Oh, the Sick (Fish) Irony

There are a number of ironies surrounding the oil rig explosion on April 22, the most obvious being that April 22 was Earth Day.

But when something can be as astronomically detrimental as this oil spill has the potential to be, I think the irony moves to something much more sinister.

Luckily, and "luckily" is not nearly a strong enough word for just how overwhelmingly good-fortuned this is, the crude oil joke seemingly ends after the explosion. There is a one by five mile slick covering the ocean surface 45 miles away from the Louisiana shore, but officials are "cautiously optimistic" that the damage ends there. The worst possible scenario would include the oil reaching shore or oil leaking deep underwater, but it currently appears that the oil is showing no signs of doing either.

But there is still imminent danger with this oil spill, and "cautiously optimistic" in no way cancels out the damage that has been done.

A New York Times article I used for information on this topic (cited below) concludes with this thought:

"The accident may also serve as a disturbing reminder to states like Florida that offshore drilling holds environmental risks, even though the industry has long claimed that big spills are a thing of the past and that improved technologies have lowered the chances of spillage."

But I believe that the "disturbing reminder" should extend way past the state of Florida. This accident should serve as an example of the horrific consequences of off-shore drilling to our very own President, who to his credit called cleaning up this oil spill his number one priority.

Our president announced just at the end of March that he was planning on starting unprecedented offshore drilling along the east coast. I can recognize President Obama's reasoning for off-shore drilling, although I may or may not agree with them, but I just hope that in the wake of 11 citizens missing and assumed dead President Obama will learn from this disaster, reflect upon his decisions, and act on what he now sees.

In an administration that was at a stalemate for so long, that had the potential for so much and the raised hopes of an entire country slowly falling as each day passed and its stagnant character still held, I'm glad that our government is finally taking action on so much. But I think that a disaster like this poses the question of whether oil-drilling is the correct action to take. When weighing the benefits and the now very blatant consequences I wonder, is oil drilling really going forward? In the current economic crisis I know that there are certain measure that have to be taken that are simply to keep our country afloat. But that does not mean that we should look past the potential dangers just because these measures are seen as necessary. I've noticed that when things are deemed necessary, usually people stop thinking they're accountable for whatever consequences these measures entail.

At the very least safety on these volatile rigs should be more than meticulously regulated, but going even further than that our government should ask themselves:

Are the potential consequences of the worst case scenario worth the benefits of oil drilling? Are they prepared to be held responsible for these consequences?

If not I'm afraid of a situation so bad that maybe even irony-like the millions of acres of ocean to be drilled-will be smothered by something so dark, harmful, and toxic that even the most humorous of us will not be able to see it.

Sources and Relevant Articles:

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/24/us/24spill.html?ref=todayspaper

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/environment/article7105935.ece

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/01/science/earth/01energy-text.html?pagewanted=2

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/31/science/earth/31energy.html?scp=1&sq=Obama%20offshore%20drilling&st=cse