Oil disaster has to be wake-up call

Given its enormity, the environmental disaster unfolding in the Gulf in Mexico should be the last one of its kind. While official estimates place the oil “leak” at 5,000 barrels a day, more sobering analyses place it at 100,000 barrels a day, making it an oil “volcano” with no end in sight.

What makes this event so tragic is that it was totally preventable, and even worse, its impact on our country’s wildlife, fisheries, tourism and local economy is completely inestimable at this point. Whether the oil contamination will spread up the Atlantic coast and whether efforts to contain it will be hampered by the inevitable hurricanes remains to be seen.

This disaster should awaken us to the myriad of other man-made environmental catastrophes that are occurring. Annually, 81 tons of mercury enter the atmosphere as a result of coal-fired electrical generators, and farmland greater than the area of Scotland is lost to erosion plus urban sprawl across the globe.

Every day, more than 100 plant and animal species become extinct and 13 million tons of toxic chemicals are released. Currently, every square mile of ocean averages 46,000 pieces of floating plastic. In the last 100 years, 90 percent of the large ocean fish have disappeared and in the last 30 years, 50 percent of the world’s forests have been destroyed.

By all measures, wherever we look, an environmental tipping point has been reached. A future for humankind and other life forms is not possible without a transformational change in how each of us treats our environment.

We must use the highly visible, expanding “dead zone” of the Gulf as the rallying point for our very survival. Each of us must become an environmental activist. Not only do we have to live in an environmentally friendly and sustainable way, but we must demand that our government enact strict environmental laws and vigorously enforce them. Failure to act now is no longer an option.

Marshall F. Goldberg

Oak Harbor