I'd substitute the word "responsibility" for "fault" ... I don't own a car, for example, and don't want one. But, when I did own one, if electric cars had been available, I would have gladly bought one.

I never voted for a politician based on the price of gas and would have welcomed higher gas prices, if for no other reason than it might have made people think twice before getting in the car to go a few blocks. And it literally drives me nuts to see so many people driving around in large cars by themselves. It also surprises me how many people leave lights and air conditioners on in unoccupied rooms.

Realistically, people can't be expected to give up their lives, to stop traveling, to not be able to eat what they want, and so on. But it's time for all of us to take responsibility for the choices we make. We should also be given reasonable, practical options so that we can have real choices in the first place, and should be informed as to the implications of those decisions. Making those options available is something, sadly, that often rests in the hands of others.

Indeed, this is very true

This is not what I wanted to hear. But seriously, WRP is, as usual, right as rain.

BP still needs to be excoriated over it, bankrupted even, even though that will be yet another nail in our economic coffin.

The repuglicans need to be ran out of office, too - along with the too-moderate, business-centered democrats. But neither of those will fix the problem that only we can fix.

If the Federal Reserve can print money to bail out Wall Street and AIG - why can't they print money to fund development of alternative energy? If we applied the same fervor and CASH to the problem, like we did to get to the moon 40 years ago - what couldn't we accomplish??

This is exactly on point. If your born into this system you have no choice but to live in it. I drive an old small pick up that gets better mileage than any new pick up, I also have an old diesel suv that runs on bio and gets better mileage than any new suv. You have to do the best you can in the system you live in and you have to pay the bills.
This spill is the fault of the rich,the greedy, deregulation, and corporations searching for max profit( which is also the fault of the rich).
Its not my fault that cars are being made that get 16 mpg around town and it's not possible to get affordable electricity. In my town if you go solar you can only sell back to the utility company the amount of electricity you use, excess is given to non-profits. That limits the size system you'll do, a system that could power much more that my house could go on my property but I can't afford a $20,000 system if the power cand be sold back. Again the rich set up the system.
Its a mistake to blame the masses who can basically only consume what industry decides to sell to them.
QUIT BLAMINGTHE WORKING MASSES!

I don't quite agree with your statements. Many of us do "realize how mortally dangerous it all is." And have been yelling and screaming about it for years....and have cast our votes accordingly....to no avail. All one has to do is look at the saga of the electric car. It did exist in the mid '90's. It was viable, efficient, affordable. AND IT WAS CRUSHED AND SHREDDED by the very company that marketed it.....GM. And whom did we, the tax payer, have to bail out just recently? Why none other than GM....inventor of The Hummer! No, sir, many of us have warned of the dangers over the years. We have made the necessary suggestion. We have individually tried to conserve, try to institute environmental changes. We have tried to buy locally and live greenly. But, alas, only the rich can afford to do so. No, sir, I do not accept responsibility for the disaster unfolding in the Gulf. American ingenuity could have saved us from such disasters years ago. It was American greed that prevented such saving!

We can start by encouraging our local governments to improve public transportation. More buses, subways, trains. The reason we are dependent on the automobile is that too often that is the only mode of transportation. New York City has the best transportation system in the country. In Europe, the Paris Metro is superb. Train travel in Europe is fast and efficient. Why has that bypassed most of the U.S.? My husband and I have driven a hybrid since 2002. It's roomy, handles beautifully, and saves on gas. We encourage others to do the same.

This victim's not taking any more of this Pitt! We've been trying to buy ELECTRIC CARS since upping a $Billion or so In 1995, are waiting to buy solar/ electric roof film to power them, our homes and our economy (JOBS! JOBS! JOBS!) and though recently we've OWNED the banks and car companies; can't get 'em, or even PROMISED single-payer health care for the sociopathies inflicted upon US ALL by these Corporate CRIMINALS and their (s)elected gummint BAGMEN! It is their fault and their fault alone; We, the People must change their NAPPYS (No Account President(s) and Parties of Yoo're Screwed)!! Take NO incumbents!!!

Mostly I agree w/this article too, yet I'm reminded of a paper I wrote 20 yrs ago for an ecology class predicting GREED would lead to an unrecoverable ENVIRONMENTAL DISASTER. There is no way to comprehend the scope or spread of long-term damage from the toxins released by BP into the fragile underwater environment of the Gulf. The technology for electric cars was available over 30 yrs ago, this is just one example of how big oil and govt greed have given Americans no choice but to "add to the blame" as Mr. Pitt describes it. Pitt may right that we are also to blame, just for the wrong reasons...

For my money, changing our lifestyle is the answer; beating our heads against the wall trying to convince the government to regulate the marketplace to clean up their methods and stop selling destructive stuff is a noble cause, and I wouldn’t let up on it for a second, but an even better strategy would be to just stop BUYING IT ALL! As long as people are making money, the status quo has too much invested it itself to change much; real change is going to take place when enough people change their buying patterns, hopefully in time to have some healthy resources left on the planet to work with. Just redeeming your own little carbon footprint a tad, recycling your own trash, using less gas, water, and such, is great, but everyone knows it’s not enough. Everyone’s feeling guilty and frustrated to make bigger strides, but where do you start to rewrite your lifestyle, when you’re still in the busy throes of trying to maintain it?

I read an inspirational article recently that I want to share, about a guy known as the Ultimate Cheapskate, who rode his bike across the country interviewing people who have dropped out of their rat races, and found the joys of a simpler lifestyle. I’m jealous. I don’t know if I’ll ever have the courage to be as drastic a vanguard as any of them, but I’ve found their words echoing in my head at the mall and market the last few days, and I’m excited about the change, I want to foster it, encourage to grow. In some ways I think I’m wanting to (re)discover the hippie ethos I was born just too late to feel full-on, toward a much simpler, greener, shopping list, for me and for the planet.

The story was in the AARP magazine I get in the mail, a publication that comes with a discount card I get for the post-middle-aged, for coupons and such.
http://www.aarp.org/money/budgeting-saving/info-05-2010/leap-to-cheap.html

The article's author, Jeff Yeager, has a number of books on the subject of frugal living that I haven’t had a chance to check out yet, but I plan to read more, see if any of the ideas fit. His website is http://ultimatecheapskate.com/index.cgi

No - I refuse to take any of the responsibility for BP running shoddy and irresponsible operation. That is in no way my fault. It is theirs and theirs only.

What a load of bulls**t!! It's not our fault that BP
chose to be negligent in their operation. It is a corrupt corporation that cares for nothing except its profits.
Also had a hand in the overthrow of a legally elected government in Iran in 1953.

I don't accept the blame for this disaster in any way shape or form. The 'A' holes who reversed Jimmy Carter's conservation ideas, down-sized federal regulatory agencies, stocked the agencies responsible for oversight with toadies and cronies and laughed all the way to the bank profiting off all that are the ones responsible. And if anyone cares to notice they are the same people who today own the media and are preventing the average American from realizing who is to blame by blaming everything possible on Obama.

Wake up Sheeple!

It's alsol YOUR fault it you support auto racing in any way, shape, or form.

We have , all of us, essentially been placed in a maze from the moment of our birth in this country. Like trained ,obedient rats we have run the gauntlet buying and consuming every new gadget and machine, no matter the environmental implications because that's what we were told by our mass marketed culture to do. In the early days of WWll this country was able to mobilize almost overnight to produce vast amounts of the materials we needed to win that conflict. That type of mobilization, enforced by a up to now worthless corrupt government, is needed badly. Both political parties are to blame with the GOP edging out their Dem counterparts in the open acceptance of big business crafted legislation, but with the Dems perhaps more to blame because we, as working people, expected them to be on our side. Either way, we've been had. Sacrifice should not be reserved for a few Soldiers and Marines, and sticking a support the troops sticker on your SUV is a poor excuse for quite literally pumping blood into your tank. America, collectively, should be hanging her head. Good article WRP!

To "Anonymous" above @ "Fri, 06/11/2010 - 23:10", did that, or is that, working in Europe? They pay, including in the United Kingdom, three or four or more times higher gas prices than we do. Has that caused most of them to stop driving; or produce, buy and drive nothing but 100% electric cars, or even mostly hybrid cars? Yes, they have efficient mass transportation in the cities, and trains from town to town or city to city if you can afford them (fortunately for them, especially in Germany, their wages are much higher, with much more benefits, than we get), but that doesn't stop them, as here in the U.S. it doesn't stop us either, from continuing to drive relatively-gas-guzzling cars just to drive across town or the city.

The problem is, most people just don't care. They don't care about the environment. They don't care about what's happening in the Gulf of Mexico. They don't care about or for recycling, and won't bother, especially in the U.S. even though it's been around for, what, at least thirty years? They don't care about the fact that they should walk down the street, or a few blocks, to the grocery store, instead of driving there. All of this is a worldwide phenomena. Perhaps we Americans, per capita, are (much?) worse, but I don't think we're much worse...

I disagree. Simply owning or using anything that uses the oil does not make us responsible for the spill in the gulf. We as a society have created a system that extracts fossil fuels from the earth. Only certain people who failed to keep that system in check can be held responsible for what has happened in the gulf. Yes, we as humans understand that there are limited recourses in the world that we are using. That being said they are key to certain technologies which have revolutionized the way we live. I buy gas from companies assuming they will get their gas in an environmentally safe way, when they fail to do so they have let their customers (all of us) down. Yes I have allowed gas prices to influence the way I vote if you didn't you aren't considering the political views of who you are voting for nor are you considering the standard of living. Simply because we use a service we cannot be blamed because the service has failed us.

Lets start by taking responsibility right now.
Obama has put a moritorium on new drilling in the gulf. There is pressure from the four states to open up the drilling. lets support Obama in permanently stopping the drilling in the gulf.

"Many of us do 'realize how mortally dangerous it all is.' And have been yelling and screaming about it for years....and have cast our votes accordingly....to no avail. All one has to do is look at the saga of the electric car."

The point is that those who act for monetary profit at the expense of all other things are an effective majority in the world. If the effort to mass produce the electric car was crushed, it was because the forces at play to kill it was greater than the forces at play to bring it to life.

Any such movement or result is the sum of all forces. Consider the failed effort to privatize Social Security. It has failed (so far) because there are large forces arrayed against it, namely, the great numbers of those who fear immediate detriment to their financial situations should the current structure of Social Security be changed.

If there is no net movement *as a society* toward the more sustainable practices and safeguarding of our environment, it can only be because those of us who are not interested enough in such things to effect change, number more than those of us who are.

"We have tried to buy locally and live greenly. But, alas, only the rich can afford to do so."

This statement is true only if one counts cost or judges value only in terms of that social fiction and much abused tool called money. We are a society that, given the choice of taking a container of money or a container of water for a trip through a desert, has so mistaken something meant only as a very crude measure of value for something of true worth, that we have taken the money for our journey, while leaving behind the water.

I fully support higher taxes on gasoline and other petroleum-based products in order to fund alternative energy research and better public transportation systems. The problem is that this country, in its current political climate, is so geared against taxes really of any sort, and is brainwashed that raising taxes at all is advancing socialism that the chances of tax legislation ever being so much as written for consideration is a long shot.

The "we're all to blame" position well serves the interests of the ruling class when it causes a disaster of biblical proportions whether environmental, political, social, financial or otherwise. It makes it seem as though we are all on the same side or that "mistakes were made". We are not on the same side. They control the levers of power. We do not. Next thing you know, I'll be hearing about bringing change through my support of either the right hand or the far right hand of the status quo.

Someone was omitted from the list of the guilty: those who bought houses in suburbs where it is impossible to walk to a store. Trouble is, we have painted ourselves into a corner as far as housing and energy use are concerned. Next time you visit a suburban mall, take a good look around at the size of the parking lot, the number of cars and the paucity of safe places to walk to get there. It will atke massive investment to get out of this mess. Entire neighborhoods, roads, shops and all the appurtenances of life will have to be redesigned .

That may be, but there are many out there who's hands are stained with far more oil than others. 1st: Vote OUT the Drill, Baby, Drill crowd, for they are undeniably the puppets of the oil companies. 2. Make a list of life-style choices to train yourself to do without TODAY. 3. Repeat until we have renewable energy resources and a government that is not run by Big Oil, Big Banks and Big Insurance.

No, it's NOT my fault.

Excuse me, but I don't drive an automobile. I take public transportation.

I unplug my appliances when I'm done with them.

I put on extra layers of clothing during the winter instead of turning up the heat.

I do not use air conditioning in the summertime.

If you do these four things, then your oil consumption dramatically reduces.

Oh, and by the way, just because we use oil does not let BP off the hook. BP should be eviscerated for what it's done to its employees, to the environment, and to the people of the Gulf Coast. Remember that, Mr. Pitt.

FAULT REQUIRES CHOICE

Show me the list of jobs that will pay a living wage which I can reach on a bike, which will accept me coming in drenched and muddy on rainy days, stinking and sweaty on hot ones, and an hour late when it snows. Show me the dealers who sell all-electric or air-powered cars: the repair shops which will service them: the apartments with recharge stations in their parking spaces. Show me the markets which provide only locally produced foods (and how to get my perishables home in my backpack, on my bike, without my milk going sour or my eggs getting broken. Show me how I can be regarded by the majority as a sane member of society and not a "tree-hugging leftover hippy" when I attempt anything but the most basic environmentally sound changes in my life.

Corporate greed, mass production and a system of commerce founded on forcing us back to the pump once a week has created a social structure which traps us into the cycle of self-destructive consumption. Did I vote for it? Do I want it? Do I have a choice that will change it?

Show me the choices I could have made with allow me to be accepted by my peers as a rational member of society, and I will accept that this is my fault. Until then, place the blame where it belongs: oil companies, auto companies and the politicians they buy and sell.

Give me a lever long enough and a place to stand, and I may move the world. Take away the social influence of everything but the dollar, and you have America. The love of money truly is the root of all evil.

Big Government or big business

Who do you trust giving the recent problems Of America?
Should we go on deregulating and fearing the Government that was set up for we the people?
Big business or corporations cannot have us trusting or being involved with our Government and so they teach us to fear it while behind our backs, They go make deals with our once honest politicians and turn them to the dark side.
Deregulation was our biggest mistake All it did was give big business and corporations a free license to raise prices and keep the little guy in debt, They even control us with drugs we do not need if we would exorcise and not take a chance at all the side effects we will get from there controlling drugs.

http://www.archives.gov/exhibits/charters/declaration.html

I've been thinking about this one since I first read it, I thought about it all weekend. And as a little experiment I started a personal boycott of plastic. Such a little thing except it is literally impossible to boycott plastics 100%.

I agree with you that this is our fault, too. But people, at least some people, will do the right thing if they have the chance. Look at how popular the electric car was, until it was killed (and not by we the people). So to some extent we are trapped in the maze we've allowed to be created around us. Not only do we have to break out, but the maze needs to be breakable. And we are so OWNED by big businesses that the maze is nearly unbreakable.

Won't stop me from trying tho!

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