The oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico is indeed an enormous tragedy, but it’s worth remembering that it pales in comparison to previous spills. From the Times article:
The ruptured well, currently pouring an estimated 210,000 gallons of oil a day into the gulf, could flow for years and still not begin to approach the 36 billion gallons of oil spilled by retreating Iraqi forces when they left Kuwait in 1991. It is not yet close to the magnitude of the Ixtoc I blowout in the Bay of Campeche in Mexico in 1979, which spilled an estimated 140 million gallons of crude before the gusher could be stopped.
This spill happened close to our shores and so it’s a given that it will receive copious amounts of coverage in the domestic press. But when the next spill occurs off the Brazilian coast or in the waters surrounding the Horn of Africa, I’m not sure we’ll take much notice.
As long as we continue to rely on fossil fuels, spills like this will continue to happen with some regularity. I had hoped that this disaster might focus legislators’ minds on passing a comprehensive energy bill that puts a price on carbon. Pictures of oil-covered beaches provoke a much more visceral reaction than computer models showing rising sea levels over a span of decades. But as Ezra Klein points out, this disaster will probably cause supporters and opponents to dig in their heels and make any compromise far less likely.
I heavily depend on petroleum-based plastics in my daily life. Any move away from fossil fuels is going to be hugely disruptive, but our present course simply isn’t sustainable.
