A few days ago I mentioned a photo set that boston.com posted. They’ve put up a few more pictures.  I urge you to look at them and think about how our dependence on oil (notice I didn’t say foreign oil) is not only hurting our economy  but its destroying the global environment.

I say global environment because the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico is not an anomaly. Despite that the major news outlets never report  them, spills of this magnitude happen every year.  Ridiculous as this may sound it’s completely true, the only reason we don’t hear about them is because they happen on other continents (namely in Africa). In fact every year, in Nigeria alone, as more oil is let loose on the environment as was spilled in the Exxon-Valdez! (Nigeria now has over 2000 active spills, yes 2000!)

Ironically tighter regulations of the oil industry won’t fix the problem it will only exacerbate them. As congress makes it harder and harder to pull oil out of american soil the oil companies will be more than wiling to move their operations to countries with looser regulations and more corrupt politicians.  In these countries the oil companies will be free to pull oil out of the ground with little respect for the local people and wildlife.  Another benefit of operating out of the country is that consumers will be completely ignorant to the source and the true cost of the oil they are buying.  This ignorance will  allow oil companies to drill and spill without fear of public backlash.

In the end any legislation will be quite effective in keeping our coasts and wildlife well preserved but it will sacrifice the wildlife and well being of ecosystems around the globe for that of ours.