William Rivers Pitt says it's all too easy to blame BP or the politicians who deregulated the oil industry. Ultimately, he says, all of us are to blame for the Gulf oil disaster and the damage wrought by fossil fuels.
Pitt points out that everything we do, from driving to flying to eating is completely dependent on the oil industry. Because of this, we cannot absolve ourselves of responsibility for what is now happening in the Gulf of Mexico:
"We are learning a savage lesson in the Gulf. We are witnessing the end of a way of life we have become all too deeply accustomed to. We drive, we eat, we fly, we vote, and in doing so, we share the blame for what is happening, and what is to come. We have gone to sleep each night deliberately oblivious to the deadly nature of the fossil fuels that power the way we live, because it is too hard to even think about living a different way.
The Deepwater Horizon is the period at the end of a very long, bleak sentence that has been rolling along for a hundred years. We are killing ourselves with the way we live, with our complacency, and we can no longer ignore this wretched truth. The oil that is killing beaches and fisheries and animals of every kind is our lifeblood, the spigot on the sea floor is our femoral artery, and we are bleeding to death right there on television."
Read the full story: It's Our Fault Too
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One Hundred Miles
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The Architects Foundation
University of Cincinnati Online
Montrose County
Northern Illinois Transit Authority (NITA)
The Pocatello Development Authority