Twenty million a day. That's what this disaster is about.
This disaster is about you, me and our 20,000,000-barrels-a-day oil addiction.
Until we understand that, and actually do something meaningful in our individual lives to reverse that number, we will have more BP oil "spills."
You think putting BP out of business is gonna solve the problem? Ha! Have you seen the list of petroleum companies out there? Here: http://en.wikipedia.org/... take a look for yourself.
Do you think more government regulations and more government oversight is gonna solve the problem? Come on! See: The Great Depression, The Glass-Steagal Act, The Clinton and Bush presidencies, and the Global Economic Meltdown of 2008 and subsequent Great Recession.
20,000,000. Twenty million.
Until we wrap our brains around that number, understand what it means, understand and assume responsibility for our portion of that 20,000,000, NOTHING WILL CHANGE.
Instead, that number will grow. Oil companies will continue to make billions. We'll continue to drill wells, and, before you know it, we're in the Pacific and ANWR, and we're faced with another disaster of unprecedented proportions.
We'll continue to see record heat. Record snowfall. Record floods. Water shortages. Water wars. Food shortages. Starving countries. Refugees. More oil wars...
And we'll trot out the heartbreaking photos of the oil-soaked birds (I've not included any here, but you can get your fill of them in just about any of the oil spill-related diaries now up). I mean, that says so much - right? "Look at it! It's heart wrenching! Look at what BP did! Look at what Obama is allowing to happen! Look at how incompetent Thad Allen is!"
20,000,000 barrels a day.
This problem is not about Hayward or Obama or Allen or Bush. This problem is about you, me and a 20,000,000-barrels-a-day addiction.
What are YOU going to do about it?
20,000,000.