What Oil Crisis?

[beatsoul]

(letter to the editor)

As Israel continues it's attack on Lebanon the rest of the world is again left to calculate the war/oil equation.

While the current strife may not be related to oil - a certain product of war (such as the unattended oil spill from Israel's attack on a power plant in coastal Lebanon) is creating environmental damage that

Comments

[jabber]

Where do you think the electricity that powers the Internet over which you are posting this from your body-heat powered computer comes from?

Sure, fossil fuels are bad for the environment, but please, don't be a hypocrite.

[beatsoul]

You're completely unfamiliar with my energy consumption, so please don't be an ass. My point has absolutely nothing to do with energy production or usage.

[jabber]

Your point has to do with death and the destruction of the environment, does it not? Do you not acknowledge the connection beween energy consumption and both death and pollution? Yes, even your energy consumption factors in no matter what it is, because even if you were living entirely off the grid the fact that I can read your words means you're sucking up coal and oil and belching filth into the air, and the energy required for you to be here has killed an Iraqi and wounded a US soldier.

But what actually was your point? That it would be good if someone somewhere did something about what is wrong with the world? That there is an agenda on which one could run for public office.

[beatsoul]

I think I have a basic understanding of the cycle of life and death and the unavoidable relation of cause and effect. I don't want to argue on the inevitable contradictions that exist in the simple fact of my existence. The possible implications for my influence on matters of war certainly exceed my internet usage. But I'm not personally taking up arms and destroying environments in order to feed that hunger. I appreciate your trying to bring awareness to my own involvement in world affairs, but I'm doing quite well at taking stock of and managing my own reserves.

[jabber]

Fair enough.

To your point then, have you a prototypal methor of qualifying the costs involved in mind?

I appreciate the rant. I do. But what follows?

my rhetorical rant

[beatsoul]

Were I so inclined as a war analyst, I may have some sense of the costs of war - and a viable method of recompense. But I've spent my entire life too much a pacifist, at my own expense. So I may only pose the question for now, but I'm always working on answers.

The cost of a power plant is simple to determine - but what of the costs of environmental damage. That is the question I'm asking. Where is the accountability for these extraneous costs? And is anyone paying the bill?

In the case of say, the Exxon-Valdez spill, fault is apparent and responsibility owned. But in war - the environmental stage is simply played upon.

I don't know. Is it necessarily "right" for a country to go in and repair what they have destroyed in another country? We have the example of America in Iraq. Or should they simply be held financially responsible?

Again, what is the cost of environmental damage, to what future?
And to whom is remuneration paid?

I suppose this is all "off-topic" for the community - but thanks for the dialogue.