Idiocy for Convenience

Gulf coast, I'm sorry. I'm sorry that your water is polluted with oil, your sea life will probably die and obliterate your fishing jobs and tourism industry for many, many years, and your environment will be forever altered. I'm sorry that you are screwed.

The Feds say they will reprimand the parties responsible. But how do you reprimand a whole country? It was not British Petroleum that was the root of this disaster. It was us. Fuel companies like BP will continue drilling for oil and ignore the potential for disaster as long as we still line up like fools to buy oil and gasoline and plastics to feed our lifestyles. It was us. We have destroyed an ecosystem and economy because of convenience and inability to consider change. It was us. Oil is rising from the earth at a rate that no one can manage to estimate correctly and it appears that it will keep a flowing for an undetermined amount of time. It was us. Eleven people died because of our thirst for oil. We all contributed to their deaths by giving a company no reason to slow down and ensure their workers safety and structural integrity of their equipment. We demand crude oil, ignoring the ever increasing price, and who cares if it is risky. It was us. And I feel guilty. And I feel sad. And every time I listen to the news or read an article about the oil spill I get so angry I begin to cry because I have no power to help the wild creatures in the path of the spill, or the people whose livelihood is dependent on a stable gulf.

And then I speak to a person from my Vanpool who works for the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) and she mentions the highly toxic hydrocarbon Benzene, which is found in gasoline and can easily leech into your skin, and how it seems strange that gasoline attendants don't wear gloves or face masks. And I think about all the people outside of Oregon who actually have to pump their own gas and I wonder if they ever realize the risk of cancer they face when standing in their business casual with their hands on the nozzle. And I remember a few weeks ago when Steady J suggested using a little gasoline as a cleaning solvent, the same way that I've heard other people suggest it over the years. Scanning the 12 pump gas station by my house the next day I see one tiny little posting above a sign regarding wheelchair accessibility that reports that gasoline is found to cause cancer in laboratory animals. And I realize the full extent of the idiocy of our fossil fuel system, which destroys our environment, sucks our piggy banks dry and in the end kills us.