A Disappointment by Any Name

So you remember how last month I decided I would start writing Barack Obama "Biraq" Obama?

I've got a new alteration for ya: Biraq OILbama.  44 days into this BP disaster and NOW our president wants to sluff off the criticism that he hasn't done enough by being "out in front"?  Too late, man.  Far too late.  It's all spit shine on a turd at this point, brother. 

Now that I think of it, maybe BP should stand for Barack's Petroleum, considering they gave his campaign so much grease in 2008.  Whattaya think?

Hmmm.  Biraq Oilbama.  Next stop, Biraq Oilbomba?

**cough**falseflagdistractionfromtheBPdisaster**cough**

Let's hope not.

4 Reasons to Abandon Offshore Oil Drilling Post-Haste

Reason 1: The Bush Administration

The small U.S. agency that oversees offshore drilling doesn't write or implement most safety regulations, having gradually shifted such responsibilities to the oil industry itself for more than a decade.

Instead, the Minerals Management Service—now caught up in the crisis of the Deepwater Horizon rig that for weeks has sent crude oil gushing into the Gulf of Mexico—sets broad performance goals for the industry. Oil producers and drilling companies are then free to decide for themselves how to meet those goals, industry executives and former regulators say.

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Reason 2: Peril to Wildlife

When something like the Deepwater Horizon incident goes down (pun intended), we're left with the decision of whether to help the marine life or the ecosystem of the fragile coastal marshland. Neither is a good decision. Neither is necessary if we simply don't create the potential for environmental disasters. The law of averages says shit happens!

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Reason 3: Your Family's Bottom Line

I'm generally against using economics as an argument for or against doing the right thing when it comes to stewardship of the planet. In my view, it doesn't f'ing matter. What's right is right and damaging the ecosystem for the gain of a few - or even the many - is not right. Passing the damage on to the next generation for the benefit of the present is also just not right.

That said, not only do people respond to economic factors in environmental discourse but I personally believe that focusing on R & D can spur not only innovation but cash flow. I.E., the economy.

So here's a tidbit for you folks who are more concerned about your precious bottom line than your grandchildren's quality of life: This oil disaster could affect you! Don't think BP will pass the cost of this cleanup on to you? You're a fool. Don't think the rest of the oil industry will use BP's price hike as an excuse to hike their own prices? As if they're not already colluding. Don't believe it? You're only fooling yourself and they're gonna do it to you anyway.

Furthermore, this will disrupt shipping in the Gulf of Mexico for months. Imports and exports both. That's gonna raise prices on both. For you AND our trading partners. Which hurts America's economy since it will make it that much more enticing for other countries to get what little we DO export...from OTHER contries. More damage to the American job market.

Still thinking Drill, Baby, Drill? You're a fool.

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Reason 4: History Repeats Itself

Remember the part above about how "shit happens"? Reminds me of a shirt I used to have that used the phrase to explain how different religions view the world. The reincarnation viewpoint was, "This shit happened before." There's another addage/axiom/idiom/what-have-you that applies here: History repeats itself.

If it happens once, it will happen again. I don't know if you're following this story at all. I mean it behooves you to, seeing how this affects all of us, but whatever. At any rate, you should know that there are supposed to be redundant systems to keep something like this from happening. I guess this is what happens when you allow AN INDUSTRY TO REGULATE ITSELF!

So guess what? The FINAL failsafe that FAILED in this case - the blowout preventer - is in question. This from the oil industry's own report. Oh - and they've known about it for at least 7 years.

They don't care. It would cost money to fix, so why should they fix it? Who's going to make them? They regulate themselves.

Conclusion

We, as a species, should stop offshore drilling. All of it. The risks are not worthwhile. What little petroleum we would need in a world that doesn't burn fossil fuels can be gained from old-fashioned ONshore drilling until we create innovative and eco-friendly new methods of manufacturing lubricants and plastics. We shouldn't have to decide between which ecosystem to attempt to save. We shouldn't continue to bet against the law of averages that says this will happen again.

We just shouldn't.

Spill, Baby, Spill!

So it seems the Deepwater Horizon, an offshore oil rig that exploded earlier this week, has now sunk into the Gulf of Mexico - presumably with the bodies of the 11 workers still missing. A prescient name for an oil drill?

Forget the unfortunate dead workers. Like soldiers, they knew the risk. Forget that this will be used as an excuse to drive up crude futures and thereby raise gas prices. Forget that President Obama looked more like Sarah Palin than an agent of hope and change when he recently decided to open up coastal areas to MORE offshore drilling. What you need to know TODAY is that there's potential for this rig to release up to 300,000 gallons of crude oil a day into the gulf. That would impact sea life. That would impact bird life. That would impact delicate marshland wildlife on the Louisiana coast. Incidentally, that figure of 300,000 came from agovernmental group known as the Coast Guard - not an environmental group.

At present, the Coast Guard doesn't know if the Deepwater is spilling crude in the deep water. They do know there's a 1-mile-by-5-mile spill presently on the water.

I'd like to remind you that the cleanup from the Exxon Valdez disaster is STILL ongoing. Still not cleaned up. Still affecting the environment and the local wildlife in Alaska.

More oil is not the answer. It's poison. The money spent on cleaning up after the 858 fires and explosions in the gulf since 2001 could be spent on R&D to make America the biggest, baddest, greenest motherland on the planet. Future generations deserve for us to reverse momentum on all fossil fuels and use of carbon to fuel our activity on this planet.

No oil rigs. No oil disasters. It's just that easy.