Wonder and Despair

It with wonder that I read reports of a new discovery of two tiny Chameleons off the coast of the island of Madagascar, each of them is less than an inch long. There the things are, having been on earth since time immemorial; and we have only found them now. All this time, throughout the history of the world there they were getting smaller as a result of what is called island dwarfism (a species survival strategy in response to the limited food and space available) WW1 WW2 came and went hotle Michael Jackson and the fall of Apartheid bother them not a bit.

I have wonder for the discovery - (How DID they discover something so small?) wonder for a Creator that has the imagination and planning to make a niche for little things like these. There they are, perfect and tiny, infinitely threatened by pressures of commercial farming and overpopulation.

I despair because they are a poster-reminder of the potential for incredible loss to our world every time we read of greed trumping reason and threatening the preservation of what we have left.

Why aren't we more Mad at BP?

Cast your mind back and back to the Exxon Valdez disaster. There was a disaster that people had no preparation for! Tens of thousands of tons of crude oil dumped in the clean waters of Prince William Sound in Alaskan waters. Remote and beautiful, the grounding of the tanker and subsequent leakage happened too quickly for adequate response to be made. 1300 miles of coastline was covered and 11.000 sq miles of ocean was affected. 11,000 residents worked with the authorities to burn (with limited success), disperse chemically (not enough wave action to mix properly) and scoop or skim the slick. Slow reaction from Exxon was the issue most heavily criticised (heard that before?). From the Valdez disaster, much was learned though, especially in the area of realising that the Sea can actually heal itself, albeit slowly, and that steam cleaning inhibits the natural biological breakdown of the crude. The toll on the wildlife was fearful: 100,000 birds died, 3,000 sea otters and seals, orcas nad salmon were badly affected. Studies in the Sound recently have shown that the long term affects have lasted much longer than was previously thought.

So what will be different in the Gulf of Mexico? Good News is that this is a leakage, not a dumping, so it is slower to come to the suface. It is not remote so help arrived quicker. Technology is more advanced (skimmers suction booms etc are bigger and better). But since the oil leaks from great depth, some of it disperses before it gets to the surface.
- Corporate reaction is still slow
- Blame-games are still being played slowing help
- Public reaction though is muted, though.

So why aren't we madder?

The Valdez wasn't even the worst oil spill. We are ruining the place and sadly lots of people have shown that they don't really care!