Responsibility?

The blame game is well under way as President Obama says he holds BP totally responsible for the oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico, while BP has accused its American subsidiary running the rig as having failed.  The American people are starting to blame the Obama administration meanwhile.

What is being overlooked here is that we are all to blame.  If there were not the consumer demand for oil and the willingness to pay for it, for our ease, comfort and power, there would not be the relentless quest to find more oil wherever it is.  Only now are the implications of our greed becoming clear.

I have a sense that this leak - far more devastating than has been admitted - will affect more than the US.  How will the British and Irish respond, I wonder, if oil begins to wash up  on these shores too?

I look at the oil tank in my garden with a heavy heart and the hope that this incident will precipitate the quest for truly clean energy.  It is out there, I know.  All it takes is the determined will of all of us to make it happen.