Since when is an entire ecosystem considered collateral damage to feed the craving of a world that can’t wean itself from oil? That will be the case if the U.S. Geological Survey goes ahead with plans to map the continental shelf off of the eastern coast of the U.S. with sonic blasting. Besides finding the extent of the shelf and areas where movement could cause tsunamis, the main objective is to reveal oil deposits.

Cry-baby, you say? What would you say if a 235-265 decibel sonic blast reverberated through your brain? Remember, 120 decibels is the threshold of pain. For 17 days, sonic blasts in the above range will be emitted every 20-24 seconds. Then the surviving marine life will have one year to try and repopulate before the next test. If you recall, the U.S. Navy was criticized for implementing submarine sonar at slightly less decibels. Many forms of marine life depend upon the sense of hearing in order to communicate and locate food. It would be reasonable to say that any of these creatures caught in a sonic blast would not be able to withstand physiological damage.

Whales may not be as valuable as oil, but, soon enough, that will also disappear. What have we done to make the human civilization compatible in the long run with this planet? Alternative energy forms are an obligation to avoid eating our biosphere alive. One doesn’t pass on wind turbine farms off the coast. To choose an energy source that has proven to be a detriment to the air we breathe means we’ll go the way of the dinosaurs. When something goes wrong in the oil industry, everybody pays. Why the U.S. government would pay for a sound-blasting geological survey that would lead to degrading the eastern continental shelf instead of seriously supporting a program that would enable homeowners to utilize alternative forms of energy seems as numb as a hake.

My older son moved to Seattle three years ago for a well-paid job as a software engineer for a multi-national company based in Norway. He grew up in Maine and would like to return; I am sure that a highly technical outfit like Statoil would have drawn his interest. It is too bad that the powers that be in this state did not want to do business and had no alternative.

To spend so much time and money pursuing an energy source which is detrimental in both its use and in its acquisition only indicates a total lack of faith in our ability to change. What made us great can now destroy us. Why put the effort into making alternative energy sources like wind, solar, geo-thermal, cogeneration, conservation, etc. available to people like you and me, when we sit back and watch the supposed experts wage war on the world which sustains us? In the end, the oil will cost just as much as if the investment had been in alternative energy. That is no fluke.

Doug Yohman, East Waterboro