There has been alot of finger-pointing over who is to blame for the recent crude oil spill and disaster in the Gulf of Mexico. In congressional hearings, Congressmen have sought to pin the blame on BP and other parties involved in the Deepwater Horizon oil drilling project. BP is certainly partially to blame because they are the lessee of the rig and has management responsibility for the drilling project. TransOcean is partially to blame because they own the rig and managed the drilling efforts as the project management. Haliburton might be to blame because it was their cementing process may have been faulty and caused the drill well to fail. And Cameron, the company that made the drill well's blowout preventer, may be to blame because their product is supposed to be the failsafe, last-line-of-defense, to stop the oil flow in the event of a failure further up the well or in the rig.
While any or all of these parties may be partially responsible for this environmental catastrophe, America's thirst for cheap oil is ultimately to blame. As a nation, we are desperate to maintain our current, oil-based way of life. Despite having plenty of natural resources, including energy, Americans continue to consume far in excess of what we can sensibly produce ourselves. Our insatiable thirst for cheap gasoline and oil forces our nation to ignore or downplay the many political, economic and environmental risks associated with finding or producing sufficient supplies of oil. In this particular case, the Deepwater Horizon project was a novel and even revolutionary, but ultimately risky, foray into deeper-than-ever-before off-shore drilling for oil. As evident now, regulators, engineers and risk analysts never considered what they would do if something went seriously wrong with the project. The disaster manifested itself because of a combination of a strong market demand for cheap oil, engineering hubris, lack of regulatory oversight and political near-sightedness.
Our insatiable appetite for cheap crude oil has already cost us dearly economically and politically over the past several decades. Now, we have an environmental catastrophe too.
Showing posts with label environment. Show all posts
Showing posts with label environment. Show all posts
Wednesday, May 12, 2010
Monday, April 19, 2010
The New American Dream
I look around my neighborhood and see the American Dream. I live in an upper-class community with large (some huge) homes with well-coiffed lawns and landscaping, and two or three cars parked in every garage. The super-sized suburban properties where I live in Western Howard County Maryland typically sit on from 1/4 acre to 1/2 acre to 10+ acre lots with the driveways alone being bigger than most European flats--the picture of the American Dream.
The problem is that the American Dream, our way of life, is irresponsible, wasteful and unsustainable. Most of the enormous houses have rooms or spaces that are not needed, consume unspeakable amounts of mostly fossil-fuel-based or non-renewable energy sources, and sit on excessive amounts of scarce land. As most everyone already knows, "suburban sprawl" consumes too much land with too few homes for our population, and only forces more road building and newer development further out.
Today, people in search of affordable housing and land are forced to commute from faraway suburbs in Western Maryland, Pennsylvania and even West Virginia to job centers in Baltimore or Washington D.C. These commuters waste a tremendous amount of gasoline--polluting our environment and increasing our dependency on foreign oil.
In order to meet the needs of this growing and spreading population, our food and product distribution networks have become highly specialized hub and spoke systems that become ever more dependent on truck-based shipping and are highly prone to disruption. To service these far-out communities, our energy distribution systems are being taxed and thus are vulnerable to failure or from attack by enemies.
Suburban lawns require fertilization whose runoff pollutes our already-fragile water systems. Gas-powered mowers used to cut grass only further drains our limited gasoline supplies and pollutes our air. Did you know that gas-powered mowers are responsible for 5% of all air pollution in the U.S.?
It is not new news that, as populations increase, land grows scarce and roads become more jammed in the U.S., the trend has been heading back to high-density development and living. The suburbanite's way of life is simply too wasteful for our society to sustain much longer. Most new major housing developments are already in-fill or neo-urban, mixed-use projects that seek to return us to traditional city-style living, i.e. smaller, connected or multi-unit dwellings with little or no land that are close to restaurants, stores, theatres, museums, parks, etc. Only cities allow people to efficiently use limited land and natural resources, and provide communities with the optimal balance of home, work and play. Cities were, and will be again, the only viable and sustainable place for people to live and work.
Non-renewable energy sources like oil and natural gas pollute our environment and their supply is finite. Americans must more seriously reconsider our reliance on them to heat our homes, propel our cars and power our factories. A return to a living model that is less car-dependent and more moderate in the consumption of limited natural and other resources is inevitable.
The New American Dream will be one of lowered expectations, more moderate consumption and of resource conservation. Americans must embrace a simpler, smaller and less-wasteful future. It is a future that returns us to high-density living with smaller living quarters, more walking/less driving, fewer gas-powered vehicles and devices, locally-produced foods and goods, and ultimately, a better quality of life. A declining dependency on foreign energy, food and other resources will also reduce our geopolitical risks and their associated costs considerably. Americans need to accept this new way of life sooner or later, or our standard of living will surely decline.
The problem is that the American Dream, our way of life, is irresponsible, wasteful and unsustainable. Most of the enormous houses have rooms or spaces that are not needed, consume unspeakable amounts of mostly fossil-fuel-based or non-renewable energy sources, and sit on excessive amounts of scarce land. As most everyone already knows, "suburban sprawl" consumes too much land with too few homes for our population, and only forces more road building and newer development further out.
Today, people in search of affordable housing and land are forced to commute from faraway suburbs in Western Maryland, Pennsylvania and even West Virginia to job centers in Baltimore or Washington D.C. These commuters waste a tremendous amount of gasoline--polluting our environment and increasing our dependency on foreign oil.
In order to meet the needs of this growing and spreading population, our food and product distribution networks have become highly specialized hub and spoke systems that become ever more dependent on truck-based shipping and are highly prone to disruption. To service these far-out communities, our energy distribution systems are being taxed and thus are vulnerable to failure or from attack by enemies.
Suburban lawns require fertilization whose runoff pollutes our already-fragile water systems. Gas-powered mowers used to cut grass only further drains our limited gasoline supplies and pollutes our air. Did you know that gas-powered mowers are responsible for 5% of all air pollution in the U.S.?
It is not new news that, as populations increase, land grows scarce and roads become more jammed in the U.S., the trend has been heading back to high-density development and living. The suburbanite's way of life is simply too wasteful for our society to sustain much longer. Most new major housing developments are already in-fill or neo-urban, mixed-use projects that seek to return us to traditional city-style living, i.e. smaller, connected or multi-unit dwellings with little or no land that are close to restaurants, stores, theatres, museums, parks, etc. Only cities allow people to efficiently use limited land and natural resources, and provide communities with the optimal balance of home, work and play. Cities were, and will be again, the only viable and sustainable place for people to live and work.
Non-renewable energy sources like oil and natural gas pollute our environment and their supply is finite. Americans must more seriously reconsider our reliance on them to heat our homes, propel our cars and power our factories. A return to a living model that is less car-dependent and more moderate in the consumption of limited natural and other resources is inevitable.
The New American Dream will be one of lowered expectations, more moderate consumption and of resource conservation. Americans must embrace a simpler, smaller and less-wasteful future. It is a future that returns us to high-density living with smaller living quarters, more walking/less driving, fewer gas-powered vehicles and devices, locally-produced foods and goods, and ultimately, a better quality of life. A declining dependency on foreign energy, food and other resources will also reduce our geopolitical risks and their associated costs considerably. Americans need to accept this new way of life sooner or later, or our standard of living will surely decline.
Thursday, November 27, 2008
Energy conservation and the environment
China's and India's power plant-related carbon emissions are growing so fast that they will surpass the U.S. by 2010. So isn't it a losing battle to conserve energy or to recycle products, when actions by these developing nations will more than offset our conservation efforts? "Doing our part" will only be meaningful if there is a concerted global effort to save our planet.
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