Postcolonial Speculative Fiction

Environmentalism and oil

I think it's interesting that you point out how the driver of the car doesn't even notice the tarantula. It seems to me that is exactly how people generally are when it comes to the conveniences of modern society. We, the "royal" we, talk about wanting to conserve natural resources and care for the environment, but we are also the car driver. We don't notice the majority of the damage we do. It's not malicious, it's unawareness. We, as a species, are unwilling to acknowledge the small things we do every day that have a profound effect on other life. Same thing with the oil, when I fill my car up, I don't ever think about where the crude oil came from. I don't think about the lives that were ended or altered because of it. I just want to get where I'm going. Developed and industrialized societies are the driver, the people of developing oil-producing countries are the tarantula.

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