How to Fix the Oil Spill

I don't know how to fix an oil spill. At least, not the technological ins and outs of the business.

But I know enough about spills in general to know the following:

1. You turn off the taps.
2. You minimize the damage.
3. You clean up as soon as possible.


Turning off the taps

They say that only BP (and similar deep sea operators) has the expertise to shut down the well. I have no reason to disbelieve this - they are the only ones with the incentive to create the technology to get down there in the first place.

Back in early May BP began drilling relief wells to shut the well down far below sea bottom. Apparently this process, if successful, will take until August. In the meantime, they have held the world breathless as they have attempted to shut the well off where pipe ends and sea begins, to little avail.

I can't say I can fault the approach here.


Minimizing the damage

Here is where my big question mark comes in.

Are buoys, booms, and skimmers so effective? Why is BP conducting a massive chemical experiment [dispersants] in mid-ocean? Why isn't BP trying alternative methods for taking the oil out of the water? And what on earth happened to using microbes to eat the oil?

This last question really bothers me. I see a proven technique which is not being used, for no apparent reason. Toxic dispersants are being used... Nuclear bombing has been suggested... Why not use microbes?

And why is it that the same ineffective tools and strategies used 30 years ago are still used today? No, actually, I think I know this one. $$ There is no money to be had in researching clean-up.


Cleaning up as soon as possible

Again, I can't fault anyone here. As soon as tar made landfall, dedicated workers and volunteers began picking up tar balls and washing off birds. But their work is a hopeless work of Sisyphus unless the oil stops flowing... unless methods are found to collect (or devour) the oil mid-ocean.

- V.

Oil Spill ... and the "Uneasy Evangelical Conscience"

"I’ve left my hometown lots of times. But never like this.

Sure, I’ve teared up as I’ve left family and friends for a while, knowing I’d see them again the next time around. And, yes, I cried every day for almost a year in the aftermath of a hurricane that almost wiped my hometown off the map. But I’ve never left like this, wondering if I’ll ever see it again, if my children’s children will ever know what Biloxi was."

Finally, a mainstream articulation of Christian ecology.
As E. told me, it's about time.

Russell D. Moore, "Ecological Catastrophe and the Uneasy Evangelical Conscience"

A. "We’ve had an inadequate view of human sin.

Because we believe in free markets, we’ve acted as though this means we should trust corporations to protect the natural resources and habitats. [...]"

B. "We’ve seen the issue of so-called “environmental protection” as someone else’s issue.

[...] we’ve been willing not simply to vote for candidates who will protect unborn human life (as we ought to), but to also in the process adopt their worldviews on every other issue. [...] But perhaps the void is being filled by leftists and liberals and wannabe liberal evangelicals simply because those who ought to know better are off doing something else. [,,.]"

C. "We’ve had an inadequate view of human life and culture.

[...] What’s being threatened is a culture. [...] When the natural environment is used up, unsustainable for future generations, cultures die. [...]"

D. "Finally, we’ve compromised our love.

[...] Pollution kills people. Pollution dislocates families. Pollution defiles the icon of God’s Trinitarian joy, the creation of his theater (Ps. 19; Rom. 1). Will people believe us when we speak about the One who brings life and that abundantly, when they see that we don’t care about that which kills and destroys? [...]"

-V.

2010, and the Oil Spill

It is hard to believe that 6 months have past since I last set digital foot in the blogosphere.

Will this be a reinvestment of self into the site, or another flash in the pan (some noise, some light, but nothing of duration)? Time will tell, I suppose.

But between you and me, I am avoiding commitment.


The Wound caused by British Petroleum

The tragic. horrific. sickening. grievous. grief-causing arterial bleed in the Caribbean is big news, and doubtless has been covered and re-covered ad nauseum. What can a voice in the wilderness say?

My voice (in case this is your first time here, or in case you forgot) is that of a person who loves God's Creation, who loves the "environment" that uneasily embraces our urban sarcophagi. Don't expect pro-industry blathering here. However... and this is the however I haven't heard many say... However, only some of the fault lies with BP/Haliburton/Transocean. BP and the companies that worked with it and for it are only servants. Shoddy service, no doubt. However, their service, however poorly executed, was done to please and placate their master. Us.

We, and by "we" I mean industrialized society, need oil. We need it badly, that red crude the lifeblood of our luxury. But the easy wells are drained... and now we have only the tricky spots left. Alaska. The deep sea. Canadian tar sands. Middle Eastern war zones.

And so BP and its like go into these places for us, pushing technology to its limits, pushing people to their limits, and sometimes things don't go well. Sometimes there is war, and people die. Sometimes the technology is not enough, and the plundering of the depths becomes rapine.

In our just anger with BP, let us not forget that until this event, BP was a good servant. It provided us what we wanted at a price we could afford. There should be consequences to BP's recklessness, yes, but because BP was our servant, doing what we asked of it, we share in both responsibility and blame.

- V.