Deepwater Horizon and the addiction to growth
June 4th, 2010 Posted in Environmental cleanup, Politics, adaptation, water, peak oil | No Comments »Health 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. Read the rest of this entry »
Michael Klare: The relentless pursuit of extreme energy
May 19th, 2010 Posted in Environmental cleanup, Human Impact, False Solutions, Energy, peak oil | No Comments »
Michael Klare, author of Rising Powers, Shrinking Planet, sees the Deepwater disaster as the beginning of the new age of chasing the “tough energy,” found miles beneath the ocean, or in dirty, less concentrated sources like Alberta’s tar sands. As we are now learning, tough energy makes for a tough world. Here is the full article.
Reflections on an environmental catastrophe
May 4th, 2010 Posted in Environmental cleanup, Disaster relief, Human Impact, False Solutions, Energy, ethics, water | 1 Comment »
Abel Collins from RI Sierra Club raises the big questions with strong words at RI Future:
Let’s not mince words. We are watching one of the worst environmental disasters humans have ever caused unfold off the coast of Louisiana in a replay of the Ixtoc 1 incident of 1979. Moderate estimates now have one million gallons of petroleum gushing daily into the Gulf of Mexico, one of the most biologically important and ecologically sensitive waters in the world. Unless British Petroleum pulls off a miracle, this flow will continue for weeks and probably even months. The oil will almost certainly get into the Gulf Stream and effect RI and indeed the entire eastern seaboard. Rightly, the enormity of this calamity has given pause to the Obama administration’s plans to expand offshore drilling.Let’s pause a moment longer and give the situation deeper reflection. BP’s Deepwater Horizon accident is just part of a larger pattern of industrial human behavior. In the name of economic growth and the wealth and power it connotes, we heedlessly strip the world of resources and twist them into our own inventions, always assuming that we are creating greater value. We have taken this behavior to the extreme.
Only on rare occasions with photogenic environmental disasters do we take time to attend to some of the harm we are inflicting on the greater web of life upon which we depend for survival. The overwhelming majority of our time we spend in the pursuit of maximizing profit.Are we really creating greater value? This is a moral question as much as it is an economic question of cost/benefit analysis. Yes, great fortunes have been made, and our technical wizardry is undeniable, but our level of depression and dependence on pills belies our increasing unhappiness. Moreover, we are overseeing a mass extinction event which is on course to wipe a quarter of the world’s species into oblivion before 2050, and we are probably on the verge of pushing the globe into runaway global heating.Whatever our illusory wealth has bought us, has it been worth it? Let’s pause and ask ourselves, what the hell we’re doing. Maybe money isn’t god, and maybe profit isn’t our path to salvation. Could it be that the harmonious balance of nature offers a better model of behavior than the uncontrolled growth of a cancer cell?
An oil spill from an offshore oil rig near the coast of Santa Barbara in 1969 was the impetus for the first Earth Day in 1970. On the poster for that first celebration was this haunting quote by Walt Kelly, “we have met the enemy, and he is us.” Perhaps more than forty years later, this oil spill in the Gulf will be the occasion when we finally comprehend the meaning of those words.
(Thanks, Abel)
Earth Day events on What Grows on in Rhode Island
April 21st, 2010 Posted in Community, general | 1 Comment »Trying to figure out what to do for Earth Day? Check out Susan Korte’s fantastic environmental calendar,
What Grows on in Rhode Island
Richard Heinberg comes to Rhode Island
April 21st, 2010 Posted in Transition Towns, adaptation, climate change, peak oil | 1 Comment »
Noted author and Post Carbon Institute Research FellowRichard Heinberg comes to Rhode Island beginning Monday, April 26. At 1:15pm, he will be giving a talk to the students of South Kingstown High School in South County. There is limited seating available to the public. Please stop at the main office for a visitor’s pass. That evening is a special dinner reception for Heinberg sponsored by PostCarbon Rhode Island and South County Green Drinks. This event is sold out.
On Tuesday, Heinberg will speak at Brown University at Carmichael Auditorium in the Hunter Lab building. The talk begins at 8pm. This is open to the public. He will also speak at UMass Dartmouth this same week. Thanks to Dr. Nancy Lee Wood and everyone who helped make these events happen. Heinberg is one of the clearest voices speaking on energy issues today.
The flood of 2010
April 9th, 2010 Posted in Environmental cleanup, Human Impact, Preparedness, climate change | 1 Comment »While sunny skies have dominated the past week in Rhode Island, many residents have spent long hours draining flooded basements and lugging damaged possessions out into the yard. The rivers have receded, now comes the FEMA aid applications, the salvage, the repairs, the scramble to find safe and dry living and work spaces. Get updates on aid efforts at Rhode Island Emergency Management Agency’s site. Keep checking on neighbors, friends, family. People may not ask, but many will welcome help. And be sure to send a thank you note to those US Senators who are messing with our flood insurance. Take care of yourselves.
