The Gulf Oil Spill - What Should We Do?

With the oil still pouring into the Gulf of Mexico, people everywhere are seeing the tar-blackened pelicans, and asking with increasing distress “What can I do?” If you go to ifitwasmyhome.com, you can see the size of the spill transposed onto your home region.

This may be the 911 moment for the whole environmental movement, if we can find a way to mobilize the upwelling of concern into support for the solution - which is the sustainable use of green, renewable energy, that the BCSEA has been advocating for since 2004.

According to the latest estimates, the oil is pouring into the ocean at 40,000 barrels a day, of which BP is capturing 15,000 barrels. This is an ExxonValdez oil-spill every seven to ten days - and it may continue until Christmas. If the relief well fails, or if it runs into the same problems that the first well ran into, the outpouring may continue until the entire underground oil basin runs dry.

The dying birds, oil-fouled wetlands, filthy beaches and toxic-filled waters of the Gulf are only a small part of oil’s pollution, however. Globally, we burn 86 million barrels of oil a day to operate our cars, trucks and planes, to pave our roads, and to make plastics, and with every barrel, we pollute Earth’s atmosphere with 350 kilograms of oil-derived CO2.

That’s 30 million tonnes of CO2 a day, 20,000 tonnes a minute, 333 tonnes a second, every hour without cease, and every molecule traps heat. Collectively, these emissions from our use of oil are driving up Earth’s temperature, promising floods, famine and nothing but misery for future generations unless we get our oil habit under control, and then wean ourselves off it - and the other fossil fuels - altogether.

As humans, we are proud of our science and technology, but our entire way of life depends on sucking out the blackened remains of tiny sea-creatures that roamed Earth’s oceans three hundred million years ago. How smart can that be? From any future perspective, it must appear very primitive - especially when the sucking goes so badly wrong.

And yet more dire news lies in wait - for the day will dawn very soon when the attempt to suck is greater than the supply, sending oil-prices soaring and Earth’s economy into a tailspin.

Have we prepared for such a day? Not at all - no more than BP had prepared for an ocean-floor blowout. They had to rush to invent and then build a metaphorical fire-truck, once the fire had broken out, and even then, it didn’t work. Must we wait for the day of reckoning before we start to build a post-oil economy? How foolish can that be?

What can we do to help the solution, instead of adding to the problem with our daily use of oil?

On a personal level, we can strive to use less oil by making an effort to cycle, walk, take the bus or rideshare more, and switching to a more fuel-efficient vehicle at the first opportunity. The first electric vehicles will be on the market soon. The Nissan LEAF, due out this fall, will cost around $33,000, at least until mass production drives battery prices down, plus $2,200 for a 220-volt charging station. For the details, click here.

We can also strive to cut plastics out of our lives, switching wherever possible to natural materials such as organic cotton, hemp, wood, and bio-plastics.

Politically, we need a cast-iron guarantee that there will be no drilling for oil and no oil tanker traffic in Canada’s Arctic or on the west coast, where an oil-spill would be ecologically devastating.

We also need to make urgent preparations for the transition to an oil-free world. This means accelerating all plans to generate more renewable electricity, build more bike lanes, invest in more transit and railways, speed the arrival of electric and plug-in hybrid electric cars, and convert oil-heated buildings to electric heat pumps.

We need a 50% reduction in our use of oil by 2020 and 100% by 2030, so that our economy no longer depends on the blackened remains of ancient sea-creatures, that does such damage to our world, and makes our economy so vulnerable to collapse.

To achieve the political changes, you can do five things:

• Start making a difference where you live by joining your local BCSEA Chapter or – if there isn’t one in your area – consider starting your own (PDF link).
• Join the local “Hands Across the Sand” demonstration on a beach near you on Saturday June 26th; if there’s not one happening, organize it yourself. This is a worldwide protest.
• Write to your local Mayor and council, and urge them to start planning for change immediately.
• Write to Gordon Campbell, Premier of British Columbia. Tell him the existing climate action initiatives are appreciated but not enough, and ask him to announce a permanent moratorium on drilling and oil tankers on Canada’s west coast. Premier@gov.bc.ca. 250-387-1715. PO Box 9041, Stn Prov Gov, Victoria V8W 9E1
• Write to Stephen Harper, Canada’s Prime Minister, and urge him also to declare a permanent moratorium on drilling for oil and tanker traffic both in the Arctic and on the west coast. pm@pm.gc.ca

Blackened sea, warming atmosphere, polluted air - no more! Renewable energy - forever!

Guy Dauncey President, BCSEA