Natural disasters are one thing, but oil spills and errors of that nature are like self-inflicted wounds.

And like any other bullet in the foot, they are completely preventable.

You don’t have to be a tree-hugger, a Greenpeace advocate, an animal lover, a “crazy” environmentalist hippie or – dare we say it? – a socialist to think this disaster is the result of a very corrupt and fallible system.

Any disasters that can be seen from space are of serious concern.

What makes this both terrible and frightening is we can’t yet tell what kind of damage there will be, or to what extent it will reach. What marine life will be affected? Which industries will suffer? What are the global effects? Or, most importantly, will we learn from this mistake?

Perhaps we won’t.

In 1978, the Amoco Cadiz split in two, spilling an entire 67.3 million gallons of oil into the ocean near France. In 1979, the Ixtoc I well exploded and lost 140 million gallons. In 1991, the oil tankers and wells destroyed by the Gulf War released an estimated 450 million gallons.

By comparison, the famous Exxon Valdez only spilled 10.8 million gallons, which had devastating effects on the environment.

The list goes on.

Until we build a better infrastructure, we can’t go on living the way we do and enjoy the technologies and perks of life in the 21st century without oil drilling.

But have we come to simply accept oil spills as a necessity, a part of the system that can’t be avoided?

These spills can and should be avoided. They aren’t accidents. They are horrendous crimes brought on by cutting corners and negligent activities in order for the oil executives to save a few million.

When are we going to get ourselves out of the clutches of the oil companies? Since they obviously lack in the ethical department, perhaps it’s time to impose stricter regulations and harsher penalties.

For crimes like these, on account of the magnitude of destruction their “mistakes” cause, they should be tried as murderers.

Fortunately, members of Congress are “demanding answers” and have launched an investigation of the incident.

We can only see one benefit from a disaster such as this: Another impetus to move in a different direction, away from drilling up ancient fuels and instead toward a cleaner, sustainable, human error-resistant method in which function isn’t affected by greed, and malfunction doesn’t endanger millions of people, animals, jobs and generations to come.

Just because there’s oil beneath us doesn’t mean we should keep shooting at our feet.