The Gulf of Mexico oil catastrophe.
Yes, catatastrophe is the right word. I don't even think the psychic shock of what an oil spill on the level of this has even sunk in yet. An Exxon Valdez level spill; every five days.
Ask the residents of coastal Alaska what that was and continues to be like.
That's how much oil has/is been/ being released. I think the Gulf of Mexico is history. I mean there was already a "dead (hypoxic) zone" at the mouth of the Mississippi from agricultural runoff. This will pretty much seal the deal.
The damage will spread outward in waves. First as the oil washes ashore, we will have a visual with all the usual pathos of oil-soaked birds and oil drowned fish. Then the science will confirm what we see; that the Gulf of Mexico life support systems are gone. The human toll (other than the initial killed 11 victims) comes next, tourism and livelihoods eradicated and the byproducts of this; despair rises manifested by increased drug and alcohol use, domestic violence, murder and suicide go up. This is going to last for a very long time, if there is the luxury of time remaining at this point in history.
People don't seem to want to acknowledge what has happened on any level other than the mundane or at least feign outrage, but maybe that's because the usual human mind has a cutoff point for abject horror when it is too much for one soul to take. There are many prices to pay in the slaying of ones illusions in this world and the loss of this reflex is one of them.
The blame game is pointless. The further one follows that thread, one finds the truth. We are all complicit. The irony that I am blogging this on an auto enthusiasts website is not lost on me. I am addicted to petroleum, and I can't quit. Everyday brings a fresh relapse and I will not stop. It's easier to ween a junkie off of heroin than it is to get me off of petroleum. It's everywhere and part of everything. I was born into it. It's got a stranglehold on my psyche.
I don't think we're ever going to stop until all the resources are used up and everything is destroyed. But that's the cyclical nature of things, everything ends, and this is the beginning.
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