Culture

People Are Fed Up With Being Told To Not Use Plastic Straws Considering The Ocean Caught On Fire

"What stage of capitalism is setting the ocean on fucking fire?"

by Michelle Rennex  6 July 2021
Ocean Fire pipeline oil pemex reactions plastic straws

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Over the weekend, terrifying footage of the ocean literally being on fire flooded social media feeds.

The fire, which was eventually put out after five hours of spraying the ocean with nitrogen and what looks to be water (!!!), started after a Pemex underwater gas pipeline ruptured in the Gulf of Mexico.

The footage, which genuinely looked like it came from a dystopian film warning of the impacts of climate change, showed orange flames bubbling to the surface of the water as if a volcano had erupted in the ocean.

Now logically, none of this makes any sense.

How can a fire not only start, but also survive for hours at a time in huge body of water? Well, the answer is that the apocalypse is upon us the gas from the pipeline had “enough stream of natural gas [methane and probably other wet gas components like ethane and propane] in the one place to sustain the fire and keep it churning”, according to CNET. Sounds fake but sure, I guess.

Unsurprisingly, this isn’t the first major industrial accident the Mexican state-owned oil company Petróleos Mexicanos, more commonly known as Pemex, has had before — and judging by how calm they were about the literal ocean being on fire, it likely won’t be their last.

In 1992, Pemex were found responsible for 10 explosions in Guadalajara, Mexico that killed at least 252 people. In 2012, their Reynosa gas plant exploded and killed another 30. A year later, Pemex’s Mexico City office explosion saw 37 more people die. And if all that wasn’t enough, another two explosions and fires in 2016 killed 28.

But even with the whole ~gas leaking into the ocean for five hours and causing a fire in a place where it shouldn’t be scientifically possible~, there was at least some good news to come out of the ocean fire. Pemex reported that no injuries were reported from this gas pipeline incident. And, luckily for the money-hungry oil company, production was not affected! Yay! Capitalism!

However, after learning of an oil company’s ability to literally set the ocean alight and face no consequences, people started to question what the point of the public trying to “be green” even is anymore.

The general public has long been told to reduce their carbon footprint by using plastic straws, recycling, taking shorter showers, and not driving to work when the large companies that account for the majority of greenhouse gas emissions face no consequence for destroying the planet.

While 100 companies account for 71 percent of the world’s total greenhouse gas emissions — which includes Petróleos Mexicanos as one of the top 10 companies that put the most carbon dioxide into the atmosphere — individuals have been made to feel like they need to argue about small things like using metal straws, keep cups and enviro-bags to protect the planet.

But now, in the wake of the ocean literally bursting into flames, everyone’s just fed up with corporate deflection making individuals feel guilty for the mess that these companies create and refuse to solve in the name of capitalism.

But it’s not just Pemex and the ocean fire that’s the problem.

Corporations have long tried to put the onus on individuals to solve an environmental problem we won’t ever be able to fix without serious regulations in place to end things like offshore drilling and overfishing.

For example, Khloé Kardashian was roasted last month for trying to tell her followers to stop using plastic bottles when the millionaire owns nine different cars, constantly flies around on gas-guzzling private jets, and has massive balloon garlands installed for any and every event leading to more unnecessary plastic pollution.

Similarly, last week New York City sent its residents an emergency alert urging “households and businesses to immediately limit energy usage to prevent power outages” by turning off airconditioning units in the middle of a summer heatwave.

The issue? Well, despite Times Square eating up 161 megawatts of electricity daily at peak usage while an average US household only consumes 0.02 megawatts a day, NYC was sure to leave Times Square fully lit with ads to ensure money still rolled in.

Now I don’t know about you, but I think when the literal ocean is on fucking fire or when an entire city tells its residents to stop using electricity so they can continue to run 24/7 advertisements, it’s probably time to rethink what we let these corporations get away with. ASAP.