If there is a God, she's surely bewildered by the apparent determination of the human race to ignore the deafening wake-up call she's recently sent our way.
As wake-up calls go, it's hard to beat the BP oil spill. The relentless gush of oil into the Gulf of Mexico for the past 85 days, captured live on camera, should be enough to finally force us to look critically at the deeply flawed concepts that have become the guiding ideologies of our times -- starting with unbridled capitalism, and its elevation of economic gain above the very sustainability of the Earth we inhabit.
Another dominant creed that cries out for rethinking is blind faith in technology and the human ability to solve any problem.
For weeks now we've listened to TV commentators explain how enormously tricky it is to cap a tiny opening 1,500 meters below sea level in the dark -- almost as hard as finding a needle in a haystack. Good point. But shouldn't that thorny little problem have been worked out before drilling began down there?
Despite an environmental crisis of unknown and unknowable proportions, the ideology that allowed it to happen has proved resistant to change -- just as it did in the face of the Wall Street meltdown, another devastating consequence of unbridled capitalism.
Among other things, the BP gusher (and the Wall Street crash) show that the corporate sector has become so powerful in recent decades that even catastrophic consequences - accompanied by public outrage -- are no longer sufficient to block its profits-before-all agenda.
The 1979 nuclear accident at Three Mile Island didn't kill anybody, but it shocked the public, and pushed the nuclear industry onto the defensive. For 25 years, the industry laid low, and governments didn't dare approve new nuclear plants.
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There's no such humility on the part of Big Oil today; even as the worst-ever maritime environmental disaster unfolded, BP CEO Tony Hayward went yachting. Corporate lobbies now have such clout, with politicians and the media so submissive, that a calamity like the BP oil gusher happens -- and nothing really changes.
Here in Canada, while regulations for offshore drilling are being reviewed, it's still pretty much business as usual. Last week, the Newfoundland and Labrador Offshore Petroleum Board actually invited bids for new deepwater exploration licenses.
And a Chevron-led consortium has just begun drilling off Newfoundland 2,600 metres below sea level, setting a record for deepest offshore drilling in Canada -- fully 1,100 metres deeper and darker than where BP has had such trouble finding a needle in the haystack.
Canadian politicians insist that Canada's waters are suitably regulated. But last December, in response to extensive industry lobbying, the Harper government actually relaxed offshore drilling rules, giving the industry more flexibility in ensuring safeguards against oil spills.
The BP gusher is seen by Ottawa, not as a wake-up call, but as a fresh marketing opportunity for Alberta's oilsands, which are now preposterously being pitched as a "safe" land-based alternative.
Similarly, the nuclear power industry sees a new opening - even though no one has yet figured out how to get rid of radioactive nuclear waste, which may remain dangerous for a million years, according to the U.S. National Academy of Sciences.
Not to worry. The waste is being stored in secure containers, and if some of it were to escape ... well, we'd figure something out.
Linda McQuaig is author of It's the Crude, Dude: War, Big Oil and the Fight for the Planet.
Well at the time of Three Mile Island, there was an aggressive, growing environmental movement not yet fully checked by either the media or the Public Relations agency.
The environmental movement became ossified, the most successful group Greenpeace was cannibalized by the rest of the Left, the Centre and the Right as well as ultimately from within. All of the social movements have denuded themselves of meaning and only a threadbare, faint, amorphous, non-threatening activism resembing the First Act, First Scene of Macbeth remains.
Much of the Left has abandoned rational thought for neo-paganism and anti-civilizationism. The Left needs a Second Enlightenment before it can save civilization.
Tony was on his marine vessel while one man committed suicide because he felt his livelihood was over! Finished. Other folks in the area are still struggling and wondering where their whole lives are going and they are not optimistic. BP is the culprit here and so is Obama who was an apologist in the beginning and middle of this horrific disaster. Tony (CEO of BP) and Barack were enjoying their lives. Tony was on his boat and Barack was in Toronto recently with his cohorts listening to music with Michele and enjoying himself not long afterwards. Barrack was in Huntsville, Ontario while people were being beaten in the city! He was soft on Tony. Only when the American public (some decent members of the public) began to shout out their rage at the fiasco (BP OIL) did Obama "speak out". He tried his best to look forceful. Full of force he wasn't!!!!! He was busy partying. And...he said: "Well.....we will ensure that nothing like this happens again". Yep - BP will ensure it and the President - well that's all he needs - simple re-assurance. Well damn it - did the re-assurance of BP work? It did not and the President wants another simple re-assurance that they will do better in future. Guess who is waltzing together? And Barack is condoning Offshore Drilling! What does that tell us?