Russian Roulette in the Gulf

Some people have likened the oil mess in the gulf to a "gusher." Since any 'leak' at 5000 feet down is going to be under tremendous pressure, and near freezing temperatures, it's a bit like opening a bottle of champagne, except no one is celebrating, and we don't know how big that bottle could be--and it's definitely not champagne.

In fact, our whole vocabulary for describing what has happened with the oil well explosion has so far proven inadequate. It's not a 'spill', and it's not a 'leak'; it could be a 'gusher', or it could be something else. The gulf oil catastrophe is not a spill, because spill implies a container that tips a bit, and slops a bit over the side. It's not a leak, because leaks imply a bit oozing out, but not the amount in question: more than 200,000 barrels of oil a day are flooding out of these holes in the ocean floor and have been now for 22 days, for a likely total of at least four and a half million barrels of oil!

Offshore drillers grumble and moan about new regulations this catastrophe will cause; the Obama administration holds off on new oil leases and talks about new regulations and administrative restructuring to prevent a re-occurrence. Some coastal state Senators propose reinstituting some kind of ban on offshore drilling, while others, and their conservative competitors, continue to promote offshore drilling as a way to "wean" ourselves from foreign oil.

Another way to look at this, however, is that the risks are just too high. That explosion in the Gulf may have been like opening a tap on an oil reserve that could poison not just marshes, crab and shrimp beds and beaches in the Gulf, but the whole world's ocean ecosystem: it's all connected, after all, by the Gulf Stream and the Loop Current.

I hope BP, et al, can plug the holes, stop the gusher, but how many times must we risk global catastrophe before we stop? If you think of that exploded oil well as blowing the cap on an underwater sea of oil, under 5000 feet of pressure, then to do this again and again, even with all the safeguards in the world, is like playing Russian roulette not just with the future of humanity, but with the future of most life on this planet. The costs are just too high.

If we don't want to go the way not of the Roman Empire but of the dinosaurs, we need to take this as a wake up call: build renewable energy sources now through a crash program that would make the Marshall Plan and even our WWII mobilization look like peanuts.

Drilling offshore as a "transitional" program is just plain crazy! We have to get off fossil fuels NOW!

May-day, May-day!

It's the first of May, and oil is spewing out of more than one hole at the bottom of the ocean, a manmade disaster that will only get worse--and still Obama insists that we should expand offshore drilling!

At least the Democratic Senators from Florida and New Jersey are sponsoring a bill to prevent test drilling off both the Gulf and Atlantic Coasts, the areas opened up for exploration by the President.

Here in the Hudson Valley, I'm close to the land, and I know the climate is getting screwed. We hold a 'bringing in the May' celebration of May eve each year. One of our rituals involves bringing in locally blooming flowers and blossoming boughs. Each year until now, we've brought in loads of forsythia, shadblow, wild apple, quince and daffodils. This year there were some daffodils, but most had passed; there was one apple tree still with blossoms, no quince and no forsythia, except with flowers already dried up. Until now, the height of the apple blossoms (this is still apple orchard country), was mid-May, when the dogwood also blossoms. This year, most of our flowering boughs were dogwood, not quite past. Further, the maples have mostly leafed out already, something that isn't supposed to happen for another two to three weeks!

It's a beautiful Spring, but knowing how much the climate has changed does put a damper on our appreciation of the season's beauty. And now, on May 1st, it's going to be in the 80's! The temperature might not set a record, but it's warmer than it used to be.

We've had two manmade disasters in the last two weeks: the mine explosion and the undersea well explosion. We should sit up and take notice. One involves coal, the other oil. Fossil fuels: the same fuels that are doing most of the damage to our climate.

The oil companies will continue to pour millions into lobbying and campaign funds, the coal companies likewise. It seems as if they're even paying off the President if he can say with a straight face that "safeguards" will somehow insure against future disasters, or that "clean coal technology" will be effective in combating the global warming effects of burning coal.

So, it's up to us. First of all, we need to insist: no offshore drilling, period and no new coal-fired power plants.

We, individually, can use significantly less energy and burn less oil and coal (or none at all), but government action is needed to ramp up alternative sources, especially wind and solar and to support electric cars.

Obama's resolve to continue with offshore oil-drilling is not promising. Nor is the Kerry-Leiberman-Graham climate bill, even if Graham returns as co-sponsor. Our political system seems incapable of making rational policy.

Soon, we'll celebrate Spring in February--with a couple billion climate refugees.

Maybe the Empire will fall first.