Reality, Come and Slap Me in the Face

[arabian]

The BP spill isn't Obama's Katrina, it's actually Big Oil's Chernobyl
Behold our dark, magnificent horror

By Mark Morford, SF Gate Columnist
Friday, June 4, 2010There is, you have to admit, a sort of savage grace, a tragic and terrible beauty, to the BP oil spill

Comments

[hiddeneloise]

Oh, I get what they meant. I just don't agree with the sentiment. Here's the thing about enormous natural and unnatural disasters: the toll is tragic, far-reaching, and impossibly horrifying. And each is different. About the only thing that unites them that it will not -- I guarantee you, as sad as I am to do that -- will not wake anyone up to anything. 20 years past Chernobyl and the nuclear facilities in former Soviet Union (and in here, to a degree) are not much safer. And off-shore or near-shore drilling isn't going to stop, either. Some measures will be taken, for sure. But they will only hold until the next unpredictable disaster. And people will move on a month, a year after. Humanity doesn't learn all that much or well. And I do not say this as a cynical defeatist. I say it as a realist. And perhaps that's not necessarily the tragic stupidity of people, but a very human and understandable instinct of self-preservation. The number of things that surround us every day that can also kill us on a massive scale is frightening. Who wants to think about that? Not to mention, profit -- also sad but true -- will often outweigh the considerations for human and animal lives.

Forgive me for the pessimistic outlook. I've seen and lived through too many things.

[arabian]

I hate so very, very, very much that you are absolutely right. It just ... sucks.

[hiddeneloise]

It really and truly does suck. I wish so much for people to prove me wrong. But I am not holding my breath. Sigh.