0:00:01.000,0:00:04.000 This is the ocean as I used to know it. 0:00:04.000,0:00:06.000 And I find that 0:00:06.000,0:00:08.000 since I've been in the Gulf a couple of times, 0:00:08.000,0:00:10.000 I really kind of am traumatized 0:00:10.000,0:00:13.000 because whenever I look at the ocean now, 0:00:13.000,0:00:15.000 no matter where I am, 0:00:15.000,0:00:17.000 even where I know 0:00:17.000,0:00:19.000 none of the oil has gone, 0:00:19.000,0:00:21.000 I sort of see slicks, 0:00:21.000,0:00:23.000 and I'm finding that I'm very much 0:00:23.000,0:00:25.000 haunted by it. 0:00:26.000,0:00:28.000 But what I want to talk to you about today 0:00:28.000,0:00:30.000 is a lot of things that try 0:00:30.000,0:00:32.000 to put all of this in context, 0:00:32.000,0:00:35.000 not just about the oil eruption, 0:00:35.000,0:00:38.000 but what it means and why it has happened. 0:00:38.000,0:00:40.000 First, just a little bit about me. 0:00:40.000,0:00:42.000 I'm basically just a guy that likes to go fishing 0:00:42.000,0:00:44.000 ever since I was a little kid, 0:00:44.000,0:00:46.000 and because I did, 0:00:46.000,0:00:48.000 I wound up studying sea birds 0:00:48.000,0:00:51.000 to try to stay in the coastal habitats that I so loved. 0:00:51.000,0:00:53.000 And now I mainly write books 0:00:53.000,0:00:55.000 about how the ocean is changing, 0:00:55.000,0:00:58.000 and the ocean is certainly changing very rapidly. 0:00:58.000,0:01:01.000 Now we saw this kind of graphic earlier on, 0:01:01.000,0:01:04.000 that we really live on a hard marble 0:01:04.000,0:01:06.000 that has just a slight 0:01:06.000,0:01:08.000 bit of wetness to it. 0:01:08.000,0:01:10.000 It's like you dipped a marble in water. 0:01:10.000,0:01:12.000 And the same thing with the atmosphere: 0:01:12.000,0:01:14.000 If you took all the atmosphere 0:01:14.000,0:01:16.000 and rolled it up in a ball, 0:01:16.000,0:01:18.000 you would get that little sphere of gas on the right. 0:01:18.000,0:01:20.000 So we live on 0:01:20.000,0:01:23.000 the most fragile, little soap bubble you can imagine, 0:01:23.000,0:01:25.000 a very sacred soap bubble, 0:01:25.000,0:01:28.000 but one that is very, very easy to affect. 0:01:28.000,0:01:31.000 And all the burning of oil and coal and gas, 0:01:31.000,0:01:33.000 all the fossil fuels, 0:01:33.000,0:01:35.000 have changed the atmosphere greatly. 0:01:35.000,0:01:38.000 Carbon dioxide level has gone up and up and up. 0:01:38.000,0:01:41.000 We're warming the climate. 0:01:41.000,0:01:43.000 So the blowout in the Gulf 0:01:43.000,0:01:45.000 is just a little piece 0:01:45.000,0:01:48.000 of a much larger problem that we have 0:01:48.000,0:01:51.000 with the energy that we use to run civilization. 0:01:51.000,0:01:53.000 Beyond warming, 0:01:53.000,0:01:56.000 we have the problem of the oceans getting more acidified -- 0:01:56.000,0:01:58.000 and already measurably so, 0:01:58.000,0:02:01.000 and already affecting animals. 0:02:01.000,0:02:03.000 Now in the laboratory, 0:02:03.000,0:02:05.000 if you take a clam and you put it in the pH 0:02:05.000,0:02:07.000 that is -- not 8.1, 0:02:07.000,0:02:09.000 which is the normal pH of seawater -- 0:02:09.000,0:02:11.000 but 7.5, 0:02:11.000,0:02:14.000 it dissolves in about three days. 0:02:14.000,0:02:16.000 If you take a sea urchin larva 0:02:16.000,0:02:18.000 from 8.1, 0:02:18.000,0:02:20.000 put it in a pH of 7.7 -- 0:02:20.000,0:02:22.000 not a huge change -- 0:02:22.000,0:02:25.000 it becomes deformed and dies. 0:02:25.000,0:02:28.000 And already, commercial oyster larvae 0:02:28.000,0:02:30.000 are dying at large scales 0:02:30.000,0:02:32.000 in some places. 0:02:32.000,0:02:34.000 Coral reefs are growing slower 0:02:34.000,0:02:36.000 in some places because of this problem. 0:02:36.000,0:02:38.000 So this really matters. 0:02:38.000,0:02:40.000 Now, let's take a little tour 0:02:40.000,0:02:42.000 around the Gulf a little bit. 0:02:42.000,0:02:45.000 One of the things that really impresses me about the people in the Gulf: 0:02:45.000,0:02:48.000 They are really, really aquatic people. 0:02:48.000,0:02:50.000 And they can handle water. 0:02:50.000,0:02:52.000 They can handle a hurricane that comes and goes. 0:02:52.000,0:02:55.000 When the water goes down, they know what to do. 0:02:55.000,0:02:57.000 But when it's something other than water, 0:02:57.000,0:02:59.000 and their water habitat changes, 0:02:59.000,0:03:01.000 they don't have many options. 0:03:01.000,0:03:03.000 In fact, those entire communities 0:03:03.000,0:03:05.000 really don't have many options. 0:03:05.000,0:03:08.000 They don't have another thing they can do. 0:03:08.000,0:03:10.000 They can't go and work 0:03:10.000,0:03:12.000 in the local hotel business 0:03:12.000,0:03:15.000 because there isn't one in their community. 0:03:16.000,0:03:18.000 If you go to the Gulf and you look around, 0:03:18.000,0:03:20.000 you do see a lot of oil. 0:03:20.000,0:03:22.000 You see a lot of oil on the ocean. 0:03:22.000,0:03:25.000 You see a lot of oil on the shoreline. 0:03:25.000,0:03:27.000 If you go to the site of the blowout, 0:03:27.000,0:03:29.000 it looks pretty unbelievable. 0:03:29.000,0:03:32.000 It looks like you just emptied the oil pan in your car, 0:03:32.000,0:03:34.000 and you just dumped it in the ocean. 0:03:34.000,0:03:37.000 And one of the really most incredible things, I think, 0:03:37.000,0:03:39.000 is that there's nobody out there 0:03:39.000,0:03:41.000 trying to collect it 0:03:41.000,0:03:44.000 at the site where it is densest. 0:03:44.000,0:03:46.000 Parts of the ocean there 0:03:46.000,0:03:49.000 look just absolutely apocalyptic. 0:03:50.000,0:03:52.000 You go in along the shore, 0:03:52.000,0:03:54.000 you can find it everywhere. 0:03:54.000,0:03:56.000 It's really messy. 0:03:56.000,0:03:58.000 If you go to the places where it's just arriving, 0:03:58.000,0:04:01.000 like the eastern part of the Gulf, in Alabama, 0:04:01.000,0:04:03.000 there's still people using the beach 0:04:03.000,0:04:05.000 while there are people cleaning up the beach. 0:04:05.000,0:04:08.000 And they have a very strange way of cleaning up the beach. 0:04:08.000,0:04:10.000 They're not allowed to put more than 10 pounds of sand 0:04:10.000,0:04:12.000 in a 50-gallon plastic bag. 0:04:12.000,0:04:14.000 They have thousands and thousands of plastic bags. 0:04:14.000,0:04:16.000 I don't know what they're going to do with all that stuff. 0:04:16.000,0:04:18.000 Meanwhile, there are still people trying to use the beach. 0:04:18.000,0:04:20.000 They don't see the little, tiny sign 0:04:20.000,0:04:22.000 that says: "Stay out of the water." 0:04:22.000,0:04:24.000 Their kids are in the water; they're getting tar 0:04:24.000,0:04:27.000 all over their clothes and their sandals. It's a mess. 0:04:27.000,0:04:29.000 If you go to the place where the oil has been a while, 0:04:29.000,0:04:31.000 it's an even bigger mess. 0:04:31.000,0:04:34.000 And there's basically nobody there anymore, 0:04:34.000,0:04:36.000 a few people trying 0:04:36.000,0:04:38.000 to keep using it. 0:04:38.000,0:04:40.000 You see people who are really shell-shocked. 0:04:40.000,0:04:42.000 They are very hardworking people. 0:04:42.000,0:04:44.000 All they know about life is they get up in the morning, 0:04:44.000,0:04:47.000 and if their engine starts, they go to work. 0:04:47.000,0:04:50.000 They always felt that they could rely on 0:04:50.000,0:04:52.000 the assurances that nature brought them 0:04:52.000,0:04:54.000 through the ecosystem of the Gulf. 0:04:54.000,0:04:57.000 They're finding that their world is really collapsing. 0:04:57.000,0:05:00.000 And so you can see, literally, 0:05:00.000,0:05:03.000 signs of their shock, 0:05:05.000,0:05:08.000 signs of their outrage, 0:05:10.000,0:05:13.000 signs of their anger, 0:05:17.000,0:05:20.000 and signs of their grief. 0:05:20.000,0:05:23.000 These are the things that you can see. 0:05:25.000,0:05:27.000 There's a lot you can't see, also, 0:05:27.000,0:05:29.000 underwater. 0:05:29.000,0:05:31.000 What's going on underwater? 0:05:31.000,0:05:33.000 Well, some people say 0:05:33.000,0:05:35.000 there are oil plumes. 0:05:35.000,0:05:38.000 Some people say there are not oil plumes. 0:05:38.000,0:05:41.000 And Congressman Markey asks, you know, 0:05:41.000,0:05:44.000 "Is it going to take a submarine ride 0:05:44.000,0:05:47.000 to see if there are really oil plumes?" 0:05:47.000,0:05:49.000 But I couldn't take a submarine ride -- 0:05:49.000,0:05:52.000 especially between the time I knew I was coming here and today -- 0:05:52.000,0:05:54.000 so I had to do 0:05:54.000,0:05:56.000 a little experiment myself 0:05:56.000,0:05:58.000 to see if there was oil in the Gulf of Mexico. 0:05:58.000,0:06:01.000 So this is the Gulf of Mexico, 0:06:01.000,0:06:04.000 sparkling place full of fish. 0:06:04.000,0:06:06.000 I created a little oil spill 0:06:06.000,0:06:08.000 in the Gulf of Mexico. 0:06:08.000,0:06:10.000 And I learned -- in fact, I confirmed -- the hypothesis 0:06:10.000,0:06:13.000 that oil and water don't mix 0:06:13.000,0:06:16.000 until you add a dispersant, 0:06:18.000,0:06:21.000 and then 0:06:21.000,0:06:23.000 they start mixing. 0:06:23.000,0:06:25.000 And you add a little energy 0:06:25.000,0:06:27.000 from the wind and the waves, 0:06:27.000,0:06:30.000 and you get a big mess, 0:06:30.000,0:06:32.000 a big mess 0:06:32.000,0:06:34.000 that you can't possibly clean, 0:06:34.000,0:06:37.000 you can't touch, you can't extract 0:06:37.000,0:06:40.000 and, I think most importantly -- this is what I think -- 0:06:40.000,0:06:42.000 you can't see it. 0:06:42.000,0:06:45.000 I think it's being hidden on purpose. 0:06:45.000,0:06:48.000 Now this is such a catastrophe and such a mess, 0:06:48.000,0:06:51.000 that lots of stuff is leaking out on the edges of the information stream. 0:06:51.000,0:06:53.000 But as many people have said, 0:06:53.000,0:06:56.000 there's a large attempt to suppress what's going on. 0:06:56.000,0:06:58.000 Personally, I think that 0:06:58.000,0:07:00.000 the dispersants are 0:07:00.000,0:07:03.000 a major strategy to hide the body, 0:07:03.000,0:07:05.000 because we put the murderer 0:07:05.000,0:07:07.000 in charge of the crime scene. 0:07:07.000,0:07:09.000 But you can see it. 0:07:09.000,0:07:11.000 You can see where the oil 0:07:11.000,0:07:13.000 is concentrated at the surface, 0:07:13.000,0:07:16.000 and then it is attacked, 0:07:16.000,0:07:19.000 because they don't want the evidence, in my opinion. 0:07:19.000,0:07:21.000 Okay. 0:07:21.000,0:07:23.000 We heard that bacteria eat oil? 0:07:23.000,0:07:25.000 So do sea turtles. 0:07:25.000,0:07:27.000 When it breaks up, 0:07:27.000,0:07:29.000 it has a long way to go 0:07:29.000,0:07:31.000 before it gets down to bacteria. 0:07:31.000,0:07:34.000 Turtles eat it. It gets in the gills of fish. 0:07:34.000,0:07:36.000 These guys have to swim around through it. 0:07:36.000,0:07:39.000 I heard the most incredible story today 0:07:39.000,0:07:42.000 when I was on the train coming here. 0:07:42.000,0:07:44.000 A writer named Ted Williams called me, 0:07:44.000,0:07:46.000 and he was asking me a couple of questions 0:07:46.000,0:07:48.000 about what I saw, 0:07:48.000,0:07:50.000 because he's writing an article for Audubon magazine. 0:07:50.000,0:07:53.000 He said that he had been in the Gulf a little while ago -- 0:07:53.000,0:07:55.000 like about a week ago -- 0:07:55.000,0:07:58.000 and a guy who had been a recreational fishing guide 0:07:58.000,0:08:01.000 took him out to show him what's going on. 0:08:01.000,0:08:04.000 That guide's entire calendar year 0:08:04.000,0:08:06.000 is canceled bookings. 0:08:06.000,0:08:08.000 He has no bookings left. 0:08:08.000,0:08:11.000 Everybody wanted their deposit back. Everybody is fleeing. 0:08:11.000,0:08:13.000 That's the story of thousands of people. 0:08:13.000,0:08:16.000 But he told Ted 0:08:16.000,0:08:18.000 that on the last day he went out, 0:08:18.000,0:08:20.000 a bottlenose dolphin 0:08:20.000,0:08:23.000 suddenly appeared next to the boat, 0:08:23.000,0:08:25.000 and it was splattering oil 0:08:25.000,0:08:28.000 out its blowhole. 0:08:28.000,0:08:30.000 And he moved away 0:08:30.000,0:08:32.000 because it was 0:08:32.000,0:08:34.000 his last fishing trip, 0:08:34.000,0:08:36.000 and he knew that the dolphins scare fish. 0:08:36.000,0:08:38.000 So he moved away from it, 0:08:38.000,0:08:40.000 turned around a few minutes later, 0:08:40.000,0:08:42.000 it was right next to the side of the boat again. 0:08:42.000,0:08:44.000 He said that in 30 years of fishing 0:08:44.000,0:08:46.000 he had never seen a dolphin do that. 0:08:46.000,0:08:49.000 And he felt that -- 0:08:49.000,0:08:51.000 he felt that it was 0:08:51.000,0:08:54.000 coming to ask for help. Sorry. 0:08:57.000,0:09:00.000 Now, in the Exxon Valdez spill, 0:09:00.000,0:09:02.000 about 30 percent of the killer whales 0:09:02.000,0:09:05.000 died in the first few months. 0:09:05.000,0:09:07.000 Their numbers have never recovered. 0:09:07.000,0:09:09.000 So the recovery rate of all this stuff 0:09:09.000,0:09:11.000 is going to be variable. 0:09:11.000,0:09:14.000 It's going to take longer for some things. 0:09:14.000,0:09:16.000 And some things, I think, will probably 0:09:16.000,0:09:18.000 come back a little faster. 0:09:18.000,0:09:21.000 The other thing about the Gulf that is important 0:09:21.000,0:09:23.000 is that there are a lot of animals 0:09:23.000,0:09:25.000 that concentrate in the Gulf 0:09:25.000,0:09:28.000 at certain parts of the year. 0:09:28.000,0:09:30.000 So the Gulf is a really important piece of water -- 0:09:30.000,0:09:33.000 more important than a similar volume 0:09:33.000,0:09:36.000 of water in the open Atlantic Ocean. 0:09:36.000,0:09:38.000 These tuna swim the entire ocean. 0:09:38.000,0:09:40.000 They get in the Gulf Stream. They go all the way to Europe. 0:09:40.000,0:09:42.000 When it comes time to spawn, they come inside, 0:09:42.000,0:09:44.000 and these two tuna that were tagged, 0:09:44.000,0:09:47.000 you can see them on the spawning grounds 0:09:47.000,0:09:49.000 very much right in the area of the slick. 0:09:49.000,0:09:52.000 They're probably having, at the very least, 0:09:52.000,0:09:55.000 a catastrophic spawning season this year. 0:09:55.000,0:09:57.000 I'm hoping that maybe the adults 0:09:57.000,0:09:59.000 are avoiding that dirty water. 0:09:59.000,0:10:01.000 They don't usually like to go into water 0:10:01.000,0:10:03.000 that is very cloudy anyway. 0:10:03.000,0:10:05.000 But these are really high-performance 0:10:05.000,0:10:07.000 athletic animals. 0:10:07.000,0:10:10.000 I don't know what this kind of stuff will do in their gills. 0:10:10.000,0:10:12.000 I don't know if it'll affect the adults. 0:10:12.000,0:10:14.000 If it's not, it's certainly affecting 0:10:14.000,0:10:16.000 their eggs and larvae, I would certainly think. 0:10:16.000,0:10:19.000 But if you look at that graph that goes down and down and down, 0:10:19.000,0:10:21.000 that's what we've done to this species 0:10:21.000,0:10:24.000 through overfishing over many decades. 0:10:24.000,0:10:26.000 So while the oil spill, 0:10:26.000,0:10:28.000 the leak, the eruption, 0:10:28.000,0:10:30.000 is a catastrophe, 0:10:30.000,0:10:32.000 I think it's important to keep in mind 0:10:32.000,0:10:34.000 that we've done a lot to affect what's in the ocean 0:10:34.000,0:10:36.000 for a very, very long time. 0:10:36.000,0:10:38.000 It's not like we're starting with something 0:10:38.000,0:10:40.000 that's been okay. 0:10:40.000,0:10:42.000 We're starting with something that's had a lot of stresses 0:10:42.000,0:10:44.000 and a lot of problems to begin with. 0:10:44.000,0:10:46.000 If you look around at the birds, 0:10:46.000,0:10:48.000 there are a lot of birds in the Gulf 0:10:48.000,0:10:51.000 that concentrate in the Gulf at certain times of the year, 0:10:51.000,0:10:53.000 but then leave. 0:10:53.000,0:10:56.000 And they populate much larger areas. 0:10:56.000,0:10:58.000 So for instance, 0:10:58.000,0:11:01.000 most of the birds in this picture are migratory birds. 0:11:01.000,0:11:03.000 They were all on the Gulf in May, 0:11:03.000,0:11:06.000 while oil was starting to come ashore in certain places. 0:11:07.000,0:11:09.000 Down on the lower left there 0:11:09.000,0:11:11.000 are Ruddy Turnstones and Sanderlings. 0:11:11.000,0:11:13.000 They breed in the high arctic, 0:11:13.000,0:11:15.000 and they winter down in southern South America. 0:11:15.000,0:11:17.000 But they concentrate in the Gulf 0:11:17.000,0:11:20.000 and then fan out all across the arctic. 0:11:20.000,0:11:22.000 I saw birds that breed in Greenland 0:11:22.000,0:11:24.000 in the Gulf, 0:11:25.000,0:11:28.000 so this is a hemispheric issue. 0:11:28.000,0:11:30.000 The economic effects 0:11:30.000,0:11:33.000 go at least nationally in many ways. 0:11:33.000,0:11:36.000 The biological effects are certainly hemispheric. 0:11:38.000,0:11:40.000 I think that this is one of the most 0:11:40.000,0:11:43.000 absolutely mind-boggling 0:11:43.000,0:11:45.000 examples of total unpreparedness 0:11:45.000,0:11:47.000 that I can even think of. 0:11:47.000,0:11:50.000 Even when the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor, 0:11:50.000,0:11:52.000 at least they shot back. 0:11:52.000,0:11:54.000 And we just seem to be 0:11:54.000,0:11:56.000 unable to figure out what to do. 0:11:56.000,0:11:59.000 There was nothing ready, 0:12:00.000,0:12:02.000 and, you know, as we can see 0:12:02.000,0:12:04.000 by what they're doing. 0:12:04.000,0:12:06.000 Mainly what they're doing is booms and dispersants. 0:12:06.000,0:12:09.000 The booms are absolutely not made for open water. 0:12:09.000,0:12:12.000 They don't even attempt to corral 0:12:12.000,0:12:15.000 the oil where it is most concentrated. 0:12:15.000,0:12:17.000 They get near shore. Look at these two boats. 0:12:17.000,0:12:20.000 That one on the right is called Fishing Fool. 0:12:20.000,0:12:22.000 And I think, you know, that's a great name 0:12:22.000,0:12:25.000 for boats that think that they're going to do anything 0:12:25.000,0:12:28.000 to make a dent in this by dragging a boom between them 0:12:28.000,0:12:30.000 when there are literally hundreds of thousands 0:12:30.000,0:12:32.000 of square miles in the Gulf right now 0:12:32.000,0:12:34.000 with oil at the surface. 0:12:34.000,0:12:37.000 The dispersants make the oil go right under the booms. 0:12:37.000,0:12:39.000 The booms are only about 0:12:39.000,0:12:41.000 13 inches in diameter. 0:12:42.000,0:12:45.000 So it's just absolutely crazy. 0:12:45.000,0:12:47.000 Here are shrimp boats employed. 0:12:47.000,0:12:50.000 There are hundreds of shrimp boats employed to drag booms instead of nets. 0:12:50.000,0:12:52.000 Here they are working. 0:12:52.000,0:12:54.000 You can see easily 0:12:54.000,0:12:57.000 that all the oily water just goes over the back of the boom. 0:12:57.000,0:13:00.000 All they're doing is stirring it. 0:13:00.000,0:13:02.000 It's just ridiculous. 0:13:02.000,0:13:05.000 Also, for all the shoreline that has booms -- 0:13:05.000,0:13:07.000 hundreds and hundreds of miles of shoreline -- 0:13:07.000,0:13:09.000 all of the shoreline that has booms, 0:13:09.000,0:13:12.000 there's adjacent shoreline that doesn't have any booms. 0:13:12.000,0:13:14.000 There is ample opportunity 0:13:14.000,0:13:17.000 for oil and dirty water to get in behind them. 0:13:17.000,0:13:20.000 And that lower photo, that's a bird colony that has been boomed. 0:13:20.000,0:13:23.000 Everybody's trying to protect 0:13:23.000,0:13:25.000 the bird colonies there. 0:13:25.000,0:13:28.000 Well, as an ornithologist, 0:13:28.000,0:13:31.000 I can tell you that birds fly, and that -- 0:13:31.000,0:13:33.000 (Laughter) 0:13:35.000,0:13:38.000 and that booming a bird colony 0:13:38.000,0:13:41.000 doesn't do it; it doesn't do it. 0:13:41.000,0:13:44.000 These birds make a living by diving into the water. 0:13:45.000,0:13:48.000 In fact, 0:13:48.000,0:13:51.000 really what I think they should do, if anything -- 0:13:51.000,0:13:54.000 they're trying so hard to protect those nests -- 0:13:54.000,0:13:57.000 actually, if they destroyed every single nest 0:13:57.000,0:13:59.000 some of the birds would leave, 0:13:59.000,0:14:02.000 and that would be better for them this year. 0:14:02.000,0:14:05.000 As far as cleaning them, 0:14:05.000,0:14:08.000 I don't mean to cast any aspersion 0:14:08.000,0:14:10.000 on people cleaning birds. 0:14:10.000,0:14:12.000 It's really, really important 0:14:12.000,0:14:14.000 that we express our compassion. 0:14:14.000,0:14:16.000 I think that's the most important thing that people have, 0:14:16.000,0:14:18.000 is compassion. 0:14:18.000,0:14:20.000 It's really important to get those images 0:14:20.000,0:14:22.000 and to show it. 0:14:22.000,0:14:25.000 But really, where are those birds going to get released to? 0:14:25.000,0:14:27.000 It's like taking somebody out of a burning building, 0:14:27.000,0:14:29.000 treating them for smoke inhalation 0:14:29.000,0:14:32.000 and sending them back into the building, because the oil is still gushing. 0:14:33.000,0:14:35.000 I refuse to acknowledge this 0:14:35.000,0:14:38.000 as anything like an accident. 0:14:38.000,0:14:41.000 I think that this is the result of gross negligence. 0:14:41.000,0:14:46.000 (Applause) 0:14:46.000,0:14:48.000 Not just B.P. 0:14:48.000,0:14:50.000 B.P. operated 0:14:50.000,0:14:53.000 very sloppily and very recklessly 0:14:53.000,0:14:55.000 because they could. 0:14:55.000,0:14:57.000 And they were allowed to do so 0:14:57.000,0:15:00.000 because of the absolute failure of oversight 0:15:00.000,0:15:03.000 of the government that's supposed to be 0:15:03.000,0:15:06.000 our government, protecting us. 0:15:08.000,0:15:10.000 It turns out that -- 0:15:10.000,0:15:13.000 you see this sign on almost every commercial vessel in the United States -- 0:15:13.000,0:15:15.000 you know, if you spilled a couple of gallons of oil, 0:15:15.000,0:15:17.000 you would be in big trouble. 0:15:17.000,0:15:19.000 And you have to really wonder 0:15:19.000,0:15:22.000 who are the laws made for, 0:15:22.000,0:15:25.000 and who has gotten above the laws. 0:15:25.000,0:15:27.000 Now there are things that we can do in the future. 0:15:27.000,0:15:30.000 We could have the kinds of equipment that we would really need. 0:15:30.000,0:15:32.000 It would not take an awful lot 0:15:32.000,0:15:34.000 to anticipate 0:15:34.000,0:15:36.000 that after making 30,000 holes 0:15:36.000,0:15:39.000 in the sea floor of the Gulf of Mexico looking for oil, 0:15:39.000,0:15:41.000 oil might start coming out of one of them. 0:15:41.000,0:15:44.000 And you'd have some idea of what to do. 0:15:44.000,0:15:47.000 That's certainly one of the things we need to do. 0:15:47.000,0:15:49.000 But I think we have to understand where this leak 0:15:49.000,0:15:52.000 really started from. 0:15:52.000,0:15:54.000 It really started from the destruction 0:15:54.000,0:15:57.000 of the idea that the government is there 0:15:57.000,0:16:00.000 because it's our government, meant to protect 0:16:00.000,0:16:02.000 the larger public interest. 0:16:06.000,0:16:08.000 So I think that the oil blowout, 0:16:08.000,0:16:10.000 the bank bailout, 0:16:10.000,0:16:13.000 the mortgage crisis and all these things 0:16:13.000,0:16:16.000 are absolutely symptoms of 0:16:16.000,0:16:18.000 the same cause. 0:16:18.000,0:16:20.000 We still seem to understand 0:16:20.000,0:16:23.000 that at least we need the police to protect us 0:16:23.000,0:16:26.000 from a few bad people. 0:16:26.000,0:16:28.000 And even though the police can be a little annoying at times -- 0:16:28.000,0:16:30.000 giving us tickets and stuff like that -- 0:16:30.000,0:16:33.000 nobody says that we should just get rid of them. 0:16:33.000,0:16:36.000 But in the entire rest of government right now 0:16:36.000,0:16:38.000 and for the last at least 30 years, 0:16:38.000,0:16:41.000 there has been a culture of deregulation 0:16:41.000,0:16:43.000 that is caused directly 0:16:43.000,0:16:45.000 by the people who 0:16:45.000,0:16:47.000 we need to be protected from, 0:16:47.000,0:16:50.000 buying the government out from under us. 0:16:50.000,0:16:59.000 (Applause) 0:17:00.000,0:17:03.000 Now this has been a problem for a very, very long time. 0:17:03.000,0:17:06.000 You can see that 0:17:06.000,0:17:08.000 corporations were illegal at the founding of America, 0:17:08.000,0:17:11.000 and even Thomas Jefferson complained 0:17:11.000,0:17:14.000 that they were already 0:17:14.000,0:17:17.000 bidding defiance to the laws of our country. 0:17:18.000,0:17:20.000 Okay, people who say 0:17:20.000,0:17:22.000 they're conservative, 0:17:22.000,0:17:24.000 if they really wanted to be 0:17:24.000,0:17:26.000 really conservative and really patriotic, 0:17:26.000,0:17:28.000 they would tell these corporations 0:17:28.000,0:17:30.000 to go to hell. 0:17:30.000,0:17:33.000 That's what it would really mean to be conservative. 0:17:34.000,0:17:36.000 So what we really need to do 0:17:36.000,0:17:38.000 is regain the idea 0:17:38.000,0:17:40.000 that it's our government 0:17:40.000,0:17:42.000 safeguarding our interests 0:17:42.000,0:17:44.000 and regain a sense of unity 0:17:44.000,0:17:46.000 and common cause in our country 0:17:46.000,0:17:48.000 that really has been lost. 0:17:49.000,0:17:51.000 I think there are signs of hope. 0:17:51.000,0:17:53.000 We seem to be waking up a little bit. 0:17:53.000,0:17:55.000 The Glass-Steagall Act -- 0:17:55.000,0:17:57.000 which was really to protect us from the kind of thing 0:17:57.000,0:17:59.000 that caused the recession to happen, 0:17:59.000,0:18:01.000 and the bank meltdown 0:18:01.000,0:18:03.000 and all that stuff that required the bailouts -- 0:18:03.000,0:18:05.000 that was put in effect in 1933, 0:18:05.000,0:18:08.000 was systematically destroyed. 0:18:08.000,0:18:10.000 Now there's a mood to put some of that stuff 0:18:10.000,0:18:12.000 back in place, 0:18:12.000,0:18:14.000 but the lobbyists are already there 0:18:14.000,0:18:16.000 trying to weaken the regulations 0:18:16.000,0:18:19.000 after the legislation has just passed. 0:18:19.000,0:18:21.000 So it's a continued fight. 0:18:21.000,0:18:23.000 It's a historic moment right now. 0:18:23.000,0:18:25.000 We're either going to have an absolutely 0:18:25.000,0:18:27.000 unmitigated catastrophe 0:18:27.000,0:18:29.000 of this oil leak in the Gulf, 0:18:29.000,0:18:31.000 or we will make the moment we need out of this, 0:18:31.000,0:18:33.000 as many people have noted today. 0:18:33.000,0:18:35.000 There's certainly a common theme 0:18:35.000,0:18:37.000 about needing to make the moment out of this. 0:18:37.000,0:18:39.000 We've been through this before 0:18:39.000,0:18:41.000 with other ways of offshore drilling. 0:18:41.000,0:18:44.000 The first offshore wells were called whales. 0:18:44.000,0:18:47.000 The first offshore drills were called harpoons. 0:18:47.000,0:18:50.000 We emptied the ocean of the whales at that time. 0:18:50.000,0:18:52.000 Now are we stuck with this? 0:18:52.000,0:18:54.000 Ever since we lived in caves, 0:18:54.000,0:18:56.000 every time we wanted any energy, 0:18:56.000,0:18:59.000 we lit something on fire, and that is still what we're doing. 0:18:59.000,0:19:01.000 We're still lighting something on fire 0:19:01.000,0:19:04.000 every time we want energy. 0:19:04.000,0:19:06.000 And people say 0:19:06.000,0:19:08.000 we can't have clean energy 0:19:08.000,0:19:11.000 because it's too expensive. 0:19:11.000,0:19:13.000 Who says it's too expensive? 0:19:13.000,0:19:15.000 People who sell us fossil fuels. 0:19:15.000,0:19:18.000 We've been here before with energy, 0:19:18.000,0:19:20.000 and people saying the economy 0:19:20.000,0:19:22.000 cannot withstand a switch, 0:19:22.000,0:19:25.000 because the cheapest energy was slavery. 0:19:25.000,0:19:28.000 Energy is always a moral issue. 0:19:28.000,0:19:30.000 It's an issue that is moral right now. 0:19:30.000,0:19:32.000 It's a matter of right and wrong. 0:19:32.000,0:19:34.000 Thank you very much.