In Dependence

By now, if you've never heard of the Deepwater Horizon tragedy in the Gulf of Mexico, you'd be living under a rock like I do, haha. You can read the gory details here.

Most of society's outrage at this incident is directed at oil producer BP and to some extent, the Obama administration for its handling of the tragedy. While they rightly deserve much of the criticism, as usual we miss the biggest culprit of them all: we the consumers.

Who kicked this whole ball rolling? We did, with our demand for 85.51 million barrels of oil a day according to Bloomberg, no doubt to fuel our lifestyles. Extraction platforms like Deepwater Horizon exist purely for this. It is how the conditions for accidents like this one are set up. Whichever oil company that was involved is besides the point. Honestly, would it be any different if it was Shell's rig that erupted rather than BP's? I didn't think so.

So as I follow the news reports and tweets of the tragedy, that omission of our own culpability in the blame game is most glaring. No one seems to be asking, did this accident have our fingerprints on it? Well not yet anyway but for our sake, I hope it'll happen soon because as long as we miss the chance for introspection, we miss the chance to develop the will to change our habits. Then history will most certainly repeat itself.

Which leads us back to the obvious question. Will we ever be free of our dependence on oil? Would we ever want to? Can we even imagine a life without oil?

Personally I admit, with some sniffles, that its gonna be hell for me to let go of everything oil-related. The cutting off of the Internet would be the most painful. TNB burns diesel to produce electricity that powers our broadband network. This is followed by my only form of personal transportation - the bicycle with its oil-derived synthetics like tyres. Our kitchen stove at home runs on gas, a by-product of petroleum, as is the kerosene in our lamps. My dad's medication is most certainly made by machines powered by oil-produced electricity. And this is all just the tip of the iceberg.

But what will seal our collective fate, I feel, is our phobia of alternative sources. We've already said 'no' to nuclear. Probably a good thing too considering we can't be trusted to safeguard a jet engine, let alone a roomful of thorium. We are hostile to renewables like wind and solar. They just can't produce enough juice to power our non-negotiables - our TV sets, lights and computers. Impractical. Our minds are made up. Oil it shall be and with that, we embrace the risks of our choice, including the prospect of more Deepwater Horizon and Exxon Valdez-type incidents.

Because we are part of the problem, its hard to understand our anger when it happens. Murphy's law, my friends. Can't avoid it if we tried.

Our saving grace is that at 85 million barrels a day, we're bound to run out. My gut says about 20 years time for prices to quadruple, give or take a couple of years. Oh I'm not worried about me. I'm worried about my young nephews and nieces, some of whom are just tots. They'll be running smack into this at the prime of their lives. How do I condition them for a different future? Or should I leave them to their own devices like most parents do?

What would you do?