I spent a good portion of my day yesterday reading up on recent news. While straining through multiple articles about the continued oil disaster in the Gulf Coast, I ran across a story about a Louisiana fisherman, Captain William Allen-Kruse, who took his own life on Thursday. Kruse had been hired by BP as part of the rescue/clean up effort that the oil company is "spear-heading." (I put "spear-heading" in quotes because of the deep distrust I have of BP's sincerity surrounding their clean-up campaign.)
The article said that Kruse's family and friends had no idea that anything was wrong. The captain showed no signs of psychological unrest and was only as upset as his comrades about the damage this spill was causing to southern industry. Apparently, though, two weeks of working out in the oil, stench, and dead wildlife had a huge impact on him. I shudder to think of the depression that Kruse must have endured those last couple weeks. Every minute he was witnessing the further deterioration of his culture, way of life, and livelihood. A fisherman his whole life, he was now raising his 13 year old son to follow in his footprints. He was going to retire next year, one of the articles said. And yet, seconds after docking and asking his crew to go pick up something, Captain William Allen-Kruse shot himself in the head.
Kruse's death, as tragic as it is, brings light to an even more tragic reality. Everyone has been focusing on the damage that Deep Water Horizon's spill (now 42,000 gallons per day by latest estimate) is causing to the gulf - fish, birds, plants, coral reefs, microscopic creatures that feed the fish...the entire ecosystem is being destroyed. God forbid a hurricane or other large storm passes through, flinging oil further out into the gulf and further east along the coast.
The media has been been connecting the destruction of the ecosystem to the destruction of the fishing and vacation industries all along the coast, but as far as I am aware, the media has never commented on how this is affecting individuals. The story of this captains death was the first mention that I had seen about the psychological trauma this disaster can have upon humans. It is heart wrenching enough for people like me, safe in Maryland, to see images of rescued sea gulls, unrecognizable as birds, fully blanketed by thick dollops of oil. I can only imagine what it must be like for the people of the gulf coast who have devoted their lives to the waters they live on. How will they provide for their families now? What will they do with their lives now that the only way of life that they know is so brazenly stripped from them?
It is going to take years for the outcomes of this "safety oversight" to be corrected. I can see the Gulf Coast economy still reeling from this decades down the road. Recovery is not just about skimming oil off the surface of the water (as many years as that will taken in and of itself) and capping the well; that's only where it starts. Think about all the oil floating beneath the surface. Think about the marine life that needs to resurrect itself from the ashes. Think about the culture that will change dramatically as a result of such a long halt in aquatic activity (food and travel industries in addition to the average joe from that area).
As much as I feel the need to keep updated on just one in an infinite line of failures on the part of greedy America, I can't but feeling sick to my stomach when I think of the equally infinite consequences this will have on our entire country, if not the world.
Thank you for battery operated cars and solar power!
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