So we should buy BP's products more than ever now, so they will have the money to complete their cleanup . Your logic escapes me. BP has had a lousy record regarding safety violations long before the oil spill happened. Let's hit them where it hurts, in the pocketbook, as a message to all oil companies.
My concern for the environment is as follows and the priorities I see are these that are immediate: 1. Stop the spill 2. Clean the water ways as much as is possible as quickly as possible. 3. Ensure that it can not happen again. Right along with those is: 1. Help those whose livelihood has been impaired by this. 2. Retrain if needed those who will not be able to go back to the same livelihood that they had for an extended period of time. 3. Invest in the areas that have had economic hardship due to this spill. 4. Set up a fund that assists those whose health may be damaged from the long term of this spill. 5. Set up a fund to help to restock or encourage natural regeneration of plant life and animals populations that are going to have the long term fall out of this. How will a boycott achieve this? If BP was not attempting to stop the well and maintaining that they will clean it up and restore as much as is possible, then I would concur that further measures need to be taken. As of now that is not the case. If anyone else feels that they can do better than BP, I wish they would step up and just do it. They are the only ones in the industry that have any technology or equipment to deal with this. Perhaps that should be the focus for now. While everyone is making BP out to be the total villain and calling for a boycott, I also hope they plan to with hold all taxes from the government until they have accountability for the handling of all drilling and awarding of leases and environmental impacts, and how the ineptitude of government agencies also are responsible for this disaster. Let this company deal with the spill and all else and until they do not then a boycott is not only not logical, it is self defeating. To try to cripple their bottom line is a maneuver that will serve no purpose. Then there is less money to be applied on a voluntary basis to the needs that need to be addressed. I understand the anger and frustration of all but that has to be also tempered with what can be done to rectify this situation rather than trying to make so called big business pay. If they refuse to pay for all they have committed to, then become punitive. Not before.
Wouldn't it make sense to also boycott them after they get it "straightened out". Even though it probably never will be.
I agree... but that won't stop them from using any boycott as justification for nickeling and diming the jobs of restoring the environment and livelihoods hurt by the continuing spill. As the spill continues and grows (it's still spewing 20,000 to 40,000 barrels {840,000 to 1,700,000 US gallons; 3,200,000 to 6,400,000 litres} of crude oil per day) the cost of cleaning it up increases. This has real potential to become a global catastrophe. Surely an endless spew of crude into a major body of water will have an impact on the planet's ability to sustain life. Instead of arguing over whether to financially punish one of the players connected to the cause, we should be debating- brainstorming if you will- ways that not only the leak be permanently sealed and how best to clean up the environment. It might also be worthwhile to research the nuts and bolts of our own involvement in the problem by creating such a demand for petroleum products and by-products that such risky deep water drilling is not only economically advisable but that the sheer profitability so distorts the collective judgment of those in charge of not only the oil companies but the regulatory entities who were supposed to be safeguarding against just such an occurrence that this is considered almost as an acceptable risk... that having "cheap" oil is so important that we'll willingly destroy the planet to get it... and every fucking one of us is implicated in this- including me.... I drive a car, and much of the junk I surround myself with contains or is composed of plastics. Perhaps taking some economic rage seems appropriate but really how effective will it be if we don't make meaningful changes in our day to day lives in order that the problem might be easier to address by those on whom we place the onus of making things better? Yes, I do need to read and think about that myself because I'm as guilty as anyone. Recognizing that we are in fact at the root of the problem seems to be the best first step in us doing our part in a permanent solution... but we really need to be informed enough to see through the corporate ruses and political trickery that would the product of government exploiting a crisis to further its own power and reach deeper into our pockets. So I suppose it's easier to vent anger at BP... morally expedient in a manner of speaking to willfully distract ourselves from our role in creating this by attacking the player arguably doing the most arrest the immediate problem. The fact is that we are collectively responsible- akin to the targeted drug user who creates the demand for "dangerous" drugs and deemed a worthwhile issue to devote tax money pursuing... we are collectively oil junkies and BP was just working tirelessly to get us our next fix... and the deep sea drilling platform exploded like a meth lab.
I totally see your point stinkfoot and I do agree with you. I guess my feeling is that I understand why people are angry at BP, and it's not just because (as some people think) that they just want to be angry at someone. I think people are genuinely upset by the ecological disaster because they truly do care about the environment. But they feel powerless and helpless and that easily turns to anger. And they want something quick. I'm not saying this is the best way or anything, I just think it is understandable and that it does come from people's hearts. I just don't think that all the people angry at BP are just angry because they like being angry and don't really care about the issue.
But I definitely agree with you that the problem goes deeper than just BP=Evil and that this really doesn't solve anything. I do think they should do everything possible to fix it, but I think we all need to fix our own lifestyles as well. But that is more long-term and people are very emotionally tense right now.
Don't forget the Bush administration, which played a key role in oil industry deregulation and reduction of federal regulatory oversight. Yes, Obama has had a year to change that, but clearly his attention has been focused elsewhere. Underwater drilling permits should never be awarded without a LEGITIMATE emergency plan being created by the company first. Offshore drilling will never be risk-free, but there was no excuse for a well turning out this badly. It didn't have to happen like this. Other countries do this better. We have to do better. We can and should reduce our oil consumption, but we will never get it down to zero.
