George,

Why do we have to have the oil that's under a mile of sea water and various miles beneath the sea bed floor? It's because the SUV-driving, yard-wide TV watching, McMansion owning citizen must have his luxuries at all & any cost. Our short-lived civilization is fueled on allegedly cheap (if you ignore the peripheral costs) carbon-based energy. We've got to have it, regardless of how much C02 is spewed into our atmosphere causing the resultant Global Warming.

We're all complicit! Malthus was right. There're too many of us who live, or seek to live, as Americans do today. Hopefully this newly developing dead sea, or other similar catastrophes, will awaken us to the need for a simpler life style. Until then--DRILL BABY DRILL--while you and your grandchildren suffer the consequences.

Glenn Short (Electronic mail, June 15, 2010)