This diary started as a series of comments in Crashing Vor's diary from earlier today, but I realized that I needed to sum it all up in one magnum opus. So here goes:
Don't try to pass the buck. We are ALL to blame for the disaster in the Gulf.
How much did you eat yesterday? Did you look at the label? How many corn products were in your meals? How much beef, pork or chicken did you eat?
Did you drive to work? Did you use anything made out of plastic? Did you have sexual relations with a partner (or yourself) that required lubricants or mechanical devices?
If you did ANY of these things yesterday, then you contributed to the problem, because you used oil. Oil in the form of fertilizers that feed the corn that feed us, the cattle, pigs and chicken. Oil that went into your car, your plastic coffee mug, your computer, the plexiglass window you ogle the secretary through, and the lube you received pleasure with.
ALL of this requires oil. And our insatiable urges to use use USE had led us down this path of destruction that has manifested in the Gulf. This wasn't just an accident. This isn't just the oil companies' fault. This is OUR fault for demanding more and more and more and more and more oil oil oil OIL OIL OIL OIL
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So what to do?
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Let's pass a $2/gallon gas tax and use the funds to build solar and wind arrays on every flat piece of unused ground. And yes, use that gas tax to put our unemployed to work, building solar arrays and wind turbines and digging geothermal wells and creating hydroelectric generators and building vehicles that run on renewable energy sources and properly insulating homes and yes, even helping to clean up the superfuckedup problems in the gulf.
While you're in the process of changing your lifestyle to meet the new gas prices, consider taking the bus to work. Carpool. Ride your bike. Walk. America is morbidly obese anyway, so the walk will do you good.
While we're at it, let's convert those millions of hectares of corn fields being used to grow feed for cows and pigs, and let grass (and I don't mean the chemically-enhanced crap on your front lawn) grow there instead. Then, release the cows and pigs and chickens from their CAFOs and let them graze that grass naturally. You can still feed all the cows and pigs, their manure will naturally fertilize the fields (instead of using petroleum-based fertilizers) and the chickens will feed off the manure and the bugs that the manure attracts. This has the effect of decreasing the waste problems that CAFOs have, significantly decreasing the petroleum use that big-ag has, and makes the meat we eat healthier and more humane. You could even put in those big solar and wind arrays over their heads -- the grass will still grow, and the cows won't mind at all.
But don't you DARE try to pass this one off to someone else. Or simply force BP to pay for it. They'll just pass the cost along to you, and the other oil companies will raise their prices to match and generate windfall profits of unimaginable proportions.
We are ALL to blame. We all need to fix this.