[col. writ.
4/30/10]
(c) '10 Mumia Abu-Jamal
(c) '10 Mumia Abu-Jamal
As dark blobs of
oil seep from the underwater wells of an exploded oil platform, the
shoals and
shores of the Gulf of Mexico become exhibit A of our doomed
petro-economy, and
its impact on the natural world.
Not since the
infamous spillage of the Exxon Valdez on Alaska's coast in 1989 have we
seen
such a disaster, and it comes, ironically, within days of the Obama
Administration's announcement supporting increased off shore oil
drilling along
the Atlantic coast.
It's been
decades since the grounding of the Exxon Valdez, and the lands despoiled
by it
are still not clean, and may not be for many a year.
The
environmental damage will in turn cause economic damage, as generations
of
fishing communities on the Southern coast find that fish stocks, shrimp
and crab
beds have been poisoned by thousands and thousands of gallons of toxic
crude. Such sea life, not to mention avian life, will be
devastated.
As politicians,
paying back their campaign contributors with policies and licenses which
cause
environmental wreckage, pursue short term interests, the impacts of such
policies will last for generations, long beyond their terms.
In time, the
leaking well will be forgotten; the oil slicks will be forgotten; the
devastation will be forgotten - especially if you don't live in the Gulf
coast region.
But the damage
will be long lived and profound.
But we'll not
think of it -- until it happens again.
--(c) '10
maj
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