This Global Ethics Corner is part of the Council's second annual SEPTEMBER
SUSTAINABILITY MONTH, which kicks off a year of events and resources
on sustainability. Generous funding of the Carnegie Council's 2010-2011 sustainability
programming has been provided by Hewlett-Packard and by Booz & Company.
Offshore oil spills leave a powerful impression.
They render visible the pollution we regularly release as automobile exhaust.
Beaches are tainted, wildlife dies, and the local marine economies take devastating
hits.
Do the risks of deepwater drilling outweigh the rewards?
The BP Deepwater Horizon spill in the Gulf of Mexico demonstrates how human
errors can be compounded by the technical difficulties of drilling in the deep
ocean.
Furthermore, the fix can be as bad as the failure. Millions of gallons of toxic
Corexit chemicals were dispersed to break up the oil without adequate public
consultation or scientific awareness of its potential harm.
Oil spills are relatively fast and localized, yet storm-drain runoff from gas
stations and leaky cars is widespread and cumulative, yearly dumping more than
an Exxon Valdez worth of oil into North American waters.
Energy demand is immediate while global warming is slow, and our choices reflect
this. Most governments have failed to cut pollution to levels that provide a
reasonable chance of controlling global warming.
For example, Greenland recently announced the viability of drilling in its
Arctic waters, a pristine environment prone to icebergs. Protesters responded
by scaling a rig to halt production, and by picketing the project's financial
backers in Scotland. Yet, normal energy consumption doesn't trigger this heated
response.
What do you think? How do we manage the gap in our perceptions of the risks
of fossil fuel consumption versus deepwater energy exploration? Could a focus
on efficiency and innovations on land meet energy demand without further drilling?
Should we drill in the deep ocean at all? What if other countries do?
By Evan
O'Neil and William Vocke
Photo Credits in order of Appearance
SkyTruth
Marine
Photobank
kk+
Way
Out West News
SkyTruth
SkyTruth
Infrogmation
of New Orleans
SkyTruth
Amy
Taylor
Vagawi
Beatrice
Murch
Christine
Zenino (chrissy575)
Ville
Miettinen
Tolkien1914
The
Sierra Club
Tolkien1914
Enrico
Strocchi
