We have reached that predictable point in the Gulf oil disaster were officialdom is exhibiting great activity in their obsession with assigning blame, or “finding the cause”. The President has appointed a high-level commission, Congress is holding hearings and Attorneys General are investigating. We are assured that the cause will be found, the guilty will be held accountable, heads will roll, and corrections will be made. In the end the commissions, hearings and investigations will conclude that equipment failed, communications malfunctioned, procedures were not followed, political pressure was put on regulators, and inspectors were bribed. New plans will be written, fines levied and people fired, and then with our attention span exhausted business will return to normal.
The commissions, hearings, and investigations will all fail to recognize, and in fact will shy away from, the basic and common causes of both the Gulf disaster and climate change: human greed, human arrogance and human fallibility.
Greed and arrogance often go hand in hand, and can be both positive and negative. Greed is a primary motivator, greed drives us to better ourselves, while arrogance demands that we push forward. On the other hand, most consider rampant greed exercised at the expense of others as a human fallibility.
It must be remembered that in a capitalistic society the “business of business is business”, that is, it is the purpose of any business to make as much profit for its owners or stockholders as possible. The greed of stockholders and owners typically demands a short-term approach to profit, since most invest for an immediate return and have little patience with the possibility of an unknown profit at some unknown point in the future. To keep the stockholders happy, and enhance his personal profit, a manager must maximize the short-term fiscal return to the stockholders which is typically accomplished by cutting as many corners as possible and investing the absolute minimum in long-term areas such as safety and maintenance.
As the investigations into the Gulf disaster proceed we are hearing frequent reports of attempts by the oil industry pressuring government to ease regulations and waive requirements. BP CEO Tony Hayward readily admits that they did not have a backup in place in case of a failure, which is contrary to MMS Safety Alert #186 issued March 3, 2000. Acoustical backup systems are required by most nations, but the industry has managed to convince U.S. regulators that they are not worth the expense. It is estimated that the cost of an acoustical backup would have cost BP about $500,000, roughly one day’s rental fee for the Deepwater Horizon, which is now sitting at the bottom of the Gulf.
Greed is not at all restricted to BP, the Wall Street Journal recently reported that during the past five years a U.S. offshore drilling worker was 4 times as likely to be killed than workers in European waters, primarily due to less stringent U.S. regulations. All businesses weigh costs vs. benefits, and in most cases there is constant tension between business and their regulators. But when greed gets the upper hand, society (and the environment) inevitably lose.
It is greed and arrogance that leads business to “externalize costs” by dumping their waste products into waterways and the atmosphere polluting the environment and forcing the public to clean the waters so that they are safe to drink, and bear the health cost of breathing polluted air. The externalization of the cost incurred with the disposal cost of greenhouse gases, is a foremost cause of climate change.
Greed and arrogance are also prevalent in all levels of government around the world. No matter what form of government a county has, there is always an enormous amount of money (usually from business) available to influence government to the benefit of the donor. Call it corruption, influence peddling, bribery or donation there is always some appeal to political greed in exchange for influence or “favors”. Many of our leaders are honorable people (or at least feel that they are), and serving in the public interest. Yet their base greed makes it hard to decline political donations, which their arrogance can always justify on the basis that “everyone else does it”, or that it “takes money to be re-elected”. It is being currently being reported that Halliburton, one of the BP contractors on the gushing oil well in the Gulf of Mexico has suddenly stepped up “political” contributions last month, with emphasis on members of the various U.S. Congressional committees that are investigating the Gulf disaster. It speaks to the greed of these congressmen that they have accepted such donations, and to their arrogance in believing that it is proper to do so. While they claim that they are not swayed by cash donations, they are fallible and cannot help but be influenced by such donations.
Perhaps no better example of human arrogance is available than our relationship to the natural environment upon which we depend. We have “subdued the wilderness”, “conquered the raging rivers”, and “tamed the savage beasts”. None of these common expressions conveys a feeling of living in harmony with our environment, sustainability, or conservation. Our greed demands that we exploit our environment for our short-term benefit, an our arrogance assures us that we have the right to do so, without regard for the generations that will follow us.
It was greed that drove BP to drill 18,000 feet below the surface of the earth to extract oil. It was greed for BP to drill this well without any backup plans, or any method to contain a well blow-out, which is not an uncommon occurrence. And if it is found that BP cut any corners, it will be due to pure greed. It is unmitigated arrogance for BP CEO Hayward to state “we will clean up every drop”, and for BP advertisements to make such statements as “we will make this right”, “we will get this done”, “if wildlife is affected, rescue stations have been set up to take care of them”. Note the “if” in the last claim, entire ecosystems are being destroyed before our eyes, and BP has the arrogance to say “if”! This is actually what the arrogance of BP’s “if” looks like:
We are now reaching the limits our planet’s resources. Virtually all surveys show that have reached the peak of oil supply and production, therefore we must drill deeper and deeper, or in more hazardous environments to recover the last of our dwindling oil reserves. The amount of our arable lands are declining due increasing urbanization, population, increasing droughts, and salinization and erosion resulting from exploitive agricultural practices. And most ominously, we have either passed, or are very rapidly approaching the “tipping point” at which we will no longer have the ability to influence climate change.
There is indeed a strong relationship between climate change and the Gulf oil disaster. As we continue to drill deeper and deeper, and in more hostile environments, there will be more paperwork generated, and perhaps some technological changes put in place as a result of the Gulf disaster. But there is no question that in spite of the assurances from the experts and our politicians, we will have another oil disaster, another mine disaster, and another one after that. For we are fallible human beings, no matter what safeguards are put in place, sooner or later a human will make an error and once again oil will gush into our fragile environment. But we will keep drilling driven by our greed and arrogance, until the last drop of oil is extracted from the earth.
Ultimate we are all the guilty ones. In the developed nations we will continue our rampant lifestyle, demanding bigger houses, cars and TV’s, while citizens of the developing nations will naturally aspire to reach our standard of living. Our economies are increasingly based on consumption, which requires exploitation of our planet’s resources and the pollution of our waters, lands and air. Our greed must be fed, our arrogance will assure us that we have the right to our greed, and that the hindering warnings of science must thus be wrong. And because they are composed of fallible humans our governments will fail to make the hard, unpopular choices required.
In short, We Are Toast.
