Posted on 05/03/2010 7:22:17 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
It took futuristic technology to achieve one of the worst ecological disasters on record. Without such technology, after all, BP couldn’t have drilled the Deepwater Horizon well in the first place. Yet for those who remember their environmental history, the catastrophe in the gulf has a strangely old-fashioned feel, reminiscent of the events that led to the first Earth Day, four decades ago.
And maybe, just maybe, the disaster will help reverse environmentalism’s long political slide — a slide largely caused by our very success in alleviating highly visible pollution. If so, there may be a small silver lining to a very dark cloud.
Environmentalism began as a response to pollution that everyone could see. The spill in the gulf recalls the 1969 blowout that coated the beaches of Santa Barbara in oil. But 1969 was also the year the Cuyahoga River, which flows through Cleveland, caught fire. Meanwhile, Lake Erie was widely declared “dead,” its waters contaminated by algal blooms. And major U.S. cities — especially, but by no means only, Los Angeles — were often cloaked in thick, acrid smog.
It wasn’t that hard, under the circumstances, to mobilize political support for action. The Environmental Protection Agency was founded, the Clean Water Act was enacted, and America began making headway against its most visible environmental problems. Air quality improved: smog alerts in Los Angeles, which used to have more than 100 a year, have become rare. Rivers stopped burning, and some became swimmable again. And Lake Erie has come back to life, in part thanks to a ban on laundry detergents containing phosphates.
Yet there was a downside to this success story.
For one thing, as visible pollution has diminished, so has public concern over environmental issues.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
"... the gulf blowout is a pointed reminder that the environment won’t take care of itself, that unless carefully watched and regulated, modern technology and industry can all too easily inflict horrific damage on the planet.
Will America take heed? It depends a lot on leadership. In particular, President Obama needs to seize the moment; he needs to take on the “Drill, baby, drill” crowd, telling America that courting irreversible environmental disaster for the sake of a few barrels of oil, an amount that will hardly affect our dependence on imports, is a terrible bargain."
the spill would be much less damaging if it was a ship importing oil from the middle east. That is much less damaging oil.
Dont think Drill, Baby Drill is dead if we get $4.50 gasoline again.
Yeah, Krugman is right. We “drill baby, drill” is dead. We should never drill for oil in our country again. We should only let other countries drill. They should take the risk of oil spills and dirty their country! You see, Krugman is a racist.
The price of gasoline is about to go sky high!
While the rest of the world is busy drilling, we can depend upon them to supply our energy at a price that threatens our economy and national security. We are not getting off oil anytime soon.
I’m afraid that like the post-three mile island era we’ll cripple ourselves now for decades to come.
I’ll bet Krugman thought that America should have given up on WWII after Pearl Harbor. All was lost on December 7th. Girlymen like Krugman are losers. That’s why losers like Krugman sitting around writing bull**** for a living.
http://www.ireport.com/docs/DOC-40428
“ScienceDaily (Jan. 27, 2000) - Twice an Exxon Valdez spill worth of oil seeps into the Gulf of Mexico every year, according to a new study that will be presented January 27 at the Ocean Sciences Meeting in San Antonio, Texas
But the oil isn’t destroying habitats or wiping out ocean life. The ooze is a natural phenomena that’s been going on for many thousands of years, according to Roger Mitchell, Vice President of Program Development at the Earth Satellite Corporation (EarthSat) in Rockville Md. “The wildlife have adapted and evolved and have no problem dealing with the oil,” he said.
...”
Also, Katrina spilled 6.5M gallons of oil into the Gulf.
I find it interesting that it was BP that had the spill. Weren’t they one of the companies that jumped off the Globull Warming bandwagon. It is almost too convenient that they had this “accident”.
BO and his buddies at REALLY BIG OIL (saudis) will make more money with the price increase.
Not even close.
Absolutely. And did the cretin krugman realize that we could also drill on land. But as far as I’m concerned when we get back power in 2012, I want to see nuclear power plants, refineries and plenty of offshore drilling. Let’s shove these drills up the environmentalists’ ...
No time to pussy foot around with these watermelon Marxists.
Paul Krugman is irrelevent.
Wonder how the Iceland volcano stacks up against the oil spill regarding “ecological disasters”?
We all know that following the attempted airline bombing by the crotch jihadist........all airlines were grounded.
We all know that no shuttle ever flew again following the Challenger disaster.
We all know that following the bombing of the USS Cole no more America ships sail any ocean.
We all know that Krugman is a stooge for the Obamaoists who wish to destroy this country from within.
Which one of these is not like the other....
How dare we even consider drilling for our own oil? Prepare to bow before our Saudi and Chinese masters, just as our Dear Leader showed us ...
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