It's our fault too

[Dr. A ♥ O 203]

This Time Is Different

By THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN

Published: June 11, 2010

My friend, Mark Mykleby, who works in the Pentagon, shared with me this personal letter to the editor he got published last week in his hometown paper, The Beaufort Gazette in South Carolina. It is the best reaction I've seen to the BP oil spill — and also the best advice to President Obama on exactly whom to kick you know where.

"I'd like to join in on the blame game that has come to define our national approach to the ongoing environmental disaster in the Gulf of Mexico. This isn't BP's or Transocean's fault. It's not the government's fault. It's my fault. I'm the one to blame and I'm sorry. It's my fault because I haven't digested the world's in-your-face hints that maybe I ought to think about the future and change the unsustainable way I live my life. If the geopolitical, economic, and technological shifts of the 1990s didn't do it; if the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11 didn't do it; if the current economic crisis didn't do it; perhaps this oil spill will be the catalyst for me, as a citizen, to wean myself off of my petroleum-based lifestyle. 'Citizen' is the key word. It's what we do as individuals that count. For those on the left, government regulation will not solve this problem. Government's role should be to create an environment of opportunity that taps into the innovation and entrepreneurialism that define us as Americans. For those on the right, if you want less government and taxes, then decide what you'll give up and what you'll contribute. Here's the bottom line: If we want to end our oil addiction, we, as citizens, need to pony up: bike to work, plant a garden, do something. So again, the oil spill is my fault. I'm sorry. I haven't done my part. Now I have to convince my wife to give up her S.U.V. Mark Mykleby."

I think Mykleby's letter gets at something very important: We cannot fix what ails America unless we look honestly at our own roles in creating our own problems. We — both parties — created an awful set of incentives that encouraged our best students to go to Wall Street to create crazy financial instruments instead of to Silicon Valley to create new products that improve people's lives. We — both parties — created massive tax incentives and cheap money to make home mortgages available to people who really didn't have the means to sustain them. And we — both parties — sent BP out in the gulf to get us as much oil as possible at the cheapest price. (Of course, we expected them to take care, but when you're drilling for oil beneath 5,000 feet of water, stuff happens.)

As Pogo would say, we have met the enemy and he is us.

But that means we're also the solution — if we're serious. Look, we managed to survive 9/11 without letting it destroy our open society or rule of law. We managed to survive the Wall Street crash without letting it destroy our economy. Hopefully, we will survive the BP oil spill without it destroying our coastal ecosystems. But we dare not press our luck.

We have to use this window of opportunity to insulate ourselves as much as possible against all the bad things we cannot control and get serious about fixing the problems that we can control. We need to make our whole country more sustainable. So let's pass an energy-climate bill that really reduces our dependence on Middle East oil. Let's pass a financial regulatory reform bill that really reduces the odds of another banking crisis. Let's get our fiscal house in order, as the economy recovers. And let's pass an immigration bill that will enable us to attract the world's top talent and remain the world's leader in innovation.

We need all the cushions we can get right now, because we are living in a world of cascading and intertwined threats that have the potential to turn our country upside down at any moment. We do not know when the next Times Square bomber might get lucky. We don't know how long the U.S. and Israel will tolerate Iran's nuclear program. We don't know if Pakistan will hold together and what might happen to its nukes. We don't know when North Korea will go nuts. We don't know if the European Union can keep financing the debts of Greece, Hungary and Spain — and what financial contagion might be set off if it can't.

"It is not your imagination," says corporate strategy consultant Peter Schwartz — there is a lot more scary stuff hanging over the world today. Since the end of the cold war and the rise of the Internet, we've lost the walls and the superpowers that together kept the world's problems more contained. Today, smaller and smaller units can wreak larger and larger havoc — and whatever havoc is wreaked now gets spread faster and farther than ever before.

That is why we have to solve the big problems in our control, not postpone them or pretend that more lobby-driven, lowest-common-denominator solutions are still satisfactory. A crisis is a terrible thing to waste, but a reprieve and a breathing spell — which is what we're having right now — is a really terrible thing to waste. We don't want to look back on this moment and say: How could we have gone back to business as usual and petty political gridlocks with all those black swans circling around us? Then we will really kick ourselves.

NYT

Copy & past made some of the article bold.

Personally I haven't owned a car since 2003. I typically take the city bus system or bicycle to work. Since May started though I've borrowed a car and got back on insurance to get to and from work with it being a 45 minute drive away. The job only lasts until July.

I've looked into carpooling and valley commuter rides. I don't have a way to get to their pick up and drop off points on time and it nearly costs the same to use their service as it does to drive myself. Plus my schedule varies in hours and they don't always operate when I need them too so it doesn't work out for me at this time. If there were more riders then perhaps with demand going up they would supply better hours, prices and more pick up and drop off locations.

Every day I commute during rush hour traffic too and from work and I see hundred of cars around me all mostly single passenger. We don't have a carpool lane like larger cities such as Seattle does. If people car pooled together that would be one simple step towards helping the environment. If those in town took the bus system or bicycled when the weather is nice using the car as a last resource then that would be another step and so forth.

[Obama 2012 1,714]

Everyone can bike all they want. I'll drive thank you.

One thing I'll take issue with from this idiot writer is:

both parties — sent BP out in the gulf to get us as much oil as possible at the cheapest price. (Of course, we expected them to take care, but when you're drilling for oil beneath 5,000 feet of water, stuff happens.)

Wrong. Idiots who didn't want to see oil rigs off their shoreline or in their towns/cities/whatever forced the oil companies further off the coast. It's the same reason we've had issues for years and years trying to drill off the east and west coasts... People complain that it's too close and an eye sore..

[Dr. A ♥ O 203]

Everyone can bike all they want. I'll drive thank you.

One thing I'll take issue with from this idiot writer is:

Wrong. Idiots who didn't want to see oil rigs off their shoreline or in their towns/cities/whatever forced the oil companies further off the coast. It's the same reason we've had issues for years and years trying to drill off the east and west coasts... People complain that it's too close and an eye sore..

I think the writer means our demand for oil is what makes them drill for it where ever they can.

[The_Dude 1,142]

Wrong. Idiots who didn't want to see oil rigs off their shoreline or in their towns/cities/whatever forced the oil companies further off the coast. It's the same reason we've had issues for years and years trying to drill off the east and west coasts... People complain that it's too close and an eye sore..

Are you really using Palin's excuse that because the environmentalists wanted greater restrictions and regulation on safety of drilling in ANWR, that it drove the oil companies off-shore, thus trying to pass blame onto those who don't want drilling off their coast, or want greater safety regulations?

[alienlovechild 75]

Here's the bottom line: If we want to end our oil addiction, we, as citizens, need to pony up: bike to work, plant a garden, do something. So again, the oil spill is my fault. I'm sorry. I haven't done my part. Now I have to convince my wife to give up her S.U.V. Mark Mykleby."

I've always been for energy conservation so I don't drive a gas guzzler, share a car with my wife and live within 10 miles of my workplace. Some people don't have much of a choice because of where they live and work but I'd guess even more people just don't care until the price of gas hits $$$$$ or there are widespread shortages.

[BobandXiaomei 14]

Are you really using Palin's excuse that because the environmentalists wanted greater restrictions and regulation on safety of drilling in ANWR, that it drove the oil companies off-shore, thus trying to pass blame onto those who don't want drilling off their coast, or want greater safety regulations?

That's pretty consistent with todays logic.

[Peikko 1,575]

That's pretty consistent with todays logic.

Of course, and it's the right of everyone who has the cash to be able burn as much fossil fuel as they feel like - no matter what the environmental cost, because the environmental costs don't really exist, except in the minds of 'big govmint'. Oh well.

[IndigoSkies 168]

America has thousands and thousands of miles of coast lines. And if I understand correctly, thse oil rigs are no bigger than, say, four tennis courts combined. How can this be an eyesore? I just don't understand people who are opposed to exploiting the vast oil reserve America has. Look, we need to start using it before it becomes useless. Seriously, drill the hell out of the coasts. Get all the oil out so we don't have to get it from Middle East. The Middle Easterers can then eat their oil and enjoy it, too.

[Craneman 2]

And Algore

Of course, and it's the right of everyone who has the cash to be able burn as much fossil fuel as they feel like - no matter what the environmental cost, because the environmental costs don't really exist, except in the minds of 'big govmint'. Oh well.