The Landscape of Oil
Posted in: Photo Projects | By: Recave | 10 Comments »
In stunning large-format photographs, Edward Burtynsky follows the path of oil through modern society, from wellhead to pipeline to car engine — and then beyond to the projected peak-oil endgame.
Dinosaurs to doldrums. Destiny to dum-dum.
So you found the nastiest .00001% of our planet to photograph. Impressive photography but it distorts the scale of the problem you magnify.
More than bringing forward the obvious environmental issues, the notion of visual continuity is a dimension which results intriguing where maybe a bigger more generic composition can be conceived. Interesting sequence.
We humans are the only creatures capable of making things better or worse for this planet. As usual we (Corporate America.) chose profit
Randy T – Just out of curiosity would you have Edward Burtynsky photograph and post the loveliest .00001% of our planet? Obviously the author is trying to make a point – that petroleum path leads to environmental destruction. I suppose that some would look at these pictures and see dollar signs. Personally, I see only death.
By the way, been to the Gulf of Mexico lately?
These are beautiful.
It’s not oil that’s the problem here, it is the poor handling of it, and the missing need for environmental maintenance…
These pictures depict a grim truth. If you choose to shield your eyes from it, then you will be doomed to live within its confines. Here we see my land, your land, and everyone’s land being torn asunder for an extremely short term financial goal. The amount of destruction here is truly beyond comprehension. From the air we breath, to the water we drink, and the food we eat, oil is both our biggest crutch and our largest challenge. We are all addicts to this stuff whether we want to be or not. Just like a junkie, we must be weened off and given alternatives in order to break this curse that we’ve put on ourselves and this planet we inhabit. Is solar and wind a perfect solution? As the technology stands today, no. In the coming decade, I see it growing and maturing into a real infrastructure upon which we can build a cleaner future. So go ahead and avert your eyes. Tell yourself that oil is A.O.K. Drink your methane contaminated water. Breath in your formaldehyde laden clothing products. Eat your poisoned beef. I hope you enjoy it. When you and your children get sick, I hope you think back to this blog. I want you to think of the real root cause of your illness. It’s your own ignorance. Plain. Simple. Inescapable ignorance.
Enjoy your bliss. Fools.
What a lot of waste. All those wasted aeroplanes & cars & tyres. And the others are right, what a MESS this oil business makes.
But sadly I still want my car & my plastic bottles. I barely earn enough to afford the cheapest old banger that’s still capable of being road legal. Everything else is way out of my price range. And therein lies the problem. While the alternatives are so EXPENSIVE the majority of people will choose the cheaper options from greed or sheer necessity. But if the green options are actually cheaper than all the rest then it’s a no brainer. Except for the big greedy powerful oil companies. So if the oil companies become the ones who promote the new green oil free power alternatives everyone’s more or less happy.
Sorted.
despOIL…
Definition
de·spoil
[ di spóyl ]
TRANSITIVE VERB
1. plunder: to rob a place of everything of value
[ 13th century. Via Old French despoillier < Latin despoliare "strip entirely of booty" < spolium "booty" ]
de·spoil·er NOUN
de·spoil·ment NOUN
de·spo·li·a·tion NOUN
VERB
Synonyms: rob, plunder, sack, pillage, loot, rifle, ransack
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Encarta® World English Dictionary[North American Edition] © & (P) 2009 Microsoft Corporation.All rights reserved. Developed for Microsoft by Bloomsbury Publishing Plc.