Isn't the earth that we leave to our children more important than the short

[NC_Nurse]

term economic needs of an industry that is killing the planet? I'm sorry that people who work for them in the Gulf will be out of work, but that doesn't change the overiding issue. Hell, they won't be the only ones whose jobs have gotten up and left.

Do the nest-foulers always have to win? I hate that the needs of the few outweigh the needs of the many every fucking time. And when will anybody in power start to think long term?

These Repub governors like Jindal and Barbour keep assailing Obama about lifting the ban - but what about the COST to all of us in poisoned waters, dying wildlife and giving in time and time again to short term concerns? Can't the oil companies be forced to take care of their own employees? This whole disaster is their fault.

I am desolate about humanity's refusal to respect the limits of our despoiling ways. We are truly doomed if people don't wake the fuck up. Pathetic.

[Brickbat]

1. If anyone's wondering why people think the environmental movement is privileged and out-of-touch,

here's a primer right here in the OP.

[kestrel91316]

5. Yeah. Short-term profits by corporations are worth so much more

than long-term sustainability. We're such assholes for thinking otherwise......

[Brickbat]

6. Which is, of course,

not what I said.

[NC_Nurse]

12. Thanks for reminding me why I never post.

I don't think most people, rich or poor, would see me as privileged or out of touch. But hey, go for it if it makes you feel good.

[Brickbat]

15. I'm sorry for hurting your feelings.

Your tone about people losing jobs, and how "they won't be the only ones whose jobs have gotten up and left," made my hackles rise, and it's often one I experience in dealing from a labor side with people who work on the environmental side of things.

I hope my post doesn't keep you away.

[NC_Nurse]

16. I accept your apology. A lot of people have had to find new types of work for

many different reasons in the last few years. My family included. I see it as a need to adapt to a changing world, not a personal insult. I am not a rich person, nor am I an intellectual elite. Hardly.

I'm concerned that pressure to rush to re-open rigs in the Gulf could result in the further loss of life, beauty, resources, etc. And one thing I have learned since this happened is how this same sort of poisoning is happening all over the place. Nigeria, Australia, the Gulf of Mexico, and who knows how many other places?

I just find it depressing to think of a dirty, toxic, ugly place we may end up leaving for our children and whatever other innocent creatures survive our hubris.

I am certainly a laborer and have sympathy for the position of those of us who are cogs in the wheel of big business. The things I see in medicine since it became a "business" are quite appalling, both for the workers and the "customers". But it's made the elites in the law firms, the insurance companies and the pharma companies happy. Sigh.

[flyarm]

2. nc_nurse..yOU ARE EXACTLY RIGHT..after seeing reports I have seen in Fla..

I don't want my grand daughter coming to my state or my home on the Gulf..it frightens me too much that coming to grandma's home will effect her future and her health..it makes me ill to think grandma's house could make her sick..but the air we had to breathe and the water we may have to drink..I can not risk that for her.

But it isn't just us on the Gulf Coasts ..this crap will get into the rain delivered throughout the country and earth..I fear.

My tears are real..and so is my disgust and anger!

[NC_Nurse]

18. I love the Gulf, we go every year. I'm sad to feel like it's going to be a mess

when we get there in a couple of weeks. I'm so sorry that your grand daughter can't come down to see you. What a mess!

[frebrd]

3. I'm just as concerned (maybe more) about the Earth we leave......

to the "children" of all the other animal species on Earth.

The human species has had its chance and fucked it up completely.

The other species shouldn't have to suffer for our stupidity!

[NC_Nurse]

11. I'm hoping they outlast us. Maybe they can repopulate once we've killed ourselves

off.

I'm partially kidding, in case anybody cares...

[Odin2005]

4. K&R

[deaniac21]

7. You are right. Nobdy in the world benefits from cheap energy.

Without oil we'd have much better lifes.

[NC_Nurse]

13. With it we might have much shorter lives. But that may not be us, it'll be after we're

dead, so who cares, right?

[SmileyRose]

8. Can you even do your job without oil?

I'm pretty sure IV tubing is made of plastic. I don't see an affordable alternative to plastic on the horizon that doesn't involve taking fields out of commission for food production (and driving up the cost of food). I'm not real sure leaving glass and rubber tubing to our children will be an improvement.

My point is our modern society will need oil. Period. for the foreseeable future. Now I'd love to see a world where we recycle the plastics we have already and use no oil in energy production at all but the technology required at the right affordability level is not quite here (we are working on it). But until we find a viable alternative to plastic we are going to have oil drilling on some scale - and the risk will remain at some level.

All that said - it's obvious the oil companies WILL NOT voluntarily meet whatever safety measures are necessary and government regulation will be necessary to force them to do so.

[Snarkoleptic]

9. We'd do well to consider the Native American proverb-

"We do not inherent the earth from our ancestors, we borrow it from our children"

[NC_Nurse]

10. I wasn't saying that we should toss all oil production immediately. I just don't

understand the unwillingness to stop doing things that are PROVEN to be risky to fix a temporary problem. There is still plenty of oil coming from other sources to be used until we figure out how to explore and drill more safely. And we've hardly put out a massive effort to move to conservation or alternative clean energy technology.

But making me out to be an idiot sure proves how much better you are. Kill the messenger. That'll fix it.

[Robeson]

14. You aren't an idiot, and I understood perfectly well what you said.

[NC_Nurse]

17. That's very kind of you. I felt smacked down when I read some of the responses.

I don't post much here since I live in a Repub area of a Repub state (no, not NC, I'm in GA right now) and I get smacked down regularly here already. Mostly by my RW father, and I'm surrounded by it at work too. I've gotten a bit thin-skinned. Oh well. :)

[obxhead]

19. I have a few acquaintances that litter out the car window frequently

yet are devout believers in reincarnation. It boggles the mind.

[TheKentuckian]

20. I certainly support labor but I'm not so pro-jobs that it is a literal suicide/genocide pact

Anybody talking how "cost effective" carbon is refuses to look at the real costs and how the industry is subsidized directly and of course much more massively in indirect ways like a huge chunk if not the majority or our military budget, the war spending, lots of the foreign aid, the repression of alternate technology, and of course the immense ecological damage that we just stick on the tab.