On April 20, 2011, an explosion at the Deepwater Horizon oil rig off the Gulf Coast claimed the lives of eleven people and cost thousands more their livelihood. Sadly, the worst impact of this accident on the environment has yet to be fully felt: we cut an artery and spilled the earth’s blood, disrupting and damaging the workings of the natural world. The sheer quantity of oil released into the atmosphere and burned off as gasses (in the so-called cleaning process) has a deep and lasting impact on the balance of our ecosystem.
"We're sorry for the massive disruption it's caused their lives. There's no one who wants this over more than I do. I would like my life back." —BP CEO Tony Hayward
Oil dependency finally blows up in our face. But is it going to be like every other Oopsie, where we slap on the band-aid and move forward without learning the lesson? Do we, like Tony Howard, just want our lives back?
Rather than taking our lives back, let’s take our lives forward. Don’t return to busines as usual if we can do better business. We are living in a changing time.
But life on earth aside, some are more worried about the financial security of our country, for which BP is a nice plushy cushion. The fear is that U.S. energy security will suffer if BP goes under or is significantly reduced in size. Even Obama recognized as much when he said that “BP is a strong and viable company, and it is in all of our interests that it remain so.”
Yes, the company’s demise would be disruptive to the American oil industry, given that BP is the largest oil and gas producer in the U.S., with about 1 million barrels per day of production. But it no longer seems to be in our best interest to put profit ahead of preservation. In the best long-term interest of not only the U.S. but every other country, it is time to put our welfare ahead of our wallets. Put the horse before the cart. No more digging into the earth’s plumbing system to harvest costly fuel when there is wind and solar power available to all. Prospects of U.S. energy security are better sought in sustainable and renewable energy sources.
It can be overwhelming to consider the complete overhaul of our habits, when we are so dependent on fossil fuels. There is a great deal of inertia behind our gas-guzzling lifestyles. The key is to make one change at a time. It comes down to the next decision. Carpool. Walk. Re-use. Recycle. Don’t buy it. Eat this instead. Every time something large scale happens, it serves as a reminder to adjust our small scales.
In this climate of crisis and critical mass, we are more sensitive to disasters, and their impact. It galvanizes our communities, and brings us forward towards a common goal. These are the wake up calls. Ooopsies. Mother Nature will do what it takes to push us out of the nest, so to speak, drawing our attention to the effect of our greedy open mouths…So that we can learn to fly for ourselves.
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