“Drill Baby Drill” was the chant at many US Republican presidential rallies during the last election. Yeh, Drill Baby Drill and look what happens.
The current ecological crisis going on in the Gulf of Mexico is something that no one should ignore. Oil is being pumped into the ocean at the rate of around 700 tons per day.
It started out that the oil slick was bigger than the US state of Rhode Island, Then it grew to be bigger than Delaware. Last night I heard that it was bigger than Jamaica. And it will definitely end up being “bigger than Texas”. If not in surface area, but most definitely metaphorically with the damage that it will cause.
A lot of the media are comparing this emergency to the Exxon Valdez. Now the Exxon Valdez was an oil spill. This is far more than just an oil “spill” – there is no comparison between this and the Exxon Valdez.
In any case, whilst the Exxon Valdez is probably the most infamous oil spill, it was certainly not the largest.
- In the Gulf of Alaska on March 24th, 1989, the Exxon Valdez spilt about 35,000 tons of crude oil.
- However, January 1st, 1991 as part of the Gulf War actions, 1,360,000-1,500,000 tons of crude oil flowed into the Persian Gulf.
- And a previous “spill” in the Gulf of Mexico, as a result of off-shore drilling like this current spill, went for nearly 10 months from June 3, 1979-March 23, 1980 and put 454,000-480,000 tons of crude oil in the water. This is the sort of thing we can expect from this current debacle. Again it could continue for months. And again, it’s in the Gulf of Mexico. “When will we ever learn”?
The Real Tragedy Is Giuliani Was Right!
During one of the Presidential election rallies over the continuing chant of “Drill Baby Drill” Rudy Giuliani said “This is the kind of change that will create growth, jobs, and prosperity”. And sadly, because of the draconian economic system we have in the Western world, he is right.
And here I’m talking about cleaning up the oil, not drilling and selling the oil.
This unbelievable tragedy where billons of creatures will die a horrific, lingering, and painful death will be the best thing for the American economy, especially at this time.
Why?
Because GDP – Gross Domestic Product – is all about how much money is spent in a country on goods and services. The fact that there is an unconscionable cost to nature is irrelevant. The bottom line is that 1000s of people will be employed and billions of dollars will be spent on this clean up. All of which will show up on a greatly improved American GDP.
The fact that America doesn’t have the billions of dollars for the clean up is a totally different issue. But I’m sure China will come to the rescue once again.
Stop Drilling Immediately?
Nature-lovers like me could become totally outraged and say that we must stop oil drilling immediately. But sadly, over the last 100+ years we have become a totally oil dependant world. If we only used oil for motor vehicles, well then we could change that relatively easily.
However, oil is not only used to power and lubricate virtually all forms of machinery, but it is also used in the manufacture of thousands and thousands of our everyday products. Just a few examples include, plastics, nylons, nail polish, toothpaste, insecticides, rubber products, ball point pens, cosmetics, denture adhesive, and so the list goes on.
So what can we do?
2012 – A Time For Change
In a previous article, I wrote about how all sorts of unethical behavior would be exposed during this Mayan 6th night that we are currently in. And I have to wonder if this disaster is about giving us a real wake-up-call that the time has come to do all we can to replace the oil in all our oil-based products.
A few days ago, I was thinking to myself that this current oil situation was an impossible one to solve. After all, no amount of lobbying or even global community unrest is going to stop the production of oil.
However, the exciting part is that this is the exact sort of thing that the 2012 changes are all about.
There have never been any Mayan predictions that the world would end in 2012. Instead, it’s the end of one world era, the end of one cycle, and the start of a new one. It’s a period of moving to a much higher level of consciousness. And everyday we are seeing major changes occurring around the world that indicate that this rise in consciousness is indeed occurring.
Starting a conversion of all oil-based products to products with a more innocuous base could well be one of those changes. As the old saying goes, if we can put a man on the moon within 10 years of the announcement, then nothing is impossible.
I must confess to belly-laughing when I think of the terrified oil barons thinking about losing their questionably acquired billions. After all, which is more important their billions or nature?
Hey guys, it’s time to start investing in renewables!
It is the very unique energy at this time of the great shift that will help us succeed. This is especially the case when we remember that this change in consciousness is one that includes a move to a far closer relationship with nature than most people have had in the past.
The major argument against such a change would be that to stop using oil would ruin the global economy. This is the reason that our Australian politicians give all the time for supporting our coal-based energy systems instead of a genuine focus on alternative power.
But the ruination of the global economy is just another scare tactic. A change away from an oil-based economy is all about behavioral modification. And anyone who has been on a diet knows all about behavioral modification. If you have to stop eating chocolate, it’s essential that you don’t just stop eating altogether. Instead you substitute pretzels for chocolate. And then carrot sticks for pretzels.
The same applies to all of the world’s extractive resources. It is true that, as an example, the oil industry would be extinguished and so there would be no more oil money. This would greatly upset everyone living the high life because of oil. But over the period of say 10 years, oil would be replaced with, whatever, and the global economy oil money would be replaced with the returns from that new ingredient.
It seems as though people have forgotten about the last major Gulf of Mexico oil spill, except perhaps for a few old-timers living on the coast of Texas.
We can turn this shocking negative event into a positive if we really want to – “Yes we Can!”
