As the parking lots and driveways of Eastsound, and elsewhere, are given a new coating of asphalt, a by-product of the crude oil currently gushing into the Gulf of Mexico, it may be worth considering how far we are willing to go to accommodate our persistent vehicular habit.

There are as yet specifically undetermined health consequences for those involved in both the manufacture and the application of asphalt, but we do know that the runoff from asphalt adds to the heavy metals entering our streams and oceans. And then there is the hotly debated issue as to whether we have unlimited stores of crude oil available or whether there is a finite resource to feed our habit. We could, of course, add to this another hotly debated issue: climate change. Is the climate changing, is the change potentially destructive to the planet, do we play a part in it?

In my neighborhood there are more than a few people who spend their days traveling up and down North Beach Road in one vehicle or another. Quick round trips of a mile or less. Perhaps this is inconsequential, but as someone who trails along behind on foot or bicycle, there can be no doubt that you do not want to breathe the emissions from most of these vehicles. In a county with no vehicle emissions testing, we have some doozies traveling our roads.

So as we watch and read about the immediate consequences of the gulf gusher – jobs taken away, lives severely disrupted, wildlife in extreme jeopardy, food security threatened, and a multitude of other as yet unknown effects – it might behoove us to reconsider how much of the degradation of our planet we are willing to be responsible for and where our vehicular habit fits into the scheme of things.

Robin Woodward

Orcas Island