The catastrophe in the Gulf of Mexico is just the latest prophecy fulfilled. Environmentalist warned before the first oil well was drilled offshore that this would happen. Every senator and congressman since owns this disaster. You were warned but instead you made excuses. Now we are all reaping what you have sown.
I remember that first Earth Day forty years ago. Every president since then President Nixon has recognized the need for a new energy strategy. And every Congress since has sloughed off their responsibility to make it happen. Worse some of those congresses have seen fit to weaken our effort rather than passing legislation to insure America isn’t held hostage by our desire for cheap oil.
It has been long known that if America solves the world’s energy problem that we could insure our place as mans best hope. Hope for peace, prosperity and a stable environment. For instance way back then in 1970 we were told the difficulty in having a viable electric car was battery power. However, it has not been the auto industry pushing for better batteries; it has been the cell phone, and computer industry. Have you been a long time cell phone user? How much longer does your cell phone charge last than your first cell phone? I know mine has doubled and I was late coming to that party.
During that same time period what has the auto industry given the world? They gave us Hummers and other gas guzzling SUVs. They are marketing cars even now that generate 500 horsepower. Selfish Americans jam radio call in shows or worse host radio call in shows where people complain about those damn small cars. They tell anyone who will listen that it is the small car that is the danger on the highway. Why so they can drive their cars through the woods or on the beaches. It is one thing for first responders to have four-wheel drive vehicles capable of that. If I was in distress on some backwoods trail or out on some deserted beach I would be damn glad they exist. However it is America’s arrogance that led to the mindset that said, "Hey that looks cool. I’m getting me one of those." Well this is the cost of your cool SUV or 500 horsepower muscle car; the worse oil spill in history.
We didn’t like gas approaching or exceeding $5.00 a gallon? Wait until we find out how much seafood is going to cost us now that Louisiana's seafood industry is decimated. We in Maryland know that Chesapeake Bay is no longer able to provide the world with Blue Crab and oysters in numbers they once were. While this is primarily due to over fertilzation it doesn't change the fact that with out both the Gulf of Mexico and Chesapeake Bay being unable to supply seafood to the world we will have to look elsewhere. Imagine the outrage if we start say importing Blue Crabs from outside American waters. What if we have to get them from Venezuela or possibly Columbia. That'll be a political firestorm.
When smog was the cause du jour environmentalist told us that one contributing factor was clear cutting. We were not just clear cutting for timer and paper, but for housing developments and shopping centers. I remember a push to stop this in the building industry. The reason being that if we leave more trees than they would help scrub CO2 from our atmosphere. Instead Congress deferred to state and local governments.
The best example I know that reflects the obsurdity of this notion also comes from Maryland. In 2001 builder Daryl C Wagner built a home on a scruff of land know as Little Island at the mouth of the Magothy River. He did so in complete disregard of Maryland's Critical Area Act. He did so without building permits. In his defense he was once claimed that there was a question of jurisdiction. He claimed that Anne Arundel County didn't have the right to require permits because the island was owned or a part of Frederick County, Maryland.http://maps.google.com/... Look at the map, Frederick, Maryland is the county seat of Frederick County. Now zoom out until you see Annapolis. See the little town of Arnold just north of there, that is about where Little Island is. Obviously not a part of and no reason to think that Frederick County has anything to do with it. After years of court cases was Maryland or Anne Arundel County able to force the proper solution of tearing down the house? Fuck no! He paid some money, which he has plenty of and the house remains.
These are the kinds of things that happen when Congress shirks its responsibilty for stewardship of America's environment. Congress is not alone in this. How is it that Congress developed into the current chicken shit operation it has become? Well in large part its my generation's fault. After the crushing defeat of Sen. McGovern in 1972, we did a couple of bong hits, popped a "lude" and went off to the discos. When the religious right elected Jimmy Carter and then abandoned him over the Iranian hostage issue did we wake up? No we bought in to the Reagan idea that "Government is not the solution to our problem. Government is the problem." We got caught up (some of us) in the boom of the eighties, easy credit, and soaring DOW Jones' averages. We didn't want to pay a little more for our homes so we could retain trees, because if you have trees then you have to rake the leaves. We didn't want to force the big three auto makers to make better small economical autos. No we wanted the Pentagon to allow GM sell consumer versions of the military vehicle the HUMVEE.
We (some of us) believed that if you let the wealthy keep more of their money they would share it with the rest of us. How the hell did we forget the lesson we learned playing Monopoly? Did you ever have another player lend you money to avoid being eliminated? I sure as hell never would. That was the whole point of the game. It is the whole point of captialism, make and keep as much money as possible. The result being the near collapse of our economic system.
If we have failed and we have to hold Congress responible for protecting our environment, economy, civl rights, etc. than what is the solution. Believe it or not the dreaded Tea Party Movement is on the right track. We do need to throw out incumbents whose hands are filthy with oil money. Rather than the Rand Paul's and Sara Palin's of the world who feel somehow I have taken their country away from them, we need to elect people who know that government is a solution to certain problems. We need to get involved, not just here on Daily KOS but in our elections. We need to do everything we can to get people to vote. If we believe that America isn't a center right country than we have to prove it. We have to elect politicians who see money as the root of our political problems. We need more candidates funded by citizens and less candidates funded by big business. This solution has gotten even harder in light of the recent Supreme Court ruling that said basically, corporations are people too.