Gulf oil spill: another environmental disaster they want us to foget about

It doesn't stop here

The best disaster from a corporation’s point of view is an environmental one it seems. A federal report released Friday confirmed what those of who think about the issue at all ready know: oil from the BP’s oil well explosion has settled deep in the sediment of the Gulf of Mexico “at levels that may threaten marine life.” Says the report. Oh, really?

There is no way that this oil that has settled in the sediment below the gulf will not have disastrous consequences for generations to come. The truth is that scientists haven’t a clue as to the level of environmental damage or exactly how it will manifest itself. This will be determined as it arises over time. “We’ve reached that point of diminished returns” says one scientists. The test levels show that the contamination could threaten organisms in the gulf but “there’s no longer any action we can take” he tells the Wall Street Journal. This is an honest appraisal of the limits of capitalism. We must recognize these limits and act to change the situation.

BP is very happy about the report, “The scientific evidence in this report is consistent with our observations that the beaches are safe, the water is safe and the seafood is safe.” says BP’s head of the oil spill response team. As long as you can lay on the beach without getting covered with oil you’re ok, there’s nothing to be worried about. What you can’t see won’t hurt you and all that.

The oil industry in general will be elated as energy companies, including Chevron are planning to resume deep water drilling in the area. The nice thing about it all for the CEO’s, politicians, lobbyists and the rest of them who are to blame for the disaster that took the lives of 11 oil workers as well, is that they’ll be long gone by the time the full effects of the catastrophe are understood. There were some 1.8 million gallons of chemical dispersants sprayed on the oil in an effort to break it up and prevent it from washing ashore and becoming more visible to the general public, the more the general public can see and feel directly, the more chance of social unrest.  But its “environmental impact is unknown” the report says. The companies involved and the federal government will be fighting over this for years.

So it’ll be back to business as usual and the future generations and the natural environment in which we live can go to hell. I can’t say that I think we’re at the point of no return. But there is no doubt that capitalism will lay huge swathes of the planet to waste and uninhabitable; the ocean being one area of extreme concern; it is, after all, the world’s largest garbage dump. And I am convinced that if capitalism is not overthrown it will end life on this planet as we know it. Environmental destruction is a major threat; it is after all our existence.

The market is a destructive and anti-social force. Everything in a capitalist economy is for sale and profit is more precious than life itself. The potential for reversing the damage done by capitalism and opening a path to genuine freedom and existence in harmony with the natural world, can be found in the collective participation of humanity in our productive life. A democratic socialist world is the answer to the horrors and the inhuman future that the so-called free market offers.