News that BP’s plans to stem the oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico have failed came as no surprise.
For days now the media have been touting the amazing engineering feat that was the “Giant Dome.” It was seen as the quick solution – an example of humanity’s ability to engineer the environment around it. It was meant to be the penicillin to the wound we had caused the Earth.
Signs of this perspective are prevalent in the media, with many technological solutions being advocated to solve the environmental disaster. Some are even absurd enough to suggest the use of nuclear weapons:
This is all in line with humanity’s fixation on “Progress“. So far, there has much focus on technological solutions, little criticism of our reliance on oil to begin with.
Of course there are those who see this crisis as a chance to capitalise on the public horror at the oil spill, and rightly so. It was once noted that when written in Chinese, “crisis” is composed of two characters – one for danger and one for opportunity.
However, it concerns me that our society is stuck in an ex post facto mindset. Rather than dealing with the cause of the problem – our unhealthy reliance on fossil fuels and our escalating, wasteful and unnecessary consumption patterns – we focus on the symptoms of the problem.
This oil spill disaster may in time become seen as a microcosm of humanity’s reaction to climate change. We refuse to deal with the actual cause of the problem, instead placing faith in our unproven abilities to adapt, to engineer solutions.
Here’s hoping that we learn the lesson from this disaster, and act to prevent future environmental catastrophes. As the epic fail of the giant dome proves, we are and always will be at the mercy of nature.
Climate Communications 