Leaders, come on down to clean up your mess

'Externalities' is too nice of a word. Human and environmental 'externalities' need to be seen as more than externalities - they are the centre of those people's lives - centralities.  The spread sheets of everyone who has used oil to survive are too white and clean to be considered accurate - and that includes yours truly. As Bob Herbert recently said in the NY Times, America is selling its soul for oil. Not only its own soul, but the souls of hundereds of communities around the world who are suffering from what Kendra brilliantly calls 'unnatural disasters'. And as she pointed out, its not just an ecological disaster - its entire livelihoods.

The environmental catastrophe - 110 neotropical migratory birds are coming - right now - to rest in the wetlands and many of them aren't going to be taking flight again; the oysters, shrimp, and other wetland resources; the sheer physical beauty of mother nature - is very, very large. BP is getting some serious reputation damage as a result of its lack of truthfulnes, humility and humanity. And while they might be deemed responsible for much of it, it is unlikely that their responsibility will be required to stretch to the lives of the people along the coast whose livelihoods are now ruined.

Yet the people on the ground are, right now, cleaning up the mess. This seems, at best, unfair and inhumane. Why can't the executives of BP come and clean up with them? And BP is hardly the only culprit. Government does - and probably will - take a lot of the blame. But so too should consumers, the fertiliser companies and auto industry that use the oil, the politicans who set the rules, the civil servants who do the work when the politicans are giving speeches. They should all come down to wetlands and clean up the mess, shoulder to shoulder with the fishermen. It might 'only' be symbolic - it might only be for a day. But it will be humane. And without our humanity, any hope of sustainability is lost.