down everything that you believe does not benefit you in your miserable existence. You have the narrowest view of the world that exists here. Your posts are worthless dribble from an irrational Troll! You never have anything positive to say here. Go back and read your own posts and if you are not embarrassed, you are beyond redemption.
Captain America gets ragingly vile and defensive because he can't handle the truth. You actually have the gall to minimize the severity of this catastrophic oil spill from your inane right wing hate perspective and you expect readers to let it slide? You, Private Hays, must be insane. You deserve a dishonorable discharge.
Sadly this Captain America is a comic book character right out of a B movie, except is it about a militia-like nut, not some hapless wanna be hero.
Hey, Captain America, er, Private McVeigh, your spewing of Russ Limbaugh sickness about eco-terrorists causing this oil disaster is confirmation that you are insane.
You, Captain Pathetic, have no right to criticize anyone's blog submissions. For all of us, please seek therapy. I hear LexiPro is an effective anti-depressant.
I think Stern and Ralph are on the same correct page when it comes to what has happened to our country. But it is clear Ralph doesn't like the social agenda of the current version of the Republican Party.
Stern seems to be saying that the current "neo-facism" is not the same as the earlier Nazi corporate fascism which Ralph seems to be alluding to.
I see the neo-fascism Stern is discussing as the American politics version of the multinational neo-liberal globalization fascism that has turned the world into debtor nations and quasi-police states in order to pacify and/or control the masses.
I would like to hear Stern's take on globalization and how the US duopoly party fits into it.
That said, I assume Captain America thinks everything is a left wing plot, ala Rush Limbaugh. Boy, I never knew there was a secret highly skilled underwater demolition team funded and trained by the environmental commie left that has the money and resources to go down one mile underwater next to the BP rig undetected and sabotage the entire right wing energy deregulation cabal. BP must have shitty security as well.
We learn something new every day.
Actually it was not eco-terrorists that caused the BP oil disaster. It was North Korea. They did it with a Torpedo. This was found on the net:
“The United States has ordered a complete media blackout over North Korea’s torpedoing of the giant Deepwater Horizon oil platform owned by the World’s largest offshore drilling contractor Transocean that was built and financed by South Korea’s Hyundai Heavy Industries Co. Ltd., that has caused great loss of life, untold billions in economic damage to the South Korean economy, and an environmental catastrophe to the United States.”
The details in the report from the Russians seem to support the idea and it sure seems plausable. If so the leftwing eco-terrorists get a pass on this one.
See a report and an analysis of the North Korea rumor, and Rush Limbaugh's hand in it, at this link to the Huffington Post: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/randall-amster/was-the-gulf-oil-spill-an_b_560014.html
Just go to www.huffingtonpost.com
It's their top story.
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