On September 22, 2008 I sent a letter titled “Great Recession” concerning a recent TV panel’s rumination over whether we were even in a recession. Someone else may already have used the term. But I hadn’t heard it. I used it as a spoof on the panel’s apparent ignorance. Of course we were well into a recession which predictably got worse!
There is a rough parallel between this understatement and the coverage of the oil eruption in the Gulf of Mexico. We are being told that the consequences could become worse than those of the Exxon Valdez spill. The extent of damage then was limited by the amount of oil carried on the ship. Even if the response to the current disaster had been as prompt as possible there would now still be an estimated 210,000 gallons of oil spewing from the floor of the Gulf with no end in sight. Unless and until the well is capped we have no knowledge of the extent to which our seas will be covered by it. The President has put a hold on his recently announced plans to extend offshore drilling. This logically leads to questions about rigs now in operation.
What could be the worst man made disaster in history is unfolding and we are fixated on what didn’t happen in Times Square. Granted it’s hard to make instant headlines out of an indefinitely continuous oil flow. Still the object of our attention says something about our priorities.
The questions that should be asked concern the consequences of the gamut of our commercial activity. The potential scope and intensity of our self inflicted damage seem to increase in tandem with our technology. I recently heard someone on NPR speaking Chamber of Commerce language confidently predict that our environment should be safe for a hundred years. I couldn’t have made a better case for the opposition. What right do we have, for our personal gratification, to make the planet difficult to live in for people not yet born?
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