SOCIAL: oil spills NIMBY

[Tom Radulovich]

Peter Maass wrote a thoughtful NY Times opinion piece on this very  
subject – almost 5 years ago:

"Although it is fashionable to blame oil companies and right-wing  
Republicans for caring not a whit about the downsides of resource  
extraction, the truth is that few Democrats have spoken of halting or  
minimizing oil imports because regime X or Y despoils its environment  
or represses its people. When it comes to oil, expediency is the rule,  
and a marvelously adaptable one. Because voters in Florida and  
California, which are scenic and prosperous, have made it clear they  
don't want or need oil rigs in their waters, Republicans in those  
states are nearly as vociferous as Democrats in opposing any loosening  
of the drilling bans. On offshore drilling, Jeb Bush and Arnold  
Schwarzenegger stand shoulder to shoulder with Barbra Streisand,  
though the governors' ecological sentiments do not necessarily extend  
beyond their coastal horizons.

"The gymnastics of people like Schwarzenegger - probably the most  
famous Hummer owner in the world - are emblematic of the cognitive  
dissonance that runs in our national bloodstream. We demand clean  
beaches and untouched wildernesses at home but live in an energy- 
intensive fashion that leads other countries to sacrifice their waters  
and forests. This disconnect is easily explained. You don't need to  
alter your lifestyle much to help protect baby seals or punish Kathie  
Lee for supporting sweatshops, but you might need to suffer  
inconveniences - like higher gas prices, energy-conservation efforts  
and new taxes for alternative-fuels research - if better energy  
policies were adopted. In the end, the only red line that Americans  
insist upon, in terms of unacceptable ways for gasoline to be supplied  
to our cars, is that it must not come from ANWR or the waters off  
California and Florida. The politicians and environmental groups are,  
in many ways, just following the wishes of voters and donors."

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/12/18/magazine/18wwln_essay.1.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1

On Jun 5, 2010, at 10:43 AM, Geoff Davis wrote:

> Yeah, I heard something on NPR about a huge oil spill near Kuwait  
> that happened during the second Gulf War.  The good news is that the  
> marine life (or at least the commercially important stuff) bounced  
> back after a few years.  Not sure I'd want to eat any of it, though.
>
>
>
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