On the Gulf Coast of the United States the shock is now setting in for millions of American citizens as we now realize the true extent of the damage caused by our desire for obsolete and dangerous fossil fuels, and our perpetuation of an outdated society, where the bottom line has always been profit at all costs, be it human or environmental.
Investigators are turning up evidence that industry essentially designed its own safety procedures, with little oversight from the federal regulator, the Minerals Management Service. And analysts say one result of the disaster will be a much more heavily regulated industry, driving up costs for companies that are already spending $100-million on a single well in deep water.
It’s time for a real change. I’d be damned if the American people could actually look at that word as not some jingoist slogan devised by a focus group, but the evident desire of the public for a meaningful transition out of the destructive legacy, the burden of our past mistakes as a maturing civilization. We only have one Earth; there is no reset button here.
We must break out of our established ideologies that have prevented progress. Ending the political duality, economic stratification and false divisions is key to overcoming our apparent historical bondage that says the future we were promised must remain an elusive dream. We must now rethink our society and outgrow those parts of it that serve to paralyze us.
As of today, there has been no progress in stopping this catastrophe. This did not have to happen. It happened because we continue to use an obsolete technology for the sake of maintaining a profitable establishment; An establishment that perpetuates vast inequality in its wages to its employees versus its core owners, destroys fragile and vital eco-systems, and pollutes our air.
Our generation has stood and watched as our planet has been raped and pillaged, yet we do nothing. Our generation has stood and watched as our government bailed out the very people who created this economic crisis, yet we do nothing. Our generation has stood and watched as we have been handed the problems of the countless generations before it, and we are preparing to do the same to the next generation, and we do nothing.
We have the tools, we have the knowledge, we have the technology to do much better. We can make the transition to a world, an economy, and a future we all deserve regardless of geographic location or economic disposition. As long as we rely on legacy systems defined in a 19th century mentality all we will do is spin our wheels while a parade of economic and ecologic disasters visits us again and again. It is time to pull the plug on this charade because as you will find out, there is a better way.
Our current way of thinking will no longer sustain us. We can either remain in the house of cards we have built and watch it collapse all around us, or we can, through the best our society has to offer, begin to construct a stable mature and thriving society so that the Gulf Coast Oil Spill, the Exxon Valdez and many others are nothing more then an embarrassing footnote in history.