After Oil

We are living through tough times. We have heard about Peak Oil, and we are witnesses to the environmental devastation which results from fossil fuel use and extraction. As you can see here, oil is currently used in a wide range of products on which we depend.
There are people who are already thinking of the future - a future with less oil. The following short documentary follows one woman's investigation into alternative farming methods. She approaches a subject that I am particularly passionate about - permaculture.



The Wikipedia entry describes the term quite well: "Permaculture is an approach to designing human settlements and agricultural systems that mimic the relationships found in natural ecologies."

We like to believe that we accomodate Nature in some way, and that we enjoy it from time to time, but the truth is that we are part of Nature (whether we like it or not) and when we pollute or destroy, we are doing much more than making unpleasant views. Sustainable, efficient living can only come from working with Nature. Working against it doesn't seem to have taken us very far. As William Wordsworth once wrote, "Come forth into the light of things, let Nature be your teacher."

The Big One

I thought I would run out of things to write about the latest oil disaster, but one recent report suggested that the volume of oil released is now equal to an Exxon Valdez spill every 3.5 days. Many think that the original leak has expanded as the damaged infrastructure has worn away. This problem is far from under control. A calamity is unfolding in the Gulf of Mexico. Some recent images of the oil reaching the Louisiana costline can be found here.
A disaster of this size is unparalleled. The environmental damage will last for decades, and will be catastrophic for marine life (and the fishing and tourism industries).
The Gulf of Mexico was already polluted. A similar oil well blowout occured in 1979, and pollution from sewage and fertilizer run-off created a dead zone in the region of 8000 square miles. This source states that annual pollution loadings can be:
* over 800,000 tons of nitrogen
* over 200,000 tons of phosphorus
* 100 million tons of dredged sediments
* over 2,000 tons of toxic substances from coastal industrial and municipal sites (four of the top five states in the U.S. in total surface discharge of toxic chemicals are Gulf States - Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana and Texas)
* approximately 1,000 tons of pesticides from coastal agriculture
* over 6,000 tons of produced waters from near-shore oil and gas platforms
source
We are killing the oceans, or at least big business is doing it on our behalf. They will continue to do so until we react strongly enough to this kind of news. Sure, you can stay away from BP gas stations, but where will you go? The Chevron next door?
Profit is everything to a corporation. While there is profit in pollution, it will continue.

The Cost Of Progress - Part 2

By now you've probably heard that the surface area of the "spill" has grown rapidly over the last few days. This disaster will be a headline grabber for the days and probably weeks to come, as it should be. A year from now, most of us will have forgotten about it, or at least consider it a past event.
In 1989, 11 million gallons of crude oil spilled when the Exxon Valdez ran aground. Despite clean-up efforts, the contamination has continued to prolong the disaster over the following years. Similarly, the legal battle continues to this day.



Of course, Exxon and BP are not the only oil companies tied to pollution disasters. Chevron partnered with an Ecuadorian oil company to tap the oil reserves of Ecuador. The scale of pollution left behind is thought to be anywhere between 10 and 30 times worse than the Exxon Valdez spill, and it appears to have been deliberate.


Watch CBS News Videos Online

Toxic oil wastes were dumped in 900 open, unlined pits which contaminated land and groundwater, and have been linked with many deaths and illnesses. The lawsuit was first filed 17 years ago and, as with the Exxon Valdez case, continues to this day.

With an underfunded Superfund program, the EPA struggles to clean up dangerous pollution events in the US. Superfund sites are located in dozens of major cities and many other locations. Almost all of us have "acceptable levels" of dangerous chemical pollutants in our tapwater. We desperately need to have a better set of tools to deal with polluters in this country, and for US companies operating overseas.

Take a look at my latest designs - Cost Of Crude and Growth For The Sake Of Growth

The Blue Closet

  Our seas and oceans have been popular dumping grounds for many decades. People have dumped all manner of waste: raw sewage, household trash, medical waste, explosives, chemicals (including chemical weapons such as nerve agents) and varying levels of radioactive materials.
Household trash, and in particular plastic, is one of the more visible and widespread pollutants of the "blue closet".
  It is becoming apparent that efforts to reduce the scale of the problem have failed, and it continues to get worse. For example, "20,000 tons of waste finds its way into the North Sea alone, primarily from ships and the fishing industry". Of course, the problem is a global one, and I'm sure we've all heard about the giant floating garbage patches in our oceans. On average, there are "18,000 visible bits of plastic floating on every square kilometer of sea", according to one study. Like our disappearing icebergs, there is more below the surface. In fact, "up to 67 percent of the trash sinks to the sea floor".
  The volume of plastics and their ingestion by wildlife is not the only problem facing us. The plastics attract some of the many chemical pollutants in the water, concentrating them to levels up to "a million times higher than normal".
  As those toxins enter the food chain, the concentrations only increase in the creatures at the top. That would be you.

You can read the full article here or just view the accompanying photos here.
You can find shirts on this issue here and here.

Poisoned Waters

Make some time and enjoy this PBS documentary on the state of our rivers and oceans. Its appalling that we still haven't learned. The reports of 20, 30 and even 40 years ago have not caused us to change our ways - at least not enough to protect our water and the species which rely on it (including us).

Click here to view

Find anti-pollution shirts here and here.