I’d like to clarify a rather emotional point I made in the Sustainability break out session at the AIGA Leadership Retreat in Chattanooga involving my pronouncement that Louisiana is home to 40% or America’s wetlands.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=126717550

The British Petroleum event unfolding off of my home state’s coast is the largest oil “spill” in the U.S. and is predicted to be the largest ever in the world created not as an act of war.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gulf_War_oil_spill

I mention this not to make us angry or feel guilty about driving cars but to remind us that such a tragedy was inevitable because so many old—and bad— business practices are still in place and unlikely to change with any significance very quickly (the petrochemical industry being a fine example of this and BP is not alone in culpability).

http://www.essentialaction.org/shell/issues.html
http://www.globalissues.org/article/86/nigeria-and-oil
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/may/05/shell-oil-spill-niger-delta
http://www.amazon.com/Where-Vultures-Feast-Shell-Rights/dp/1578050464

The design community does good work and some crappy, old, destructive business practices are changing; every day I am more and more hopeful that we can evince change before destroying the planet. It is just sad that it takes another enormous  tragedy to remind our nation of our not quite squeaky-clean industrial past. Meanwhile, what are we to do, sulk and hang our head in shame? Rather, I am proud us in this “sustainable design” community who we soldier on, man-up to being responsible, speak-up, and learn how to be thoughtful squires of our children’s future.

Wetlands are vital to the ecological and biological health and fitness of our entire continent, the food chain, water we drink and air we breath depend on this complex and highly sensitive ecosystem (“we” is not just Louisianians but potentially the entire nation).

http://environment.about.com/od/environmentallawpolicy/a/wetlands_protec.htm
http://www.environment.nsw.gov.au/wetlands/WhyAreWetlandsImportant.htm

Hindsight will not plug this horrid nasty hole spewing oil in the American Gulf Coast. However, we can use experience and evolving knowledge to educate and change emerging generations of responsible designers, clients and human beings. I may be slightly more emotional about this horrific accident than others further away, but we all share the burden of making it right. I urge you to write your senator and state representatives to hold BP accountable, to do a better job of protecting the fragile Gulf Coast and not make any more deep water oil wells without knowing first how to plug the next, and inevitable, “spill”.

(image source: http://earthrehab.files.wordpress.com/2010/01/audubon-pic.jpg)