As I was driving toward the Gulf yesterday, I started to feel the environment: a secluded inland sea, a mile deep, its floor carved with canyons, with warm, powerful currents. I was wondering how many days it would take a dolphin to swim across from Florida to Mexico.
The floor is open to discussion of solutions – and it always has been. I will invoke a bit of A Course in Miracles: “Let me recognize the problem so it can be solved.” I would like to hear what you think the problem is, and what you think the solution is. Or, skip the problem and go right to the solution.
In my view we’re not dealing with something that has happened, though – something is happening. That’s different. So we would need proposed solutions to something in motion. Part of the problem we face is a public relations team at BP that still has us convinced that the company produces organic salad, and if we are not careful that ideology will succeed in blaming President Obama for BP’s negligence. They sense the convenient blame point and will exploit it to the max, if allowed.
Quick survey:
When you took a shower this morning, did you use traditional soap (based on a vegetable oil or a fat, such as Bronner’s) or did you use a commercial bar soap (really a detergent, based on petroleum)? These are the kinds of simple choices we certainly can be making, old fashioned.
[I am in a hotel, and a bottle of Bronner’s didn’t make it with me, so today for me it will be a bar detergent.]
I would also add that we who are reading and contributing here are in the relatively unusual position of pioneering a new dimension of awareness that embraces how we actually feel in any moment (including rage and grief), what we notice in our environment, and a way to parse out the calculus that does not involve active denial. This is a delicate line to walk because among those who are willing to be witness to events of the world and to see what is happening, and then apply a level of knowledge; but like karate, theoretical knowledge is not enough.
Part of the problem as it currently stands is that we are already part of the oil slick (plume) and we were long before it existed: if you count petrol fuels burned for energy, plastics and chemicals, every one of us is involved. If you breathe inside, the air was moved by petroleum fuel.
What we are seeing or being shown in the Gulf of Mexico is an accelerated version of what is already happening as a result of our near-total dependency on fossil fuels not only to get to the store, go to work or visit a relative, but for nearly every bite of food we put into our mouths. The stats on how many calories go into the Earth as tractor fuel and fertilizer versus how many come out as food are stunning. We are literally eating oil. We think that plants run on sunshine, earth and water…but really…when you see that red oil washing up in New Orleans, think: agribusiness (a direct product of the Great Depression’s era of farm consolidation).
So part of the choice process involves shopping at Farmer’s Markets that use simpler farming methods, with fewer synthetic chemicals, and where the food is not shipped across a continent. A significant part of the longterm solution is to shift to patterns of consumerism that demand less oil. Your average supermarket broccoli took a 2,000 mile trip across the continent or up from Brazil.
Here are some other sustainability solutions, as proposed in Cosmic Confidential
This is long; these are only excerpts; the entire article is worth reading.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/may/30/oil-spills-nigeria-niger-delta-shell
Nigeria’s agony dwarfs the Gulf oil spill. The US and Europe ignore it
John Vidal, environment editor
The Observer, Sunday 30 May 2010
……………….
Forest and farmland were now covered in a sheen of greasy oil. Drinking wells were polluted and people were distraught. No one knew how much oil had leaked. “We lost our nets, huts and fishing pots,” said Chief Promise, village leader of Otuegwe and our guide. “This is where we fished and farmed. We have lost our forest. We told Shell of the spill within days, but they did nothing for six months.”
That was the Niger delta a few years ago, where, according to Nigerian academics, writers and environment groups, oil companies have acted with such impunity and recklessness that much of the region has been devastated by leaks.
In fact, more oil is spilled from the delta’s network of terminals, pipes, pumping stations and oil platforms every year than has been lost in the Gulf of Mexico, the site of a major ecological catastrophe caused by oil that has poured from a leak triggered by the explosion that wrecked BP’s Deepwater Horizon rig last month….
…………
With 606 oilfields, the Niger delta supplies 40% of all the crude the United States imports and is the world capital of oil pollution. Life expectancy in its rural communities, half of which have no access to clean water, has fallen to little more than 40 years over the past two generations. Locals blame the oil that pollutes their land and can scarcely believe the contrast with the steps taken by BP and the US government to try to stop the Gulf oil leak and to protect the Louisiana shoreline from pollution.
“If this Gulf accident had happened in Nigeria, neither the government nor the company would have paid much attention,” said the writer Ben Ikari, a member of the Ogoni people. “This kind of spill happens all the time in the delta.”
“The oil companies just ignore it. The lawmakers do not care and people must live with pollution daily. The situation is now worse than it was 30 years ago. Nothing is changing. When I see the efforts that are being made in the US I feel a great sense of sadness at the double standards. What they do in the US or in Europe is very different.”
“We see frantic efforts being made to stop the spill in the US,” said Nnimo Bassey, Nigerian head of Friends of the Earth International. “But in Nigeria, oil companies largely ignore their spills, cover them up and destroy people’s livelihood and environments. The Gulf spill can be seen as a metaphor for what is happening daily in the oilfields of Nigeria and other parts of Africa.
“This has gone on for 50 years in Nigeria. People depend completely on the environment for their drinking water and farming and fishing. They are amazed that the president of the US can be making speeches daily, because in Nigeria people there would not hear a whimper,” he said.
It is impossible to know how much oil is spilled in the Niger delta each year because the companies and the government keep that secret. However, two major independent investigations over the past four years suggest that as much is spilled at sea, in the swamps and on land every year as has been lost in the Gulf of Mexico so far….
…….
Worse may be to come. One industry insider, who asked not to be named, said: “Major spills are likely to increase in the coming years as the industry strives to extract oil from increasingly remote and difficult terrains. Future supplies will be offshore, deeper and harder to work. When things go wrong, it will be harder to respond.”
Judith Kimerling, a professor of law and policy at the City University of New York and author of Amazon Crude, a book about oil development in Ecuador, said: “Spills, leaks and deliberate discharges are happening in oilfields all over the world and very few people seem to care.”
There is an overwhelming sense that the big oil companies act as if they are beyond the law. Bassey said: “What we conclude from the Gulf of Mexico pollution incident is that the oil companies are out of control.
“It is clear that BP has been blocking progressive legislation, both in the US and here. In Nigeria, they have been living above the law. They are now clearly a danger to the planet. The dangers of this happening again and again are high. They must be taken to the international court of justice.”
Acceleration…….. my housemate just pointed out that the oil spill is like the lancing of a boil, and the “blood of the dinosaurs” is pouring forth to be Witnessed…..
Meanwhile another online acquaintance just shared this link:
http://www.satyacenter.com/cardinal-grand-cross-summer-2010
I’ve only skimmed it but it surely does seem to be speaking to the heart of the matter.
There is an article here that you might want to check if you live in the city, http://www.communitygreens.org. The story on the Baltimore alleys that have been gated as shared space is fascinating. The organization even provides some leadership training.
BP Pledges To Continue Being Huge Profitable Corporation
LONDON—Embattled BP officials assured the public Thursday that despite the setbacks of the past month, the company was still “fiercely committed” to remaining an enormously powerful moneymaking industrial conglomerate. “We promise the good people of Louisiana or Texas or wherever that this horrific oil spill will not, even for a moment, stop us from pursuing unspeakably massive profits,” BP spokesman Reginald Clacton-Thorpe told reporters. “We are even now working around the clock to make this historic PR disaster as painless for us as possible.” Clacton-Thorpe stressed that “neither the terrible errors of our past nor the inevitably worse ones of our future” would affect that ultimate mission.
— The Onion
* Nameless Hurricane That Much More Terrifying
09.03.07
* Selling Equals Winning, Ex-Athlete Tells Direct-Mail Merchandisers
11.04.98
Yes, Eric. You wrote: “Part of the problem as it currently stands is that we are already part of the oil slick (plume).”
I agree, and I think I need to clarify my earlier thoughts now that they have been distilled through others’ contributions here. (Thank you, all.)
I think it is a balance. If I follow the principles of ACIM, then I cannot escape the oil slick. It is me. and I am it. Or, rather, it is an aspect of me that I, in my own way, am responsible for clearing up.
However, if I immerse myself in everything that is wrong with it – and everything that is wrong with the world – I run the very real risk of becoming so mired down in my perceptions that I feel unable to act meaningfully. And I think the key lies in Patricia Moonrose’s statement of thinking global and acting local. I cannot clean up the oil slick directly, but I can start to clean up my home, and by extension my community; and – even more locally – my thoughts, my shadow (my personal, psychical oil slick), and my beliefs about myself, others, and the world.
Kyla, thank you for recognizing what we are doing here and for offering your direct support and involvement. As one who spends my money in accordance with my values, I truly appreciate that.
Planet Waves is a place where every dime you invest comes right back to you. I know that many of you depend on Planet Waves every day. You are the ones I want to reach with a message of involvement. We keep doing our thing — invest for your own sake, so you feel better about coming here every day.
Thank you again, Kyla.
ef
“What we are seeing or being shown in the Gulf of Mexico is an accelerated version of what is already happening….”
wow.
Eric, this is the reason I pay money to subscribe to your blog. This statement is the place where you have actually distilled an essence from this event that gives me something I did not get on my own, looking at it, and which I find rich enough that I can ponder it and use it to find a way forward I otherwise might not have discovered.
Thank you.
Kyla
One of the benefits I hope will come to the world, speaking as an editor, as a result of this incident are those who want to do progressive journalism to step up to the opportunity and the challenge. My friends and I have invested incalculable time, passion, energy and funds into creating a widely-read venue where such is possible; where new writers are welcome — where young writers are welcome. I consider motivation and ethics much more meaningful than experience. A good editor helps provide the experience factor while you are learning — that would be me.
If you are feeling the calling to participate, to take action and to express your quest for understanding, please write to me. If you’re the kind of person who can sustain a commitment even through some of the challenges of learning, and you can bring relatively few expectations of “what it will be like” to work with me or with Planet Waves, so you can be open to the real thing, please get in touch.
Please send me an introduction and some solid thoughts about what is important to you. Note that the pace of movement in Internet writing is fast, depending on immediacy and the power of available information. I am likely to reply with an assignment that could be completed and posted within a day or two.
I am interested in hearing from people who have been following the oil spill carefully; or who have been keeping a chronology; or who have perspectives on alternative energy; or who have a knack for the issue of corporate responsibility. I want to hear from people with a background or interest in wildlife. We need the viewpoint of someone who has knowledge of finance on this level of the game.
Many other viewpoints or knowledge bases would work. What counts the most is commitment level and taking leadership in your own writing and research process, with my guidance.
Please write to me at dreams at planetwaves.net. Thank you.
YES! Exactly!
Think Globally. Act Locally.
THIS is how we can impact the world in a positive manner without getting lost in the weeds or down the rabbit hole. Or without losing ourselves in despair, when focusing on such issues as the oil spill crisis. One way this crisis can be best used is to strengthen our resolve to make personal changes that affect the broader picture in a positive way. To bring one’s values to fruition.
If this oil spill makes you sick – then what can you personally change in your own small scope of the universe to help lessen the need and greed for oil?
I do use bronner’s liquid soap (peppermint – it’s pretty refreshing), and baking soda and vinegar are my cleansers, I use the least chemical additives laundry detergent and thankfully need to use very little in my front loader, I participate in a CSA (community supported agriculture), I support a nearby amish farmer in PA for meat and dairy products, I support organizations that are working for small farms, I visit the farmer’s market, I don’t use baggies and such, I walk when I can and use public transportation, my dream car is a prius and next on my list when my current car konks out, I recycle even when it’s inconvenient.
There’s many more things I could do, but I do so much more than I ever did. This is progress. And one person’s progress – whether yours or mine – adds to the progress of the collective. Slow but sure.
So these choices are mostly made quietly and send a message. Like, I think it was, Joel Salatin said in the film “Food, Inc” – make your choices at the cash register and this will send a clear message and manufacturers will respond. In that film, the example was given about how Stonyfield Yogurt came to Wal-Mart. This was a sort of getting in bed with the devil deal, it was expressed, but it was a huge thing for the organic movement – to get Wal-Mart on board. And consumer choices and demands drove that change.
Here in Washington, DC there was a recent implementation of a 5 cent tax on any bags a customer gets from grocery stores, to encourage folks to bring their own. This money is collected to help clean up the toxic Anacostia River, another environmental shame right in the capitol’s and EPA’s back yard. Much improvement has been made, but there’s much more needed. And it’s overwhelming every time I participate in a clean up project – the amounts of plastic are ginormous.
It doesn’t have to be all at once. Just make one change. Start there. And build upon it. Set an example to those around you. Let your actions speak for you. Send a dollar or two to an organization that matches your values. Participate in a cleanup. Little things mean a lot, and these things reverberate. Be the change you want to see, yes?
Think Global. Act Local.
NOW we’re talking!!
I’m off to the Jersey shore today for a few days — I am excited about visiting the ocean and praying for her while by her side, and in her midst. I pray for mutual healing as her waters have always been so healing to me.
xo
Patricia MoonRose
http://www.theage.com.au/national/big-oils-image-not-so-slick-when-its-mess-hits-the-us-20100529-wmlx.html
Well now, the floor is open to discussion of solutions – and it always has been. I will invoke a bit of A Course in Miracles: “Let me recognize the problem so it can be solved.” I would like to hear what you think the problem is, and what you think the solution is. Or, skip the problem and go right to the solution.
In my view we’re not dealing with something that has happened, though – something is happening. That’s different. So we would need proposed solutions to something in motion. Part of the problem we face is a public relations team at BP that still has us convinced that the company produces organic salad, and that if we are not careful will succeed in blaming President Obama for their negligence. They sense the convenient blame point and will exploit it to the max, if allowed.
Quick survey:
When you took a shower this morning, did you use traditional soap (based on a vegetable oil or a fat, such as Bronner’s) or did you use a commercial bar soap (really a detergent, based on petroleum)? These are the kinds of simple choices we certainly can be making, old fashioned.
[I am in a hotel, and a bottle of Bronner’s didn’t make it with me, so today for me it will be a bar detergent.]
I would also add that we who are reading and contributing here are in the relatively unusual position of pioneering a new dimension of awareness that embraces how we actually feel in any moment (including rage and grief), what we notice in our environment, and a way to parse out the calculus that does not involve active denial. This is a delicate line to walk because among those who are willing to be witness to events of the world and to see what is happening, and then apply a level of knowledge; but like karate, theoretical knowledge is not enough.
Part of the problem as it currently stands is that we are already part of the oil slick (plume) and we were long before it existed: if you count petrol fuels burned for energy, plastics and chemicals, every one of us is involved. If you breathe inside, the air was moved by petroleum fuel.
What we are seeing or being shown in the Gulf of Mexico is an accelerated version of what is already happening as a result of our near-total dependency on fossil fuels not only to get to the store, go to work or visit a relative, but for nearly every bite of food we put into our mouths. The stats on how many calories go into the Earth as tractor fuel and fertilizer versus how many come out as food are stunning. We are literally eating oil. We think that plants run on sunshine, earth and water…but really…when you see that red oil washing up in New Orleans, think: agribusiness (a direct product of the Great Depression’s era of farm consolidation).
So part of the choice process involves shopping at Farmer’s Markets that use simpler farming methods, with fewer synthetic chemicals, and where the food is not shipped across a continent. A significant part of the longterm solution is to shift to patterns of consumerism that demand less oil. Your average supermarket broccoli took a 2,000 mile trip across the continent or up from Brazil.
Here are some other sustainability solutions, as proposed in Cosmic Confidential
http://planetwaves.net/pagetwo/2010/05/30/everything-old-is-new/
Damn straight.
jparoby, I get where you’re coming from. You have articulated what has been going on in my mind for a few weeks – about focus, about directing thoughts and feelings, about shifting priorities in a world that clamours for us to look at things in certain ways, and to be affected by it so much that we become part of that big, oily, nihilistic mass. Do I join the slick, or do I stand apart from it?
This news may be out by the time you read this, or maybe, if it is as it seems, will break on June 8th:
First: The article at http://rense.com/general90/analy.htm is is the most informative analysis I’ve read on what on earth is really going on down in the water. This was written a couple of weeks ago. He (I assume it’s a ‘he’) says that the top kill procedure was the only really likely hope of stopping the blowout. He says:
“They really only have one shot here…and that is the top kill. Watch for it and pay attention, be aware what this all means to ALL OF US and I hope I explained things well enough to be understood by anyone. The top kill shot should be coming soon…I hope…as soon as possible. If you hear it failed, or if the well blew itself apart before they can do it, get the fuck ready, because Pandora’s box is about to open wide and the closest thing to the SHTF for real that we will likely see in our lifetimes is about come charging out at full rampant force…and it’s a very large and deep box…. ”
Second: Then have a look at this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HQOBprAQzvk&feature=related. I think these are from the BP live feed, which has now been switched off apparently.
Oh shit.
I’m going to try something else. This spill HAS happened. It is here. There are consequences.
I’m going to harp “Law of Attraction” again. What you draw your attention to, you manifest.
Instead of sitting in your shit, being negative, lamenting the losses, and adding more and more and more….. and more cynicism and focus to all the bad things, you should get your head out of your ass and look for a SOLUTION. There is a solution for this, you just have to focus on the solution instead of the problem.
I don’t know. I don’t want to piss anyone off but maybe we need to give our heads a shake.
oh my gosh. i think i mentioned this before. a friend… who is a retired government inspector, took a spill course, and they were taught exactly this 30-40 years ago. that everything regarding fixing a spill was bullshit. there is no way to fix it. you do not get the oil out of the water. the MO is to show lots of boats and lots of people and lots of general activity… and people will believe that it is fixable.
he’s the one who guffawed when he heard about the first fixit plan on this tragedy. (guffawed in a sad way.)
anyway… that being said… maybe we can learn finally… eric.. as you report on this. i find it amazing that you are there and seeing it first-hand.
can we stop? can we learn? if government inspectors were being taught these basics to watch out for years ago (re: bulshit propaganda re: the easy fix) why are are larger and larger “spills” happening?
tonight i will dream of flying.
Thank you for going down there, Eric. Right now, today, my response has been overwhelming grief.
However, that is not a sustainable experience, not for long.
So I dug up a lot of iris that were overgrown and crowded and made room for seedlings where the iris had been.
I took great pleasure in the three tomato plants on my window sill. Each one is so different from the other two! They are all tomatoes but they have personalities: One is lacy and curved and almost Art Deco in its appearance; the next is sturdy and broad-leaved, a peasant of a tomato; the third is tall and the leaves are cute and rounded kind of like cheerleaders in high school. Perky.
I imagine if I listened correctly I might hear them sing, even.
I am hoping that this week all the snow will be melted off Black Butte and I can plant out the tomatoes.
These small lives help me balance my awareness of the vast deaths going on in a sea that is both far away and closer than my own bloodstream.
Thank you again, for being a witness to this.