As an environmental historian who has worked on fisheries-related issues, for more than two decades, I’m not surprised by the popular discourse surrounding the calamatous oil gusher still pumping millions of gallons of crude uncontrollably into the Gulf of Mexico. It is only the most recent assault in a long, destructive and attrocious campaign waged by humans in an effort to expand their exploitation of the planet's dwindling resources. The most frequent questions that have arisen from this latest environmental crisis could have been written in advance out of the rhetoric of the last crisis. We hear people asking: "What does this mean for fishermen and their ‘way of life’", "What does this mean for tourism and the dollars tourists bring to the region?", "What does this mean for the political futures of this politician or that one?", "What will this mean for the price of shrimp, or the availability of oysters?" In short, "What does this mean for us?" |
continued at Daily Kos....
