Jean Michel Cousteau, The Oceans Expert's Blog
Oceans Expert
“Oil Spill in the Gulf”
03 May 10 | 5 comments
Added 03 May 10 by the Oceans Expert | 5 comments
There is an image that haunts me. It involves the April 20 Deepwater Horizon oil platform explosion 50 miles southeast of the Mississippi Delta. Eleven people are presumed dead; oil is leaking at the rate of 42,000 gallons a day, and the slick is 100 miles long, 45 miles wide, and inevitably spreading.
To me, the haunting image is of a submersible robot, deployed 5,000 feet deep, extending a metal claw and trying to activate a shut-off device to stop the flow of oil. This sophisticated, high-tech, somewhat brilliant invention, at one time the talk and hope of some Board room meeting, has failed, as have so many of our plans which don’t take into account the consequences of our actions and the fragility of the natural system. The image of this ineffective metal claw has become the symbol of our technological hubris and misguided energy policy.
Over the past months, we have seen the world reeling from natural disasters—the earthquakes in Haiti and Chile, the volcanic eruption in Iceland which disabled air travel, and a season of unprecedented flooding and winter damage across the eastern United States and Europe. All this, of course, plays against the backdrop of reports of the impending consequences of climate change.
In the midst of these disasters I can find hope only in my faith in the essential decency and capacity for justice of most people. We are on the brink of demanding better from our governments and our businesses to conduct themselves in ways that are sustainable and harmless to the natural system, which supports all life on this planet. We are flooded, at last, with examples and information on the necessity and techniques of how to live more sustainably, without total dependence on petroleum and its attendant spills, and how to improve the quality of life by consuming less and leaving more for future generations.
I spoke up recently against the State of Florida’s consideration of opening nearshore oil drilling (see [www.oceanfutures.org/news/blog/psa-florida-oil-drilling]) and will continue to oppose measures that may temporarily bridge the energy gap but only by going backwards and at great risk. We must invest in alternative, sustainable energies and we are poised to do so. We need millions of voices to demand it.
The cost of this latest Gulf of Mexico oil spill is estimated, in this early stage, at $1 billion. Imagine what that money might have done to move us forward in another direction.
Possible action item: Write your Congressional and State representatives demanding their support for alternative energy technologies and policies at all levels of government, including subsidies.
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Jean Michel Cousteau
Oceans Expert
Founder of Ocean Futures Society, Jean Michel is an architect, explorer, environmentalist, educator and film producer
Comments
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Cabo Blanco on the pacific coast of northern Peru was a favorite fishing ground of Hollywood royalty half a century ago. This was where Hemingway conceived the Old Man and the Sea. Cabo Blanco generated 24 big game fishing world records and still holds the world record of the biggest bony fish ever caught on a rod and reel, the 1560 pounds Black Marlin caught by Alfred Glassell in 1953. It also still holds the world record of the biggest Marlin ever caught by a woman, 1525 pounds caught by Kimberly Wiss. I visited Cabo Blanco a couple of years ago and came with all of my romantic illusions of the place. As we drove down through the valley and into Cabo Blanco, however, we were met with a horrifying sight: Approximately one mile off the coast, there is now a huge, apparently active oil rig. With recent events 50 miles off the Mississippi Delta in mind, I cannot help to reflect on the impact a similar accident would have here. In Peru, there is far less control over extractive industries, and companies are by and large left to set their own standards of safety and security. And furthermore, being one of the poorer and more marginal nations in the South, it is highly unlikely if an accident here would receive the same kind of media coverage and international mobilization as the Deepwater Horizon accident. But the environmental and socio-economic impact for the whole region would be devastating, with only marginal chances of recuperation in sight. It would destroy the local economies completely in northern Peru and southern Ecuador. Obviously, oil extraction is big and of national importance for both countries, but it is an economic activity that leaves little local impact (aside from bars and brothels and other support systems that destroys local cultural and social fabric). The local economies of which men and women, children and elderly are completely depending upon are fishing and tourism, and with widespread pollution produced with an accident on this oil rig (or any of the many other along the pacific coast), this would undermine the whole environmental and socio-economic system in the region. People already living in conditions of poverty would be even further disenfranchised and marginalized and forced into extreme poverty. Health situation would deteriorate completely, and communities would fall apart. Neither Peru nor Ecuador have the resources needed to counter the effects of such an accident, and since it is an economically and politically uninteresting region, they would not give much political priority to it either. And being Nations of the South, it would probably mobilize some immediate emergency response, but nothing even close to what would be necessary to clean up (if at all possible) and to help the communities in the region to reconstruct themselves and rebuild their income generating capacities. Oil exploitation is a quick fix to deal with immediate energy needs, but the events in the Mississippi Delta has shown us once again that it is not a viable source to build our future on. From the mid-sixties, the Marlins began to disappear from Cabo Blanco. Nobody really knows why. But in recent years both the striped Marlin and the black Marlin have been sighted again on different occasions. In spite of extensive oil exploitation along the coast, they have come back. But one single accident of even much smaller proportions than that of the Deepwater Horizon explosion, and they would disappear forever.
04 May 2010 - 21:11 BST
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ps: the above is written by yours truly, Morten Schmidt (regional deputy director for international NGO in Latin America). mosibis@yahoo.com
04 May 2010 - 21:13 BST
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Quello che stà succedendo nel golfo del messico è ..... la fine inevitabile di questa assurda, arrogante, ipocrita politica di potere, la grande "fortuna" è che non si è trattato di un incidente nucleare. Non sono capaci di tappare un buco per terra e vogliono giocare ai dadi con la morte. La catastrofe come conseguenza di "incidente" nucleare si raggiunge in un tempo relativamente breve, 70 giorni sono un tempo spaventoso e non
30 Jun 2010 - 04:10 BST
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Quello che stà succedendo nel golfo del messico è ..... la fine inevitabile di questa assurda, arrogante, ipocrita politica di potere, la grande "fortuna" è che non si è trattato di un incidente nucleare. Non sono capaci di tappare un buco per terra e vogliono giocare ai dadi con la morte. La catastrofe come conseguenza di "incidente" nucleare si raggiunge in un tempo relativamente breve, 70 giorni sono un tempo spaventoso e non
30 Jun 2010 - 04:10 BST
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28 Aug 2010 - 01:26 BST