OIL!

apparently, oil is a problematic energy source?

*WHAAAAAT?!?!?!?*

I know, i know. it is i, bringer of radical new ideas.

anyway, went and saw a speaker at school tonight: Lisa Margonelli, author of the book "Oil on the Brain: Adventures from the Pump to the Pipeline"and here's a link to her book's website: http://www.oilonthebrain.com/.

one of the interesting things she had to say was how she had to change some beliefs she held after she went to different countries and got to see oil in a context that was overtly exploitational- one of them being that drilling in Alaska is an absolute no-no. Then she saw Chad, and the unregulated hell dimension that oil drilling in that area engenders, and she decided that given the choice, morality would dictate that Alaska would be less diabolical, primarily because it would be regulated, and thus about 1000 times less likely to give residents of the area um... damn, it's on the tip of my tongue. oh... you know.... flippers? that's it. flippers. that's what i was trying to say.

it's oil-is-evil month at my school, so there's a pictoral thing in the library. here's some of those. they're cell-phone pictures of pictures, but you get the idea. if you're confused about what a guy in a hammock or a boy making a screamy face has to do with oil, just assume that they're either deformed or dying or both.

you know, i've never been really politically or environmentally fixated, but this stupid college bullshit is forcing me to understand things more completely and to give a shit more than i would have particularly cared to. i mean, i've always known that the world is a fucked up place (duh!) but when you start to learn about the specifics, and the specifics about how the way shit is now and about how the process of humanity has essentially been fucked up in exactly the same way for forever... it's pretty bleak. makes me want to make sepia-toned abstract art films about cigarettes and potatos in the former soviet union that reveal greater truths about humanity.