The oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico is going to be the largest in history. Our hearts go out to the people and other species affected by this tragedy. Yet we continue on driving our automobiles fueled from offshore drilling and other eco sensitive areas around the world. When is the gulf between our thoughts and actions going to bridged?

I have to admit that I am horrified at what is happening in the Gulf. Between 5,000 and 70,000 barrels a day are gushing from the ocean floor. Click on the above picture to see what I am talking about. I become sad seeing birds and dolphins swimming through oil. They didn’t do anything to deserve this.

Sadly eleven workers lost their lives when British Petroleum’s Deepwater Horizon drilling platform blew up in the Gulf of Mexico. Many people’s livelihoods in the Gulf are lost. Compensation will not be forthcoming anytime soon. People who were affected by the Exxon Valdez spill in 1989 are just starting to get compensation. After twenty years the only people who are really benefitting are the lawyers who will receive an estimated $188 million out of the $500 million settlement. I wish these vultures were the ones covered in oil.

I become angry at British Petroleum who makes $6 billion every three months, yet cannot ensure that adequate backup systems are in place to prevent a blowout 5,000 feet deep in the ocean, 50 miles from shore. In the grand scheme of things the losses to BP will be about a month’s income. These are the same people who have been lobbying for looser regulations in drilling and who seem incapable of taking responsibility.

British Petroleum is notorious for violations. A refinery explosion in 2005 near Galveston, Texas killed 15 and injured 180 people. As a result, the Occupational Health and Safety Administration handed BP a fine of $87 million, the largest fine handed out by the Administration ever after they uncovered 709 safety violations. These fines are just a nuisance, for BP for continued on pretty much business as usual.

British Petroleum is also notorious for greenwashing. BP has spent more on promoting its Beyond Petroleum slogan than it has actually invested in renewable energy. Clearly something drastic needs to happen. The right thing to do is for the government to revoke BP’s corporate charter, for it to seize BP’s assets and to leave the oil in the ground. 

Except for a few more regulations, the Exxon Valdez oil spill didn’t change much. In fact we ship even more oil across our oceans, drill for more oil thousands of metres deep in our oceans, and dig up more earth for dirty oil than we did in 1989. We rely on oil more than ever. What did we learn then and what will we learn now?

Exxon did not learn, BP will not learn, but most likely neither will we. Even eco minded people still drive their automobiles 24/7 in cities. These people bleed green yet drive almost everywhere because using public transit or their bicycle is often seen as inconvenient. No connection is made between dolphins swimming in oil, the boreal forest being raped, polar bears dying in the Arctic and this minor inconvenience. I thought we learned in 1985 that tears are not enough. Obviously not.  

Unless we as a society start to make these connections we will continue to be bleeding heart hypocrites. Unless we start to drastically reduce our use of oil, disasters will continue to happen in the future. We need to advocate en masse to transition to a renewable energy economy, sources of energy where large scale environmental disasters cannot happen. But we also need to be doing everything we can to reduce our own individual oil consumption. Otherwise we are as guilty as BP for destroying the environment.