Oily Culpability

The news is still overshadowed by the oily mess in the Gulf of Mexico. How long has it been? Over a month? The underwater oil well malfunctioned and now barrels of oil are spewing into the gulf, about a mile deep. What comes to the surface is creating a huge economic disaster as it is now reaching shore along Louisiana's coastal marshes and estuaries. The full impact cannot be understood this early,
or as long as the oil continues its escape from its burial place deep underground, deep underwater. There are two concerns that I have which I have not heard discussed on the news. First, there appear to be rivers of oil, or at least large lakes of oil, traveling under the surface, not being absorbed by the booms being floated. The sea life this crude threatens includes huge areas of plankton and other tiny creatures that make up the "bottom of the food chain." As this sea life is killed, there is less food for other sea life. Do you see where this is going? Over the course of a season or a year, we may see a drastic decline in all kinds of creatures. Some may take decades to recover from this trauma. There is no denying that this "oil spill" is an ecologic disaster like we have not seen before.

This brings me to my other reflection. Who is culpable? We like to blame the corporations: BP, the company that managed the well, the companies that contracted to build the various parts. Certainly, each one bears responsibility for their part. Did they cut corners? Where they rushing procedures? Did they build inferior parts and equipment? Did the parent company order equipment to specifications that were intended to speed up the process rather than maintain the highest level of safety? These questions will be explored by commissions and lawyers with every potential for finger-pointing to be exploited. Then there is the government. OUR government certainly bears responsibility. The policies and regulations may have encouraged recklessness. But take it a step further. The demands for abundant, cheap gas and fuel oil and other petroleum based products is tremendous. We rebel when costs for gas go up. We put pressure on our government through our electing to congress and to state legislatures those people who will give us the oil we want. Yes, we are beginning to change our perspectives and see the need to move away from oil, but it was right before this spill began that President Obama declared that we would open up more off-shore drilling, bowing to the political pressures.

Truth is, we are all culpable. We all share responsibility for decisions and policies that promoted frantic activity to quickly remove oil from the ground so that more, cheaper gas could be pumped into our cars. And, truth is, even if BP pays for the clean up and pays for some of the long term damage done, there is no way BP could pay for the total ecological and economical impact of this disaster. We are all culpable, and we will all be paying a price for our instiable appetites.