i am disappointed in the lack of accountability being held against the american public. yes, BP effing sucks. yes, obama could have handled it better. but umm, how should i put this…WE are the society that is dependent on oil. WE are the ones who rely on an unsustainable resource. WE are the ones who enact laissez-faire policy — WE are the ones who praise a free and unregulated private sector. WE are the ones who have yet to come up with not only solutions for the crisis, but solutions for our future.America, lets stop this stupid ass blame game (it was fun for like a minute) and move on. its time to own up to our own failures.
this spill sends me a message, louder and clearer than ever: we must wean ourselves from oil.
I am so with you. Unfortunately, it takes a disaster of this magnitude for us to realize how dire things really are. The hippies and I were discussing this at work today. Apparently there were even bigger oil spills in Nigeria and Ecuador. We hear about death and destruction around the world every day. It takes something like this in our own country to galvanize us into action. I forget who this quote was from, but one of my co-workers mentioned an interview that asked what will it take for us to start making concerted efforts to reverse the effects of global warming? the person said, war. When there are no resources left and we have to fight over them. I sincerely hope that crises like this oil spill can at least have some positive effect in forcing us to reevaluate our country's addiction to oil.
I always think about that movie (popular in Berkeley theaters a couple years ago), Who Killed the Electric Car. General Motors created a 100% electric car called the EV1 in 1990. TWENTY YEARS AGO. Sure, there wasn't quite the infrastructure for it yet (no plugs around the city) and the batteries weren't fully developed yet. But the entire model was crushed by lobbyists from huge car and oil companies. Literally they were repossessed and crushed. There needs to be some motherfucking accountability in this country. Everyone's all yay free market woo invisible hand, everything will work out if we just let capitalism do its thang. WRONG. Maybe once everyone that was alive during the Cold War dies we can finally start talking about more socialist policies without people getting out their shotguns. The problem is that the corporations RUN EVERYTHING. They are behind all the legislating that goes on, making progress IMPOSSIBLE due to their greed. WHEN WILL THEY REALIZE THEY ARE RUINING THE WORLD??
And what can we do about it in the mean time.
Yes, yes, and YES.
ReplyDeleteAlso, this: http://www.slate.com/id/2256920
That's true. To compare it to Katrina overlooks the fact that with a hurricane it comes and goes and you deal with the aftereffects. With this spill, it's not like the president can actually stop the oil himself. Something about his Oval Office speech really rubbed me the wrong way. It seemed like bullshit. We will do everything we can to support people in the gulf, bla bla oh I'm setting up a committee. To reassure people I guess, but that seems like the kind of thing he should have done TWO MONTHS AGO. This is also the only disaster like this I can think of where no one is fundraising. Because there's not fund to send the money to I guess.
ReplyDeleteHi, just found you by accident, but I have to say that I can't even watch the news anymore. If people actually saw that we are the cause of our own problems, they might have to change, and that's where the problem lies. Nobody wants to go backwards. I have voluntarily cut back on my consumption of everything, not just oil, but all kinds of single-serving packaged products and new items that can be purchased used or even repurposed from something else.
ReplyDeleteAnd the economy is another issue that we did to ourselves. We let corporate greed run amok, we seek out the cheapest products, never mind that the cheapest products are not made here, they are made elsewhere where cheap labor is the norm. And then we complain about the loss of American jobs and this effed-up economy. But we did it to ourselves from not wanting to pay more for products made by our own citizens, citizens that demand a minimum wage.
Ugh. Sorry to unload here, but my friends think I'm fringe. I don't think I am. I just think I'm logical. And sad.
I totally agree with you. The "cheap" products that capitalism chooses have an immense hidden cost for our environment.
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