More pics from Boston.com, a site that has had some amazing pics of global events as of late. If you need a little comic relief, this should do. Otherwise, here’s one last bit of me on a soapbox before the weekend. For the Dennis Millers and Rush Limbaughs of the world who marginalize the BP spill with a patronizing Yeah, we feel bad for the birds but we need oil to run things: 11 people died over more than a need for oil, likely, due to company negligence if reports are to believed. Even if you can sleep at night knowing a local economy is in ruins to go along with a lot of dead wildlife, there’s no way to spin a company with a significant number of safety violations putting people it employed at risk. Even the ones helping with the clean-up. The media access that was supposed to be forthcoming? Not a chance, apparently. And if you think it’s only Obama’s fault, scan this at your leisha’. Big Oil’s been in bed with all of ‘em for a long time.
(Via.)
2 comments:
I heard a stat recently, could be true or not, that nearly half of China's GDP comes from Walmart. Over here in the U.S., we're not too keen on China's pollution record ... except of course we, Americans, have outsourced our pollution across the Pacific to China where we can't see it.
My point is BP is a random but unavoidable error caused by all of our consumption. To think that we can do what we do, burn carbon from oil from deep holes in the ground, without any environmental impact is silly. It feels good to blame BP as I drive to work in my SUV or hop on a jet to California ... but the issue is much deeper than that.
I personally think individual consumption and market forces are not working well in moving us toward clean energy. Profit motives are fine, but to think longer term -- say, beyond a few election cycles -- and to really move to a hydrogen fueled economy or something that doesn't blacken water or air will take a collective vision far beyond commerce. I need to drive and fly; so do you; we are stuck with an infrastructure that does so cheaply off of old technology and fuel. To move forward to the new stuff, we need leadership that can plan to get us there. I don't see it, would be nice to find it soon.
I agree. I’m not anti-commerce here, and this could’ve happened to any oil company. Past performance of BP relative to safety issues however, indicates that BP was due. Apparently, they have another rig in deeper water with certification issues.
Regardless, we’re always big on “so that it never happens again” preventative measures, but why wait? for the inevitable congressional hearings release a 1,500-page report. Look at all rigs now and see what needs to be done to bring them up to code, or shut them down. Obama may not have been able to prevent this accident, but he has the power to do that.
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