An article by Naomi Klein titled “The Hole in the World” (Nation, July 12, 2010) offers a far more profound perspective of the Gulf disaster than has heretofore surfaced.
“This Gulf Coast crisis is about many things ”“ corruption, deregulation, the addiction to fossil fuels,” Klein writes. “But underneath it all it is about this ”“ our culture”™s dangerous claim to have such complete understanding and command over nature that we can radically manipulate and re-engineer risk to the natural systems that sustain us.
“The hole at the bottom of the ocean is more than an engineering accident or a broken machine. It is a violent wound in a living organism; it is part of us.” With real-time video we can all watch the earth pour out its guts 24/7. Early on the Gulf appeared to be bleeding with reddish streaks curling through the dark water.
Earth under stress
Most of us still consider the environmental devastation to be confined to the Gulf even though there is anxiety about the slick attaching itself to the Gulf Stream which could actually send it to Britain, an intriguing possibility. However, few of us understand the critical position of the Gulf with regard to the flight patterns in nature. Again from Klein: “The Gulf Coast wetlands are the equivalent of a busy airport hub ”“ everyone seems to have a stopover: 110 species of migratory songbirds and 75 percent of all migratory U.S. waterfowl.”
A recent New York Times Magazine article further underscored the interconnectedness of the natural world. A certain stock of bluefin tuna, already in full collapse before the Gulf spill, spawns in the Gulf of Mexico. It remains to be seen how the bluefin tuna (a prized part of the Japanese diet), the migrating birds and waterfowl adjust to such a desecration of their world.
Only a few centuries ago nature was considered to be a god or even many gods. To the Greeks it was Gaia, the earth goddess ”“ geography and geology come from this root.
In the mid-1970s, as concern for the environment began to gain adherents, James Lovelock, a British scientist, began to put forth the Gaia Hypothesis wherein the Earth is portrayed as a whole system. In other words the Earth and its biosphere exhibit the behavior of a single organism ”“ a living breathing organism. This organism is under growing stress.
Under Lovelock”™s hypothesis the Earth (Gaia) will endeavor to regain balance over time but the new balance may not be as favorable to the human species.
The global dilemma
Here are the hard facts ”“ we are coming to the end of the oil age, whether it will occur in five years or 10 years, or whatever, the longer this fact is denied the more difficult the transition to another energy source will be.
The desperation to maintain the fossil-fuel economy at all costs and the eagerness of the extractive industries to keep drilling no matter the risks has put the planet on a potentially catastrophic course, currently destroying a significant portion of a basic food source in the Gulf.
In this frantic search involving ever more risky drilling the destruction visited upon the natural world is mounting. It has yet to be calculated but the price is mounting.
As if the Gulf disaster has taught us nothing New York is still contemplating allowing drilling in watersheds in the state in order to gain access to the natural gas reserves in the Marcellus Shale. There appears to be no way to effectively do the extraction process without permanently poisoning the millions of gallons of water required for the fracking process to be effective ”“ this at a time of growing water shortages ”“ yet it seems to be a given that yet another theater of destruction will be opening up soon.
To use a different metaphor for the global dilemma, we continue to take the screws out of our spaceship, one by one, while wondering “What could go wrong?”
Surviving the Future explores a wide range of subjects to assist businesses in adapting to a new energy age. Maureen Morgan, a transit advocate, is on the board of Federated Conservationists of Westchester. Reach her at maureenmorgan10@verizon.net.
