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It's late 2008 and I'm in Kurdistan, Iraq for a political science field trip.
We're driving on a long drive back to the capital one afternoon
when we stop to stretch our legs at the base of a gently sloping grassy hill.
And as I get out of the bus, I look around to see
if there's a good spot to have that granola bar I've been saving.
>> [LAUGH] >> And something catches my eye.
Oozing out from under the rocks on the hill are several foot wide streams
of a thick, brown, mud-like substance.
And as I approach it to take a closer look, our guide, as if he's read my mind,
shouts, don't eat that!
That's oil.
My first reaction?
Disgust.
I was a student of environmental risk,
active in international climate change conferences.
I knew for a fact that oil was bad.
>> [LAUGH].
>> But as I stared at this foreign brown substance, fascination took over.
Isn't oil black?
What was it doing here?
Had an accident happened?
Seeing this natural oil seep made me realize that I was completely out of touch
with oil, and from this moment forward, oil, something that had seemed so
clearly black and white to me took on many shades of well, brown.
>> [LAUGH].
>> Now think back to the first time that you saw oil.
I bet that it was in a leak of some sort and that it was bad news.
It might have been motor oil, dripping out from under your car.
More likely though, it was on the news.
Oil spilling out the side of a tanker.
It's downright devastating what oil can do to the environment isn't it?
Those images of blackened beaches, wildlife drenched in the stuff, and
battling to breathe through it.
I was horrified to see how in Nigeria, forests, rivers,
livelihoods of thousands have been poisoned by leaks in over 4,000 miles of
pipelines crisscrossing the Niger Delta.
But perhaps freshest in our minds is the BP oil spill from 2010 that sent over 3.2
million barrels gushing out into the Gulf of Mexico over the period of three months.
Now 3.2 million barrels, that's 130 million gallons.
I'm gonna try and put that in perspective.
That's enough for you guys seated in the back two rows
to get three Starbucks grandes everyday for the rest of your long lives.
And pass that gift card down for 1,000 generations.
That's a lot, that a more bit a lot of coffee.
Now, fast forward a few years, and
the student of environmental risk is now a consultant.
>> [LAUGH] ,.
>> Often, often for the oil and gas industry.
Now in the eyes of many Californians and certainly many students here working with
or for big oil is considered the single most uncoolest job you could have.
It's really the antithesis to being the coveted tech entrepreneur but
it's not just uncool.
It's seen as deplorable.
Total strangers will take it upon themselves to educate me about my
malevolence and that of my colleagues.
Well meaning friends and family will say is that ethical?
Shouldn't we get you out of there?
As if I need rescuing because I've clearly forgotten
to factor in morality into my daily decisions.
And on the one hand, I really do appreciate the honesty.
But on the other, these comments sting every time.
Why?
Because it's hypocrisy, and lacks nuance where nuance is due.
You see on a personal level, the 130 million gallons that spilled out
during the BP oil spill, the thousand generations worth of Starbucks, is a lot.
And certainly the destructive power of that amount of oil is severe.
But from the perspective of consumption, what spilled out over three months
is only an eighth of what we consume in a day in the US.
An eighth.
And it's not your neighbors, it's us, you and I, who are the consumers.
And as consumers our thirst for
oil is insatiable even when we see the images on TV.
But, we don't like to think of ourselves as consumers, so oil remains black to us.
But imagine a world without oil in it.
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There'd be no asphalt.
Some fertilizers wouldn't exist.
We'd have no gasoline.
No jet fuel.
And that's already a stretch of the imagination.
Now try to imagine a world without plastics.
Everything from toothbrushes to television screens has either oil or
gas as the critical input in its production process.
For me a world without oil would probably be a lot like the late 1800s.
When oil was this new thing that could make so much happen, much like smartphones
are now actually, and smartphones driven by arguably the John D.
Rockefeller of our times, Steve Jobs,
have revolutionized the way we organize ourselves and communicate with each other.
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Certainly I am very thankful for my i, iPhone,
and I'm very dependent on it.
But getting a phone that's in the hands of every person on the planet has a price.
There are environmental issues associated with the extraction of
the minerals required.
And if it's true that Apple's manufacturer had to hang
nets below its laborer's dorms to prevent them from committing suicide,
that doesn't attest to the great labor conditions in the electronics industry.
But are we disgusted when we see the new iPhone?
No.
In fact, if we were to meet someone from Apple at a cocktail party,
we'd say something along the lines of, oh, Apple is it?
I'm big user of Apple products, myself.
But, we never say oh, Exxon is it, I'm a big user of oil products, myself.
>> [LAUGH].
>> My point is, rarely is anything that truly rocks the foundation of society,
like oil, like smartphones, all good or all bad.
And oil, well it's certainly has a dark side when the risks manifest themselves.
It still fuels the economy, literally.
And it's not so black and white.
For example, I'm pretty sure that you feel great when you can fill up your car for
under $2.00 a gallon at the pump.
And you're not alone because the average American household will save
around $750 this year because of the drop in the oil price, and that's great news.
But, the drop in oil price also endangers the 9 million jobs in the oil and
gas industry in the US.
That's one in 20 jobs.
A similar contradiction?
Reduce dependence on foreign oil is a prominent highlight that
any president would love to boast within their State of the Union.
But in casual conversation, we condemn the Shell gas boom
that almost single-handedly got us this independence.
Whose side is she on, you might be thinking.
>> [LAUGH].
>> I'm rooting for accuracy and fairness in debate.
In a world of highly polarized media, and
in a community where really taking a stance is often rewarded,
I invite you to join me on this uncomfortable space in the middle.
Let's go all out on renewable energy and energy efficiency, but
also recognize that oil is really doing something for us in the meantime.
Let's hold the oil industry to really high standards, but
also respect the people who work in it.
Because the dismissive treatment of oil just seemed like a form of hypocrisy,
when most of us don't really walk, our anti-oil talk.
Are we really doing all we can to reduce our oil footprint?
Things like reducing the amount of plastic we use and waste.
Fighting for teleconferencing facilities at our office instead of going for
those much loved business trips.
Taking holidays in Big Sur rather than flying off to New York for the weekend.
Opting to buy stuff that hasn't been air freighted in from the other
side of the planet.
Or driving a more efficient car if you can't get there by bicycle.
But these aren't things that you, know, not heard before.
For me, the intermediate, more important step,
is that we need to come to terms with our complex, difficult and
above all ambiguous relationship with oil, as individual consumers.
And that is that oil is a substance that both creates and
destroys many of the things that we hold dear.
On complex issues such as these my hope is that we go from visceral black and
white reactions, to responding from a place of full awareness.
My hope is that the next time you see oil,
you react as an intrigued consumer and see oil in full color.
Thank you.
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