It's hard to argue that there's a more lasting and clear example of the destructive force that unchecked corporate greed has on our environment and communities than the Exxon Valdez oil spill that devastated Alaska's Prince William Sound 20 years ago today. Then, like now, we are hopelessly addicted to carbon-based fuels. Oil and coal have exposed our Achilles heel to the Fates, and we tempt them every day that we do not aggressively transition to low-energy lives and sustainable fuel sources. We don't need a power-shift in this civilization as much as we need a power-down.
Take a 10 minute break today, on the anniversary of one of the most tragic--and still unresolved--environmental disasters of our modern energy age, from Twittering, emailing, blogging, IM'ing, Facebooking, and other forms of frantic networking (except in case of emergency) to reflect on the three lessons that we may already intellectually know as individuals, but as a civilization we have yet to learn -- and consider applying them to more recent, larger environmental disasters.
1. Big Energy Means Big Energy Corporations.
The video below was shot just four days after the Exxon Valdez dumped between 11 and 38 million gallons of crude oil into the formerly pristine waters of Prince William Sound. The high school gym where this was filmed is packed with the fishermen and women who are just beginning to realize that their lives and livelihoods have been destroyed. Listen to the Exxon representative explain that this oil spill is "a bit of good luck" for the community.
Corporations with allegiance only to profits will never have allegiance to communities. To rid the world of energy corporations that terrorize our communities and natural world, we must stop giving them business by decentralizing our power supply, forming community power co-ops, and taking back control of our fuel sources.
Dr. Riki Ott, Exxon Valdez survivor, marine toxicologist, fisherma'am, and author of Not One Drop: Betrayal and Courage in the Wake of the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill, urges us all to invest in local power.
2. Corporations Will Not Clean Up After Themselves.
It will always be cheaper for the profiteering oil companies or coal power plants to move away from the environments they destroy rather than stick around and clean them up. Exxon cleaned up approximately 3% of the oil that spilled into Prince William Sound. Ninety-three percent of the oil that spilled that day is still polluting the beaches. In a more recent example, as the Huffington Post has done a great job reporting, the Tennessee Valley Authority has chosen Exxon's path of avoidance and denial in the case of the coal sludge spill. And they don't quite understand that money alone can't fix what they've done.
The following video was taken this year by Dr. Riki Ott. It shows a simple experiment wherein she walks to a beach on the Sound, digs a hole, and pours in fresh, clean water.
3. We Must Build Our Own Future
Riki Ott, and thousands others, have spent every day of their lives since March 24th, 1989 fighting for justice from the Exxon Corporation. The court case that Exxon waged against the people whose lives it shattered raged for nearly 20 years, and was ultimately decided in the US Supreme Court. When it was all said and done in the end, Exxon got away with a slap on the wrist and billions of dollars in record profits. Justice delayed is justice denied.
We cannot depend on emerging technologies to save us, because no one technology can. We cannot depend on the US Government to save the world, because it's proven itself to be slow and too easily swayed by big energy dollars. (Yes, there is new hope, but we must not wait to see if this new shimmering light is, in fact, our path to sustainability.) We must do this by ourselves. The technologies exist. Now. Today. Communities are committing themselves to sustainability. It will require that some of us begin our lives as volunteers, as organizers, as leaders. The transition to a sustainable culture is the biggest challenge we face as a civilization, and what could be more exciting than that?
As Riki Ott explains in her book, and in the movie Black Wave: The Legacy of the Exxon Valdez, she realized on the day of the spill that, as a marine toxicologist standing in Cordova, Alaska on the day of the spill, that she knew enough to make a difference. She knew that launching into this fight was a lifelong commitment, so she said to herself, "I know enough to make a difference. Do I care enough?" Twenty years later, we know her answer.
Please, on this solemn anniversary, take a moment of silence to reflect on the end of oil, coal, and other carbon-based fuels. Where do you fit in? Do you care enough?
The Black Wave movie trailer: