Thursday, September 2, New Orleans, Louisiana--This morning the Gulf of Mexico was again assaulted by yet another oil disaster – an oil disaster rooted in capitalism, and one that shows – once again – that this system is not a fit caretaker of the planet.
Around 9:00 am, near Vermilion Bay, some 100 miles off the coast of southwest Louisiana (about 200 miles west of BP’s Deepwater Horizon rig), an oil and natural gas production platform run by Mariner Energy of Houston exploded and caught fire. Thankfully no one was killed, and the 13 from the platform were rescued.
There are conflicting reports about whether another oil slick is now fouling the Gulf: the Coast Guard reported an oil sheen 100 feet wide and a mile long. Mariner denied this, claiming the platform had not been in production at the time of the explosion. (The New York Times reports that Mariner has stated that the platform produced some “9.2 million cubic feet of natural gas a day and 1,400 barrels of oil and condensate” during the last week of August.)
In any case, this latest explosion shows that oil disasters like the BP blow-out are not rare “accidents,” the result of one “bad company,” or random events. They are the product of the capitalist system, and its ruthless, profit-above all compulsion to extract massive quantities of fossil fuels whatever the cost to the environment and the people.
Even before the BP oil blow-out was capped there’s been a drumbeat from industry and government to resume oil drilling – to “drill, baby, drill.” It’s proponents claimed that drilling can be done safely – one company – BP – just happened to have one unusual problem at one well. This latest horror shows that under capitalism these claims are lies – that capitalism’s ruthless chase after profit and control of resources means that spills, accidents, disasters, and blow-outs happen all the time. The platform that blew up today has been “the site of at least four accidents — two of them fires — since 2000, according to federal records,” The New York Times reports. And Mariner operates 195 other platforms in the Gulf of Mexico. And this platform is in 340 feet of water – proving shallow-water oil production isn’t safe under this system either.
No doubt more details will be emerging in coming days about the causes and scope of this disaster. But we don’t have to wait days and weeks to understand that capitalism is not a fit caretaker of the planet (see Revolution’s (www.revcom.us) coverage and analysis of the capitalist roots of the BP oil catastrophe, links below).
As Raymond Lotta has written: “Things don't have to be this way. Under a radically different system, the tremendous wealth and technology that exist could and should be a resource shared by all of humanity and used to meet the needs of people everywhere for decent and fulfilling lives and to safeguard the planet we live on. We encourage readers to get into the articles ‘Communism and Ecology: How Revolution Opens the Way for Humanity to Confront the Environmental Crisis and Become Caretakers of the Planet’ and ‘Some Key Principles of Socialist Sustainable Development,’ which are part of the recent special issue of Revolution newspaper on the environment.”
So join us in building – right now -- a movement for all-the-way emancipatory revolution that includes taking up major social battles such as around the environment—while projecting and popularizing our vision of a whole new world. "The Revolution We Need… the Leadership We Have," is a campaign aimed at making big leaps in this revolutionary movement. Everyone concerned and outraged about the state of the world should check this out and find ways to join in.
Revolution #209, August 15, 2010
"Damage Control" and the Real Damage Done Gulf Oil Disaster Is NOT Over
by Orpheus Reed
Revolution #209, July 26, 2010
The Capitalist Oil Catastrophe Is NOT Over People Must Act to Stop It
by Larry Everest
Revolution #201, May 16, 2010
The Oil Spill Disaster… And a System NOT Fit to Be the Planet's Caretakers
Raymond Lotta
Revolution #199, April 18, 2010
Special Issue on the Environment
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