This oil spill is a visual representation of all the nasty stuff we have been doing to this planet. A picture of a struggling fish or pelican is no different from a graph of CO2 levels. Oil is the short term in two ways: First, it is extremely easy to stay on the path we are on, constantly assuming there will be more oil as we work in more dangerous and extreme environments to gain pints of a liquid which has replaced our blood. Choosing oil and coal is turning our back the future. It is giving into what Seth Godin calls the
Lizard Brain, the thing that is scared at any thought of moving past the status quo. Second, humanity will not have a long term with oil.
I'm not sure if SSP (Space Solar Power) or even space settlement are the right answers (Especially after learning about the environment impacts of rocket launches), but I know after
looking at this and
this, we need to do something extreme, something effective, something now. That something needs to be unspillable, in both invisible and visible ways. Truth is we have been spilling oil for years, since the start of industrial activity, however that oil is now CO2 and other chemicals from our tailpipes and our smokestacks.
Just look at the Earth behind the SSP satellite. Isn't it beautiful, isn't that the way we want to keep it?
