My study of pot use has supplied me with a gradual understanding of the degree to which denial is a form of intellectual dishonesty, one all too characteristic of human behavior. That, in turn, brought some other human vulnerabilities into greater focus. To a degree I could not have imagined a few months ago, recent events in the Gulf of Mexico may have started the clock on a doomsday scenario consistent with my worst fears. That it also involves Mexico, the most recent subject of my “drug related” concerns , simply adds to the irony. To put it as succinctly as possible: evolving events in the Gulf since April 20, in combination with the world’s swollen human population, together with our tendency to deny obvious problems and our basic insecurity, may have already intensified the current economic “downturn” enough to make escape uncertain, at best.
The reasons are relatively straightforward: the Exxon-Valdez disaster, with which the gulf “spill” is being compared, was limited from the beginning by the size of the tanker. A runaway leak from a breached well one mile below the surface is potentially unlimited; neither its rate nor its effects can even be measured, particularly until we know if it can be shut off; let alone how long that might take.
In the meantime, a rich ecosystem is being poisoned and a cascade of devastating economic consequences has been set in motion in a world already reeling from an unprecedented burden of debt; yet the concerns being voiced by world “leaders” are as pedestrian as always.
Need I say more?
