MARCH 3, 2006
Remember
last year's headlines? Oil tanker explodes off the Coast of Virginia! Of course, we don't. It was headline news in the local area, just a blip on the radar screen of most Americans and totally forgotten today. Crude oil, refined oil, ethanol oil - whenever and wherever any of the above is lost into the sea consequences happen; always unintended, but of significance nevertheless.
This oil spill was directly off my late Uncle Stan and Aunt Catharine's retirement home. I can remember my uncle talking about the crab pots he set and the joy he found in walking down to the shore of the little inlet near his home and pulling in his crabs for an evening feast with my Aunt. As in any oil spill, remediation must be immediate and comprehensive, because the consequences, always unintended, have a long lasting effect.
For example, years after the Exxon Valdez oil spill marine life has been compromised throughout the bay. Most say, out of sight out of mind, and it does not impact my life, so why worry about it? Wrong!
I know it is hard to keep so many challenging issues before us on a regular basis, and most of us ask, what can we do about something that seems so remote and out of our control? Fining the oil company, the shipping company, the captain, the crew - No, because each raises their hand and testifies that it was not my fault and we certainly did not intend to spill oil on those waters. How often have we heard the abdication of responsibility as the living mantra or message of today's worker; from the factory to the board room? However, if all of us became the change we want to see then things would get better immediately.
Practice taking responsibility about our fragile environment, beginning at home, extending to the workplace, and then you become prepared for the big challenges we all face. I would suggest that the Maritime Academies be required to teach a course on the marine environment, its fragile nature, and how the decision of one captain can disrupt the lives of millions of creatures in an instant. Every power boating course must have the environmental ethic preached. The ocean is a finite body of water and the consequences of a spill someplace are felt everywhere.
In the meantime we are seeing progress in the shipping industry:
Double hulls on new tankers, international inspections from more and more countries, monitoring of maintenance records by responsible entities, drug and alcohol testing for captains across the board - all valid for the shipping industry which loses too many ships in too many ecologically fragile areas of the world. It's happening - change is coming. We can only hope some form of internationally monitoring agency is put in place to over-sea the 25,000 or so ships that ply the world's waters daily.
Remember too, your small oil spill in your driveway is some creature's nightmare someplace down stream. As the old saying goes, oil and water do not mix. May we lobby for tighter controls at the macro level and more responsible behavior at the human level.
--Peter