To generate real change, you must expose and disable the power structure that allows political decision-making to be bent by those with agendas that put profits over the good of the global community.

Someone ought to point out to him that this power structure does not have a health bar and there is no dramatic music playing.

Of course, for geology courses to have any positive impact on this guy’s life, he would need to develop his rational faculties, which seem wanting. A little information is a dangerous thing for someone with an irrational worldview; for all I know, teaching him geology would allow him to direct his subterfuge at real oil exploration projects, if he isn’t simultaneously taught that the only reason such exploration happens is because there is money and politics involved, and that someone will ALWAYS be there to find and extract the oil if they are paid. To generate real change, you must expose and disable the power structure that allows political decision-making to be bent by those with agendas that put profits over the good of the global community.

This was an amazingly foolish and pointless action. Quite aside from the absurd sense of entitlement involved in this kind of vandalism, I have taken exactly one introductory geology class and even I know that one does not look for oil in granite batholiths. Even assuming that sabotaging oil exploration would be justified, I think it’s incumbent on you to have at least a bright high school student’s level of understanding of what’s going on before acting. As it is, this act of vandalism places you on the same level as the perpetrators of the semi-mythicized incident in Britain where a mob of citizens got the terms “pedophile” and “pediatrician” mixed up and attacked one of the latter. Congratulations.

While you apparently don’t have much use for knowledge and learning, given your failure to educate yourself on this issue, you have seriously undermined important scientific research aimed at increasing our understanding of the geologic processes and history of the planet (and possibly giving us important information that might be relevant to, for instance, predicting and mitigating earthquakes and volcanic eruptions), and imposed a substantial cost on an educational budget that was already hanging by a thread. More important, however, is the damage you’ve done to the environmental movement. After this irrational, ignorant, and criminal attack, you’ve made the job of Big Oil and other companies who consider environmental protection to be an irrevelant pain in the neck much easier. They can cut their advertising budgets and spend them on more ACTUAL oil exploration, since now they have little need to float elaborate lies and mistruths about the environmental impact of their projects and the motivations and justification of their opponents. Instead, all they have to do is point to your crime, tell one simple lie – “This is a typical environmentalist” – and the movement’s credibility is damaged irreparably.

With friends like you, the earth has no need of enemies. With enemies like you, Big Oil has no need of friends. So, congratulations. I hope whatever momentary satisfaction you got from this action was worth it.