Getting real.

I can make jokes about the oil spill, but it truly is a massive tragedy and systemic problem. This is typically a funny (shut up, it is) blog - but I can also get real.

BP is taking a massive hit for this. They are being blamed and boycotted for this oil spill. For good reason, but they are far from alone in terms of blame. This event did not happen in a vacuum.

My solution to this problem is, somewhat paradoxically, more drilling. BP's oil rig was drilling in 5000+ feet of water. A relatively new frontier for oil drilling. The fact that this is a deep water leak is the primary problem. The reason this spill is so hard to stop and contain is that it is under a mile of water. Maybe, if things had gone differently, it shouldn't be.

Oil companies have been forced further offshore and into deeper waters. Environmentalists will point to this as reason the oil must be drilled further from the coast, when in fact, they are the reason it is being done this way. Environmentalists pushed for safe zones close to coasts and cried foul over drilling in Alaska.

This oil spill would not have happened in 1000 feet of water. This oil spill would not have happened in Alaska. I am not blaming environmentalists for this spill, but perhaps their logic needs to be examined. Maybe their moralist crusade, making up in shrillness what it lacks in logic, needs to be curtailed. Maybe we need a more scientific and reasonable debate when it comes to these "green" concerns.

The environment is a problem. The environmental problems need to be fixed. This religious fervor and dogmatic guilt party is not the way. If we could have a reasonable discourse in this field, perhaps logic would win the day and we wouldn't have small problems overtake big problems and avoid catastrophes like this in the future.

More drilling, more nuclear power. We can do this safely and productively.