Deepwater Horizon and the addiction to growth
June 4th, 2010 Posted in Environmental cleanup, Politics, adaptation, water, peak oilHealth and energy analyst Dan Bednarz, in this article, looks at the implicit messages of the Deepwater Horizon catastrophe. I pray that I’m wrong, but I think Bednarz may be overly optimistic on whether this is the event that turns us onto the path to genuine sustainability. Is our culture as a whole ready to recognize its complicity in these events? I think not. We adapted to polluted air, mountaintop removal mining, and two disastrous wars (to name a few examples) with no culture-wide epiphanies. Why should the destruction of the ocean environments, the coastlines, fisheries and wetlands of the Gulf of Mexico be any different? I know, because it’s the most horrific environmental disaster of our history. Maybe I unfairly anticipate the average American’s capacity for turning away from what he/she finds uncomfortable. Hell, I think all of us want to turn away from this ongoing nightmare. Again, I pray that I’m wrong. If every single person in this country reacted to this horror with revulsion and action, then maybe lasting permanent changes couldbe implemented. So let the national sustainability movement begin. No, I mean really begin. If we don’t express our outrage at this, we likely never will.
The Gulf of Mexico oil blowout carries the emotional wallop and learning potential of a near-death experience. First, it certifies that the age of cheap and plentiful oil is over. Second, it reveals that our collective faith in technology to overcome any challenge posed by nature is a dangerous delusion. Third, it may be the event that sets our nation on the path to genuine economic and ecological sustainability. To understand why the age of cheap and plentiful oil is over we must ask why BP was drilling for oil in a foreboding environment. The answer has two parts: 1) the giant deposits of easy to reach oil on land have been exploited, so it’s drill in harsh environments or nothing; and 2) despite claims by proponents of various petroleum alternatives and renewables, we have no viable, ready to go scalable substitutes for oil.