To Nature, Or Not To Nature

I read this from Coyote Blog.

And there is this from NY Times.

I'm certain there's all kinds of other things out there too. But I find this all rather interesting. Exxon-Valdez occurred just prior to my departure from Alaska...I think I've purchase from Exxon maybe twice in my entire life (and it was accidental), and I stopped buying from Mobil when they merged.

Yet what is the logic in that?

I have no inclination to boycott BP. Is my lack of armchair-outrage simply because it's not my immediate vicinity? Or is it because I recognize that shit happens and it wasn't the result of a captain being drunk (which was the story being bandied about when I left, Wiki has some interesting info regarding that)?

And though there is talk about the environmental impact not being as great as originally anticipated, I remember reading (or viewing?) a report with some bushmen pulling up rocks on the shore of Prince William Sound where you could see there was still oil laying about. And on a recent episode of After the Catch there was a comment that the herring fishery has never recovered.

Certainly it's not the ONLY herring fishery in the world, but that lack certainly effects the locals, as well as the folks that fish the area.

It's a difficult balance to strike of being involved with nature and letting nature be.