Cities and suburbs, real and imaginary.

Thursday, May 27, 2010

on ocean water

With the continuing armageddon of the gulf of mexico, i can't help but think of all the damage we do to the world's oceans. we melt the icecaps, flood the sea with plastics in a toxic gyre, acquire those plastics by drilling dangerous oil wells off shore that lead to spills, and that doesn't even begin to mention the constant drain on life that is the commercial fishing industry. (don't eat shrimp, by the way. or clams. oysters are cool.)

there's a system in place that's destroying everything: a system of industrialization and oil.

so there's a water cycle where life on this planet lives and breathes and washes clean.

so there's an oil cycle where life on this planet dies and chokes and floods dirty, oil pulled from seabeds, fed back into seabeds as plastic gyre, icecap-melting toxic fumes, settling in tar balls that will someday (technology-advancement-willing) get harvested off the sea floor for new oil.

so here's what i'm thinking we should do: moratorium. spend one year with no fishing, no pumping oil, no boats, nothing. let the water rest for a year. yeah, it might destroy our global economy, but it might be worthwhile to make people live regionally for a little while, and figure out exactly what things are actually worth when they come from your own communities at your own level of wealth.

i guess i'm just another kook on the internet. mayhap i should sign up for the republican's new website. i hear it's quite a "bring out yer dead" moment in the history of internet trolls and truthiness.

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