{She Said} Here's What I Think About... The Oil Disaster

As a disclaimer, I will say this: I know many of you are greenies and may or may not appreciate my perspective here. Feel free to share that in comments (ahem I love comments) but don’t disown me.

I had a long discussion with a guy in the oil industry last weekend and here are some of the things he said about this oil disaster… first off, the way the media is portraying this situation is pretty inflated. This is a disaster but it certainly isn’t the worst oil disaster in history (yet- infact the last leak like this wasn't able to be shut off/patched for 10 months) and it comes from the government giving passes for BP to have only one shut off valve where they were supposed to have five. When you put into perspective how much oil is being put out vs how much water is in the gulf the picture is not quite as dismal. Obama cutting off the drilling for 6 months (conversation was had before this was overturned by a judge) is really an extreme measure- it would be like stopping all air travel because one plane crashed.

Here is what I think. I think we all benefit incalculably from oil drilling and whenever you mess with nature, there are going to be risks you are taking. We inadvertently chose to take those risks when we became a society driven by petroleum products (and they are everywhere). This situation is awful and we have to deal with it as quickly as possible but pinning the entire problem on this one company that had an unfortunate turn of events isn’t entirely fair. Fortunately for the rest of us, our jobs don’t have the potential to create environmental disasters so there isn’t the opportunity for mistakes to happen that will turn us into villains in the eyes of the rest of the world. My main concern and disgust in this scenario has to do with the effect it is having on the innocent bystanders: the animals and their habitats. Not only do they not reap the benefits of the petroleum industry, they also have no idea what is going on and what they are getting into when they swim/fly/walk into that goopy stuff.

That being said… I do think it is absolutely ridiculous that this has kept going for as long as it has and I would like to take a big piece of bubble gum, duct tape, or crazy glue to the situation.