Sometimes I wonder what life’s going to be like for our children and future generations. There are promises of wondrous things over the horizon as well as things lost or consumed never to be experienced again.
Paul Maxim’s post “Rain on the Scarecrow, Blood on the Plow” has been floating around in my head for several days and while my initial gut reaction was anger fueled agreement, I’ve since cooled down to a slightly different point of view on some minor items.
“We can’t fix things – like leaking oil wells in the middle of the Gulf – because we don’t do those kinds of things anymore. We seem to have learned how to screw things up royally, but once screwed up, we can’t “unscrew” them.”
The world we live in today is infinitely more complex, fluid and interconnected then it was even 40 years ago. Our world use to be our neighborhood, our town and our country. Today we must see ourselves as part of the global population — we are too dependent upon each other to do otherwise. Value use to earned mostly by physical goods produced and sold — now ideas and virtual properties, labors of the mind and imagination, are the hot commodities.
In July 1969, we sent the first human to Earth’s Moon, a wonderful technical feat. However, I recently read that the drilling of an oil well at 5,000 feet below the ocean’s surface, under 2000 psi, is in many ways more technically challenging then that trip to the moon.
So were we, NASA, more prepared for unexpected challenges with the moon flights then BP was with off-shore drilling at extreme depths. The Apollo 13 mission would beg to differ as NASA struggled with events never planned for and could only “make-it-up” as they went along, much as BP has had to do with the gulf well disaster.
The real difference is the scope of impact with failure in these two cases. With Apollo 13 three lives were at stake while the Gulf oil leak has affected the livelihood and health of thousands and will leave a scar on our environment perhaps forever. For this very reason, yes, there should have been/must be technical contingency plans for reacting and fixing just such a situation.
I do believe a part of human nature pushes us beyond what we can rightly control. While this tendency leads to great achievements and discoveries, it could also lead us to our end.
“According to the latest news, a major part of BP’s disaster contingency plan involved “handling” the media.”
My reaction to this was initially anger focused only at BP. But, I now acknowledge a part of my anger was born by acknowledging these times require “handling” of the media. These days I have little or no trust of the major news sources, or our elected leaders, born from witnessing case after case of bias information reporting leaning one way or the other. Based on past experience, my first assumption now is what I hear or read may not be true or may be “slanted” and “massaged” for a particular reaction.
I resent being lied to and being manipulated, I resent having to never trust any news source at face value and I harbor anger for some of the ways the world has changed becoming convoluted.
Living is not as simple as it once was and I’m afraid it’s going to get worst before it gets better. Yeah, I know this is the grumpy old man in me speaking, but sometimes I wonder what life’s going to be like for our children and future generations — and I worry for them.
Earl, thanks for the photo. Great composition. A good punctuation point to a thoughtful post. I can only imagine how many thousands of people along the gulf feel helpless in this situation.
Your selected image speaks loudly along with your written words. It speaks of simplicity and a world we know so little about but yet think we can control it. Nature cannot be controlled but must be listened to as it teaches us so we can live within it. And, as far as I’m concerned you nailed it with this statement, “Value use to earned mostly by physical goods produced and sold — now ideas and virtual properties, labors of the mind and imagination, are the hot commodities.” Look around our homes and count on your hands items that are not manufactured somewhere and shipped to us.
“… but sometimes I wonder what life’s going to be like for our children and future generations — and I worry for them.”
Well concluded. Same feelings here.
Thanks, everyone!
Very nice image Earl, and I certainly agree with the sentiment that goes with it. I often wonder if the sights I’ve seen in my life will be the same sights my grandchildren will see as adults. The cynic in me says “no”. The romantic in me says, “I hope so”. The truth is unknowable.
I disagree a bit with your statement that the world today is “infinitely more complex”. It’s for sure more crowded and more polarized, but most of the issues we face are not unsolvable because of their complexity. They’re unsolvable simply because we refuse to face the consequences of those solutions. Yes, oil drilling in deep water is technically challenging and it’s obvious now that BP wasn’t prepared for worst case scenarios. But all of that misses the point, I think. The underlying “facts” have not changed. The United States controls about 2% of the world’s oil reserves and uses about 25% of them. Drilling in the gulf – or any other deep water area on our coasts – won’t appreciably change our quest for energy independence. So the question isn’t how to do it in a way that’s technically feasible but whether or not it should be done at all. Besides, BP is selling that oil on the open market. It’s not as if it’s being consciously funneled into U. S. reserves.
To me, that makes doing it at all not worth the risk. It’s not a viable “solution”, even if the technology can be mastered. Politically, of course, no one wants to say that. There’s money at stake. Lots of it. As always, if you want to know why large institutions do anything, follow the money trail. And there’s nothing complex about that.
Paul, thanks for your response and the original post — I appreciate them. I don’t believe we disagree on the fact that drilling in deep waters off any coast should perhaps never be considered an acceptable risk, at least not now.
I don’t see complexity in the “what” but in the “how.”
The fact is there’s a huge demand for energy and it’s probably only going to increase. Even if we took ourselves (USA) mostly out of the equation by conserving and alternate energy sources, there’s billions of people who have been truly poor for generations and are now developing and seeing a promise of higher living standards. They are consuming greater levels of energy resources (mostly oil and coal) each day and their governments are under pressure to provide for that growth. Rising prices may for a while control consumption but there could come a day when someone decides to forcibly take the remainder of a dwindling oil supply. Let’s hope it doesn’t come to this because I doubt we’d stay out of that situation.
As a whole, mankind has to practice energy conservation and develop sustainable, environmental friendly, affordable, alternate sources of energy, while transitioning our society and industrial base from oil to these new sources, maintaining an acceptable standard of living for the masses and avoiding all out conflict. A real balancing act, and it’s going to take time even with the best of efforts and results.
It’s only under these circumstances I see any value in drilling new oil wells now to buy us a little more time and yes, someones going to get rich off it.
Money, politics and power are all major players and while I may not personally like or trust these motivators I have to acknowledge they’ve always played a strong role in human history and probably will continue to do so, unless there’s some type of global “ascension” of mankind to a higher level of consciousness — I’m not holding my breath. ;-)
It was these type of global issues I was thinking of as complex.
A fine beach scene shot. Simple and very effective. I think your worry is well founded.I find myself agreeing very closely to the things you expressed.
don, thanks, and I’m glad you liked this beach scene. It simply happened in front of me while I had my little S90 camera to capture it.
Earl, well said!
Thank-you, Steve!
I came looking for this image because Monte had said that an image I posted reminded him of this. Then I read the text. I have no words of wisdom here. I can’t judge any of them, I just don’t know enough about their motivations. Iy just makes me ill to think of it all.
I believe feeling ill is a very healthy reaction to all this, Chris.