“A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush.”
When I would be asked whether I was for or against off-shore drilling, my reply would invariably have something to do with this age-old adage. In the wake of the recent accident and resulting oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, it isn’t hard to understand why future plans of off-shore drilling may be in jeopardy. In my book, that’s just fine.
Back to that adage, drilling for oil under the sea near shorelines never made much sense to me, precisely because of the danger of spills. I’m not a tree-hugger – I’m a pragmatist. Right now they are tracking the movement of that spill as it moves closer to the shoreline. It is endangering industries of all kinds in that region. We can expect to see higher prices for not only oil, but also seafood like shrimp. The shipping industry of the region will suffer as well, since it’s doubtful that mariners consider it a “good” thing to sail through the spill.
Then there’s a potential for damage to the shorelines, and tourism to the region. Sorry, but oil-laden beaches aren’t going to be a draw for travelers. That certainly isn’t what the region needs, particularly since it hasn’t completely come back from the damage done by Katrina and other storms. Take into account the current nationwide economic problems, and this spells disaster for many sectors of the gulf shore economy.
Sure, the argument could be made that there will be at least temporary jobs there to aid in the clean-up, but that’s not even certain. For now, there is talk of contracting fishermen to aid in containment of the spill, and training volunteers and prison inmates to clean the shores and help wildlife. Once the fishermen take what they can from their usual routes, of course they’ll take the government up on the contract offers. It’s not like they’ll be able to do anything else to earn a dollar.
We had fishing, shrimping, shipping, and tourism industries in the gulf region. They were our bird in the hand. Getting the oil from under the sea was the two birds in the bush. Time will tell whether or not trying to get the oil was worth sacrificing all of the other industries in the region. Guess I’d better get out to get a nice shrimp dinner while I can still afford it.
Tags: BP, Gulf of Mexico, Oil Spill
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