Kill All Humans Part II

People covered in oil. Lucky them, they can take their clothes off.

OK, seriously? Another oil spill? You know, fuck it. We'll never learn.

I guess it's a good thing shit like this happens where people vacation, because if it was out in the middle of nowhere, where people weren't affected, the spill and the damage it causes to wildlife would go unnoticed by the rest of us. Companies have to own up to their enormous mistakes because people will get all pissed at them, maybe sue, and will definitely have a negative opinion, which in turn will affect stocks. And fucking stock makes the world go round.

Oiled muskrat.

Though this spill is nowhere near as massive or damaging as the one in the Gulf, it's still the most destructive thing that could happen to the area. And what really makes no sense is how the company, Enbridge, can ignore warnings about safety violations. This spill happened because a pipe corroded. Corrosion takes a while, and Enbridge obviously wasn't keeping an eye on it or paying any attention to the warnings from the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration. With all the attention on the Gulf and BPs safety mistakes, wouldn't you start making sure you're not going to come under the same bad press? Wouldn't you make sure you didn't get lumped in with big bad BP by replacing your damn pipes? Now 35 miles of Kalamazoo river are tarnished, 35 miles of dead fish, dead frogs, oil-coated birds and muskrat, and a river bank that will be unsuitable for life for years.

Really didn't think I'd be using the "oil spill" tag again this year.

Oil Spill

Among the bones of cormorants...

Turned on the TV at my dad's house to watch some mindless Friends episodes while waiting for people to get home so we can go to lunch, and Fox News is on. Way to go, dad.

Usually I hate Fox news, but some woman and man were discussing the oil spill off the Gulf of Mexico and saying how devastating it is for the environment. The images were horrific. Black waves crashing on the shore, thick puddles pooling around rocks, drowning cormorants and making flight impossible even for the birds who spend their lives in water. The woman was going on about how precautions that could have prevented this spill were blatantly ignored, how this is possibly even more devastating than the Exxon Valdez spill, and how marine animals can't even come up for air for miles and miles and miles of ocean. Dolphins and whales living in the Gulf will drown because they can't get up through the thick oil for air, schools of fish (including tuna) will be devastated when the oil clogs their gills, and cormorants, (endangered) brown pelicans and other water birds are stuck on land with oil in their feathers. They can't eat, they can't swim, and they can't fly.

And then they talked about tourism. Though that is a valid argument, I can't help but think who the fuck cares. Miles and miles of environmental devastation, and they're talking about when people want to go to the beach in Louisiana. There's still long-term effects in Alaska, still remnants of the oil spill more than 20 years later. What is the Gulf of Mexico going to look like in 20 years? Or 10 years?

So, since this has happened in the past, it's one of the most devastating things we can do to our oceans, and it's preventable, why oh why does it keep happening? Who says, "Oh it's no big deal, it'll be fine," when shit like this goes down immediately afterwards? Something needs to change.