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I’ve been keenly following with growing concern and anger, BP’s oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.
With the failure of the last big gamble- the so called ‘Top Kill” - it now looks as the oil will keep spilling for many months turning the Gulf black and killing precious wildlife.
I have spent time in Lousiana / Gulf region twice and my heart goes out to the wonderful people there, as they struggle with this disaster and watch their beautiful fragile eco-system destoyed.
BP’s questionable PR tactics in being far from upfront about the seriousness of the situation and the true state of the efforts to halt the leak are unforgiveable.
BP initially called it a “tiny spill” in relation to the ocean.
But I held out some hope that the oil spill might help change America’s views on oil dependency and the national collective reluctance to move to alternative transport.
But even key Democrat politicians seem dismissive of any hope of any change.
An article in the Miami Herald today poses the question about post-oil slick behaviour:
Will Americans rush to smaller cars or spend more to buy hybrids? Will politicians embrace gas taxes and charges on large carbon polluters or adopt other measures to punish fossil-fuel burning and encourage alternative energy use?
The article -and others on various other news sites- make for depressing reading.
To quote from two people mentioned in the article:
Democrat Senator John Kerry, the leading author of the major energy bill the Senate is considering this year: ”About 30 percent of our transportation fuel comes from the Gulf. You think Americans are suddenly going to stop driving to work tomorrow? You think people are going to stop driving trucks to deliver the goods to the department store? It’s not going to happen.”
Sean Kay, a professor and the chairman of the international studies program at Ohio Wesleyan University, said even if the spill made Americans rethink how they used oil, it would take “a sustained campaign” by politicians, lasting years and with far more intensity than on display now, to shift behavior and spending.
Along with this week’s stats that Kiwis are flocking to buy SUVs more than ever before, it seems it will only be when people turn up to empty pumps to a sign reading ”No more petrol ever, folk,s” will we get real but forced change.
Best fun read of the week: Phony BP Twitter account
1 Comments
My heart despairs too, I think the oil geologist who said he thinks our grandkids are going to say, incredously:
“You mean you just burned it..!”
Is quite right…