There’s a reason oil is underground.

There’s a reason why tawny American men in overalls would woop for joy when discovering oil and it had nothing to do with finishing a hard day’s work.

It was money.

We’ve been addicted to it without choice, or conscience ever since and our lifestyles, ego’s and population growth have kept acronyms the likes of BP in employment for decades.

(actual ad)

There’s a crude (sorry) irony of Oil (petroleum). Once absorbing carbon dioxide from the air and releasing oxygen, it is now burnt releasing carbon dioxide into the air. Oil is a composite of decomposed organic matter. Once alive in the form of tree trunks, leaves and hubris, it has formed over millions of years through decay and compression by micro-organisms.

Cue reality.

The oxidisation and compression of oil produces a gas poisonous to our health. The burning of petroleum affects our climate. So when us smart humans due to human error, cause an explosion aboard a floating oil rig which causes a pipe to break releasing 80,000 litres of oil per day into an already under duress  aquatic environment, I am not surprised.

I’m angered and saddened, but I am not surprised.

For me, the most simple and naive lesson from this, is that we are folly to continue to use a material that is obviously not meant to be unearthed.

For all the reasons why we should still pump oil from the ground like economy, jobs, manufacturing etc, nothing can not be remade by using another material. I’d back us to be able to do it.

One day, hopefully in my lifetime, oil will cease to exist above ground. Same goes for coal. The only reason to maintain the use of both is financial. And if we can’t atleast employ a plan of ~100 years to reduce our reliance on both while increasing our reliance on renewable alternatives while maintaining our economic growth and prosperity, than what does that say about us?

Shai Agassi, CEO of Better Place said it best when he spoke of an historical example when a traditional source of energy and economy was challenged by a moral, ethical call to a higher sense of responsibility.

That energy source was slave labour. The resulting change from its abolition was the industrial revolution.

Cue future.