The explosion of the oil rig and its implications

After weeks of the explosion of the oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico we still see on TV the disaster that it is causing to the environment with no end of the spill in the foreseen future.
We have had BP first say that the leakage was 5000 barrels a day when it looks that in reality it was more like 70000 barrels a day.
In the meantime the chairman of BP has said that this is a minor problem.
Rush Limbaugh said first that the sea will take care of the leakage, then a few days later he said “where is the oil” referring to oil spillage hitting the coast of the states on the Gulf of Mexico, and lately he says that the Sierra Club should be paying for the damages that BP, Transocean and Halliburton have caused, alleging that institutions like the Sierra Club have caused deep oil exploration. He is not the only media figure to say "where is the oil" as Britt Humes has said the same. They should go to Key West and to Louisiana to see oil washing on the shores.
Unfortunately you have politicians of both sides of the aisle who still believe that drilling off the coasts of the US is safe.
Americans have been misled for a long time into believing that the only way of having or maintaining a certain standard of living is by destroying the habitat in which we live in by burning fossil fuels provoking global warming, polluting the seas and rivers that surround us and cutting forests that produce oxygen.
The only way that we will survive in this world is by finding alternatives such as solar power and wind turbines.
It is appalling that the United States cannot break this vice with oil, when other countries that are not considered industrialized are using other combustibles such as ethanol from sugar cane for Brazil and Natural gas for Argentina to fuel automobiles.
I always tell my kids that addictions and bad habits are meant to be broken. The addiction is so strong here that we are willing to bankrupt the country into wars just for oil, not realizing that in reality we are funding the same “enemies” that we are fighting by purchasing the oil that they produce.
We are stuck in the past holding on to a technology of the mid 20th century instead of taking the leadership and moving the country into the 21st century, and not allowing another opportunity to go to waste.