OIL OUR HUMAN SHAME

Commentary #045

June 16, 2010

 

 

I think that some of us have come to the conclusion that this world and we humans on it are being monitored by others who are not us. There are even questions as to whether we may be sharing our immediate environs in some way we do not adequately understand with others who are not us. If so, what must they think of us in their observations?

For example, take (please) the currently ongoing oil spill in the USA Gulf of Mexico waters that is among the largest in world history, if not soon to be the largest. I think it is clear that, to our shame, greed and expediency ruled the thinking of all involved including those directly associated with the oil well as well as government oversight or the lack thereof and an apathetic public always it seems willing to leave difficult issues to others. It seems we Earth humans are treating oil and its derivatives as a God of necessity down from which is dispensed power and wealth to a few beyond in some cases even the scope of avarice.

This God we bow to corrupts completely blinding us all to the dangers in our obedience to it. For those of you who think the current oil spill is a USA problem simply because it started off the coast of the state of Louisiana, I suggest you think again. Remember, the volcano in Iceland that turned out to be a European problem just because of wind direction. Now take a look at the following graphic that many of you may have already seen on TV.

In the above 1st image you see one computer model projected oil spill scenario represented by the yellow colors. Note that it shows the toxic oil compounds traveling from the Gulf of Mexico around the Florida peninsula and then swept north by the Gulfstream current up the USA and Canada east coasts and across over east into the mid North Atlantic Ocean just south of Greenland/Iceland and west of Europe. Note where it shows all those oil toxic compounds, including those associated with the oil dispersant, winding up and spreading out.

Now think about it a little more in light of the above graphic. Note that there are oil wells both existing and proposed on the USA eastern seaboard continental shelf right where the Gulfstream exists. Obviously, an underwater oil leak gusher, even a shallow water one more susceptible to being shut off more quickly than the Deepwater Horizon leak, could pour a tremendous amount of oil toxic compounds via the Gulfstream current into the same area of the mid North Atlantic but with little time to begin to try and cope with it.

Now take a look at the above 2nd image. This a representation of a satellite image. The light green color in this image represents chlorophyll distribution in the Earth seas around the planet. Note that the greatest concentration is in the North Atlantic right where the above 1st image worst case computer model says the toxic oil spill compounds can wind up and where I've drawn a red "X." Obviously it's the same place. It's a worst case scenario that may not happen but think about it.

The chlorophyll concentrations come about mostly by the presence of marine plankton and more specifically phytoplankton. For the most part the latter are microscopic plant life forms that exist and concentrate in these nutrient rich North Atlantic waters. They are called producers because in the process of converting inorganic building blocks like carbon dioxide (CO2) and water (H2O) via sunlight and photosynthesis into chlorophyll much as plants (trees, bushes, etc.) do on land, they produce their own food. It should be noted that Phytoplankton does not have the ability to move around in the sea under its own power and so it drifts on the currents and water layers. That means it cannot escape bad conditions in its immediate marine environment.

How important is phytoplankton? Since it is plant life dependent on sunlight, it is found primarily in the upper water layers in order to conduct photosynthesis. In fact it accounts for roughly half of all the photosynthesis activity on Earth. That means that it is responsible for much of the oxygen present in the Earth's atmosphere and a corresponding check on CO2 not to mention countless food chains being dependent on it. It is logical then to assume that a little oil would go a long way in adversely affecting such tiny life organisms in a negative cascading effect.

In the above 1st image you will note how the computer model projected oil winds up broadening out in the mid North Atlantic between the Americas and northern Europe. That is caused by a sort of gentle water swirling eddy effect. The waters here are shallow relative to many other sea areas of the world and nutrients tend to collect and eddy here and that is also another reason why the Phytoplankton, not able to move around under its own power, tends to concentrate there as well.

Likewise, zooplankton are tiny predator creatures that feed on phytoplankton as well as other zooplankton and are thereby regarded as consumers rather than producers. In this predator function many zooplankton tend to be able to move around to a limited degree under their own power in the water layers. Some examples would be jellyfish and Krill with the latter being nothing more than tiny shrimps. Therefore, where the phytoplankton are the most concentrated in the water layers, the zooplankton will also be the most concentrated. Together they make up the bulk of the marine plankton concentrations in the Earth's seas.

All of these tiny plankton living organisms are a source of food for other larger forms of life such as fish. More specifically they are THE food source for hatchling fish in the many billions. So these North Atlantic plankton concentrations in a food chain effect become the nurseries for fish that eventually grow up and spread all around the world. Humans eat a lot of fish and crustaceans that feed and grow on plankton and large human economic industries are based on this. If the plankton at the base of this food chain is destroyed, then fish and crustaceans associated with the impact area as a human resource are eventually destroyed along with it, as are seals, whales, birds, bears, etc. Do I really have to draw you a graphic picture of the eventual cascading devastation to humans and so many species around the world a worst case scenario could potentially cause?

Think about it. With the advent of that computer model represented by the above 1st image, someone has grasped the full potential of this world wide devastation. Although no one in leadership is admitting to this for obvious reasons of not wishing to panic populations, that is why the entirely desperate and unprecedented concept of using atomics on this oil spill is being seriously considered as an option even as I write this. Make no mistake about it, we are all looking down the barrel of the gun here of our own human making that knows no country boundaries.

You know addiction comes in many different forms. We're all familiar with substance abuse and addiction but other addictions entirely inside our heads that do not necessarily involve much in the way of external factors are less well understood for their negative down side. For example, if I snatch your last $100 from you without your permission, I would be stealing and could loose my freedom by going to jail over it. On the other hand, if I suckered you into a business scam and got your last $100 under false pretenses, I might be thought of as a good if ruthless businessman in some parts of the world even though the goal of getting your last $100 that wasn't mine was always the same. It is all in how you perceive things.

On this planet money (capitalism) is a God that too many of us worship without perceiving it that way. Let's face it money talks and too often decides laws, leadership, governments, the fate of humans, the fate of creatures under our stewardship here occupying this planet with us, and the course of history. For example, an oil company that can make $93 million a day and is only the 5th of the 5 largest oil companies exercises tremendous power in all things that it wishes to take an interest in. Sadly, as a people we willingly fork over that power in favor of what ever they want to do without sufficient checks and balances because we are so psychologically impressed with their wealth and power and put them on a pedestal.

For example, once we're faced with the negative scenario reality of the Deep Horizon oil spill, we're incredulous and highly critical of a company, an industry, that pours money into advancing technology to drill for oil in increasingly sensitive areas subject to Hurricanes without corresponding technology development in doing so safely and preparing for worst case scenarios as though it shockingly is all their fault. Yet there is nothing about this that takes rocket science mental acuity, only a little logic and reason and caring. Surprised? We shouldn't be. After all, these are the type of people that are addicts to their personal benefit. That's like charging the drug addict to manage the drug supplies or the fox to be in charge of the hen house.

So where was government oversight representing the people and our welfare even after the Exxon Valdez warning shot horror? Note that it starts coming only when elected leaders start running for cover fearing an enraged public. In fact, where was the public outrage and pressure before a worst case scenario like this Deep Horizon developed? Could it be that we were too involved in other serious matters such as what some young starlet or sports team or texting partners were doing? Where was a news media pumping awareness of this serious potential risk into the public consciousness beforehand? Oh the public wouldn't have wanted to hear about that back then you say as though that was really an important issue in light of the consequences! So many of us may be ready to excuse ourselves and shift blame to also at fault others but we all have the oil spill mark of shame on us.

Let's face it, mega wealth, influence and power buys key generals and admirals, congressional leaders and law makers, presidents, news media, news makers, scientists, educational institutions, and other giant corporations. If you are one of these few, soon in a natural transition to protect yourself from would be name makers and regulations, you band together with others of your kind pooling your immense resources to protect your self interest, all while maintaining a low public profile. As a collective, you become a loose hidden oligarchy 5th column within the world social fabric that influences all of the important decisions and yet you are not answerable to anyone but yourselves.

Yet you and your kind have personally not grown. Your sickness corrupts and consumes you. You are still nothing more inside than a common addict being controlled by your addiction, by your personal God of self, wealth, and power. That orientation on self is the factor that is really controlling things spawning secrecy and secrecy agendas and that is why we are in deep trouble with this oil spill as everyone winds up being ineffective on controlling it because no thought was ever "wasted" on it. Worse, we in the public tolerate it and by that tolerance we enable this sick oligarchy to rule our lives. By apathy and default we enable our fate to be ruled by a false God of someone else's myopic addiction to self. That is our human shame while we focus on the shallow leaving others to have their way for their personal benefit.

Nuclear winter may be worse and much more easy to grasp the down side of but, should this more subtle oil situation and its toxic compounds get into those plankton areas and fish nurseries and realize the potential of devastating them in a worst case scenario, it will be close behind potentially plunging the world of man and far too much life itself into darkness. Further, while we have so far managed to back away from the very obvious horror of global nuclear winter, we will have brought a less obvious oil spill global worst case potential on ourselves without adequate resource to remedy it and we will have failed in our stewardship of this planet. That is our shame and our it is our judgment.

If there are those not us that are watching us and if they are truly more advanced than we socially as well as technologically, then have we proven anything to them? Would you think that any of this potential scenario could be interpreted by them as positive regardless of the eventual outcome?

I don't know about you but I'm not too proud to admit fault and ask them to come down here and blunt this oil mess for us if they can before it is too late and we do something even more stupid to cut our own throats along with so much life around us. While it may be admittedly hard to learn lessons properly without experiencing the full consequences of dumb actions, there is no reason that other innocent life like plankton, fish, birds, seals, whales, bears, etc. must pay an ultimate price for our mega follies.

If not for us, do it for the innocent life forms and at least some of we humans may even have sense enough to recognize our shame, be grateful for the intervention, and grow into a determination to be more alert and do better in the future. Oh by the way, while you're about it, how about dropping off some cheap to reproduce technology for energy sources that will put an end to the use of fossil fuels all together and such fuel sources as a centralized control factor of populations here on Earth?

, MAR© Principle