An Oily Reminder

photo by Gay, AP May 28, 2010

I watch our best and brightest engineers try and fail day after day to stop millions of gallons of crude oil from spewing into the Gulf of Mexico. I read about how many blowout prevention procedures and devices had to fail to create this disaster and I cannot decide if I want to cry, scream in rage or curl up in a fetal position and suck my thumb for the rest of the afternoon.

How arrogant we are to think we can safely pull crude oil from an oil field that is sitting miles beneath the ocean surface with “minimal risk of a toxic spill”. And now we have a toxic spill of epic proportions – the massive amount of oil spewing into the ocean boggles the mind. 20+ million gallons and counting.

No human design that attempts to manipulate and control Mother Nature is EVER failsafe. Nature kicks our skinny little human butts every time.

Remember the levees that were supposed to channel and control the Mississippi? Katrina slapped the Army Corp. of Engineers around and showed us exactly how “secure” that levee system kept New Orleans.

Remember the unsinkable Titanic and what one iceberg did to it?

Remember the nuclear power plant at Chernobyl that should have never spewed that radioactive cloud?

When are we going to learn? When are we going to stop acting like macho teenagers who think they can take on the world, do whatever they want and never get hurt?

I wonder if God might be trying to tell us something important? Like stop being such arrogant twits!!

Nature is WAY more complicated than our brains can comprehend. And humans will NEVER EVER be wise enough to actually control Nature.

Maybe we should figure out how to honor and learn from Mother Nature instead of pushing her around and trying to manipulate and control her. There is a basic level of respect for Nature that seems to be missing here.

Call me a wienie greenie or a pagan tree worshipper – whatever. But I think Mother Nature MIGHT still have a few things to teach us.

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