The devastation of the Gulf oil spill boggles the mind. As a lover of nature, I am distraught by the harm being done to flora and fauna. I especially grieve the bird life that will be and is now being destroyed. How terrible is the whole thing!

The list of those to blame contains numerous names. Short sighted and thoughtless oil company leaders are on it. So also are government regulators who did not do their job. There are others as well.

I was struck by one article I recently read which indicated the usual culprits but also offered that the oil spill was the inevitable outcome of our demand for abundant low cost oil. We require oil. We are angered when gas goes up to $4 per gallon and demand that something be done. To meet these demands, oil wells are drilled in Saudi Arabia, Alaska and the Gulf. Sooner or later, something like this was bound to happen. The culprit, maintained the author, was us.

The article struck me. It contained nothing that I didn’t already know. And I’d like to think that my environmental consciousness has already been raised many times over. But despite my attempts to recycle and live simply, I also drive 16 miles each way to church.
Some say that gasoline should cost $12 per gallon. That would cover not only the crude but also the damage to the atmosphere caused by our engines. If that were the price, I wouldn’t live so far away nor would I be so free in jumping in the car to get a pair of shoelaces or some other non critical item. I realize I bear some of the responsibility.
So I will again visit this challenge to live in a just and sustainable world. I realize I need to make some changes. The oil spill has made vivid for me the cost of my life style. I’m not guilt ridden (too much) but I do see more clearly the challenge that lies before us if we are to hand to our grandchildren an inhabitable world.

I’d be interested in your response to the oil spill and how it has touched you.