Are you angry? If the answer is no-- why not?

As a nation (or perhaps as modern society in general), we have a very short attention span. We easily get tired of hearing about the same top news story, and quickly get crisis fatigue-- whether it's a war, a natural disaster, an economic downturn, or something else that isn't happy and fun, we quickly become exhausted of seeing the same pictures yet again, hearing the same depressing outlook on the situation. This makes sense, in a way-- it's a coping mechanism to keep us from getting burned out on bad news.

But ignoring a crisis or hiding it after ten fluffy human interest stories on the 10 o'clock news doesn't make it go away. Worldwide, people (and the environment) are still dealing with the lasting after-effects of crises we've long since stopped thinking about.

So here it is, y'all: a massive environmental catastrophe. At some point in the last 2 months, the news reports stopped referring to the "oil spill," and instead aptly termed it the "Gulf oil disaster." We can blame BP or the British in general... and I do wholeheartedly believe that BP should go broke, if needed (and it likely would be needed) to do everything in their power to mitigate the impacts of this crisis and help clean up its after-effects. I read somewhere today an expert saying that it will take 40 years for the Gulf to recover, if it ever does. At the moment, I'm leaning toward the latter part of that prognosis: hopefully the ecosystem as a whole will eventually be rebuilt, but most likely not before some parts of it-- some habitats, some species already hovering on the brink of sustainability-- are irreparably damaged. I realized today that this disaster may impact the whole future course of my life: as someone going into ecology and conservation, I don't yet know what I'll be doing after grad school (that still being a number of years off), but there is suddenly a lot more than needs intensive ecological attention and conservation efforts.

But this envirinmental disaster was not a matter of if, but of when. The way we have been treating this planet like it was a never-ending resource put here simply for our use and abuse was (and is) bound to lead to some catastrophe or another. There are a million different places to put the blame: big corporations like BP, lax officials who did not create or enforce adequate regulations, marketers who have pushed a consumerist mentality upon us, and ourselves, who for the most part bought into the system whole-heartedly. We cannot act surprised that the course were are on led us to its predictable and inevitable result.

But we should be angry. I mean, really, really irate. Pissed off. Full of rage. However you want to put it. Direct your anger at any or all of the above options for blame, but just do not become complacent. Do not sit back and allow anyone, anywhere, to think that this is ok, or a normal result of business as usual. This planet is not "ours," in the sense that children are not "ours": it is something entrusted to us, and we are responsible for taking the best possible care of it, so that it will continue to be ok, thrive even, long after we are gone. We are not the owners, but the stewards, the caretakers. Even though we-- each and every one of us-- have had a role in its degradation, it will only continue until the 300 million people in this country-- shoot, no, this is all of our planet, the nearly 7 billion people in the world-- get really, really mad about what we have done to our home, and demand that it be treated differently from now on.

There are a million and one things I could say about the various aspects of this catastrophe-- the attempts to stop the gush of oil, the paltry promises by BP to clean up their mess, the almost instantaneous efforts by various individuals and corporations to vindicate themselves of blame, the ecological impacts now and far into the future, the economic impacts, the world response-- but I am just too mad. Instead, I will share some of the pictures and articles that have touched me the most deeply in recent days.

Because we cannot get crisis fatigue on this one-- it is not going away, and we must make sure that it goes away the right way, with the least harm still possible to the animals, the environment, and the people affected.

The Plight of the Sea Turtles
"'They've been around since the dinosaurs, and I feel we have a moral responsibility not to kill things that were on the earth long before we were.'"

A High-Risk Egg Race To Save The Sea Turtles
"'Thirty-five years from now, they will reach their sexual maturity and begin coming back to the beaches.' Only then might we find out whether the rescued turtles went back to the Gulf or not. Or if they even survived."

Is the Gulf Oil Spill Killing Cures for Cancer and Malaria?
"It’s like burning down part of a rainforest, Wright says: there’s always the possibility that scientists didn’t get the chance to discover a cure there, and that chance is lost forever."

BP's Atlantis: Oil Giant To Be Sued Over Safety Of Another Deepwater Rig
"Along with the federal government's failure to enforce environmental and worker safety regulations, this poses a serious threat to public safety and the environment, say the plaintiffs."

Is BP rejecting skimmers to save money on Gulf oil cleanup?
"'By sinking and dispersing the oil, BP can amortize the cost of the cleanup over the next 15 years or so, as tar balls continue to roll up on the beaches, rather than dealing with the issue now by removing the oil from the water with the proper equipment,' McCallister testified earlier this week before the U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation."

Turtles to be protected from 'burn boxes'
"Texas A&M Gulf researcher Thomas Shirley confirmed the 'burn box' deaths in an interview with the Monitor, adding that hundreds of dead turtles and other sea life already found in and around the spill represent but 'a tiny fraction of what the actual damage is.'"

Gulf Oil Leaks Could Gush For Years
"'We don't have any idea how to stop this,' Simmons said of the Gulf leak. Some of the proposed strategies—such as temporarily plugging the leaking pipe with a jet of golf balls and other material—are a 'joke,' he added. 'We really are in unprecedented waters.'"

Animals Hurt By Gulf Oil Spill - Pictures

Mad yet? Good. Be mad. Tell everyone you know about this. (You'd be surprised... a lot of people really don't know. If you don't watch or read or listen to the news regularly, you'd be pretty out of the loop as to the extent and current status of this disaster.) And here, if you want to actually do something, however small, to help us as a planet (people, animals, environment) try to recover from all of this-- here are some ways to help:
Global Action Atlas/Gulf Oil Spill
(From this site you can contribute to organizations helping wildife, cleanup efforts, and humanitarian impacts of the oil "spill." There are countless other organizations working to help with the cleanup efforts and prevent the oil from further impacting the gulf ecosystems-- do your research and find one that's a good fit for you.)