Taking One Day to Celebrate the Earth

Michelle Weiner

Earth Day in April 1970, the first Earth day, was paradoxically inspired by a devastating oil spill in Santa Barbara in 1969.  Senator Gaylord Nelson promoted the idea of a national teach-in on the environment, bringing environmental protection to the forefront of the national political dialogue, leading to a lasting legacy of that first Earth Day, the creation of the Environmental Protection Agency. Since the early 1990s, Earth Day has become a global celebration, a day of education and action.  

Today, in addition to celebrating Earth Day, I’d like to pause and remember Earth Day 2010 – which we marked by mourning the beginning of the BP Deepwater Horizon disaster.  On April 20^th of that year an explosion and fire on the drilling rig in the Gulf of Mexico killed eleven people and injured 17 others. For 36 hours the rig burned before sinking. Devastation mounted as oil poured from the under-water well, eventually resulting in 205.8 million gallons of oil and 1.8 million gallons of chemical dispersant released into the Gulf, effecting 665 miles of coastline – an entire bio-region was severely impacted.

This disaster was difficult to contain because of the well’s placement in deep water (5,000 feet). Taking just over two months to cap, it tragically illustrates the heavy toll on the environment that leaves little to celebrate, as oil companies scramble to extract harder-to-reach oil.

Oil that was once thought of as too expensive to extract is now prized, regardless of the risks involved.

Locally, oil scarcity plays out as hydraulic fracturing (fracking), an extraction process that injects thousands of gallons of fluids (water, chemicals and sand; experimentally, bio-slurry) under high pressure into a well, and creating cracks that allow hard-to-extract oil to flow up and out of hydrocarbon-bearing formations.

There is little data on local fracking available and there are currently no reporting requirements in California, although there is evidence that fracking has been used here for years and fracking was used in two wells in the Inglewood Oilfield in January of this year and September of 2011. California’s Division of Oil, Gas and Geothermal Regulations (DOGGR) was given extra funding last year to develop fracking regulations; however, there is still little information that agency can provide, according to a study by the Environmental Working Group  (http://static.ewg.org/reports/2012/fracking/ca_fracking/ca_regulators_see_no_fracking.pdf). The authors recommend specific measures to ensure transparency regarding fracking and to increase our protections (see Footnote).  

The link between oil scarcity, our reliance on petroleum, and our proximity to the Inglewood Oilfields creates a gestalt that’s a call for local action:  reducing our dependency on petroleum. It is an imperative, but how do we go about it?  We can avoid purchasing petroleum-based products, using our creativity to find non-plastic alternatives or to re-purpose what we already own.  More importantly we must face directly into our car addiction and challenge ourselves to de-habituate. Reducing, with its association to dieting, does not sound very celebratory; we are being asked to renew our commitment to deny ourselves.

As we re-calibrate our lives to include making most of our daily trips on foot, by bike or on public transportation, there is much to celebrate. Thinking globally and acting locally has cycled well beyond Earth Day; it’s a way of life for many. In Culver City we are poised to set a higher standard of alternative transportation, as we soon enjoy our connection to the Expo Light Rail system. Throughout the country and the world there are models we can look to and projects we can replicate, and of course there are our own Earth Day dreams to actualize.

Here’s an inspiring video of one such model, about alternative transportation infrastructure in the Netherlands: http://www.streetfilms.org/from-the-netherlands-to-america-translating-the-worlds-best-bikeway-designs/ .

Happy Earth Day…..We Can Do It!

Footnote (Recommendations sited in EWG study):

1. The Division of Oil and Gas should update its fact sheet to clearly acknowledge that fracking is currently taking place in California and has been for decades.

2. The Division should identify and track where fracking is taking place and post the information on a state-run website.

3. California state agencies should develop regulations that require oil and gas companies to disclose what chemicals they are using to frack each well (with volume and concentrations), the amount of water used, the source of the water, and whether any radioactive tracers are being used. This will allow regulators, scientists and landowners to learn what substances to test for in nearby water supplies.

4. Landowners within at least two miles of proposed drilling or fracking operations should be notified and given an opportunity to weigh in on permit decisions.

5. Oil and gas companies should be required to pay for testing and monitoring of nearby groundwater before and after drilling and fracking by independent laboratories selected by potentially affected landowners. The federal EPA recently made a similar recommendation to New York State authorities.

6. Water recycling should be mandatory for oil and gas operations.

7. Because of its inherent risks, drilling and fracking should not be allowed close to residential areas or drinking water sources. The state should rely on the best available science to establish areas where drilling and fracking should be prohibited

Michelle Weiner is the Director of Transition Culver City and a Former Member of the Culver City Martin Luther King, Jr. Planning Committee.