If there’s one thing more devastating, more indicative of the horror being wrought in the Gulf of Mexico than the video footage of the leak itself, or the similarly stark images of sludge-cloaked coastlines literally suffocating to death, it’s the rolling tab of the number of gallons per second being flung endlessly shoreward.

37,171,900… 37,171,911… 37,171,922.

Eleven gallons a second. And that’s BP’s estimate.

Five weeks and counting after one of the most devastating and confounding environmental disasters in world history, all parties involved – BP, the federal government, Transocean, Haliburton – are no closer to capping the well than the day Deepwater Horizon exploded, taking 11 lives and countless livelihoods along with it.

They tried filling it with cement. They tried golf balls. They tried collecting it in a giant floating box. They attempted something called “top kill”, which, ironically and sadly, was the stop-gap method we first tried and watched fail 31 years ago when a similar well – this one a mere 200 feet below the surface – erupted in the Gulf.

Now, incredibly, BP is trying to convince the feds to allow them to drill next to the existing, gushing well. The ostensible reason for such a strategy would be to relieve the pressure on the busted main, which would be achieved as soon as the new well is drilled… four to six months from now. But hey, at least we’ll be getting more oil! See, it’s not a total loss….

And yet, after all this – after tapping the brains of Nobel laureates and physicists and experts from dozens of disciplines, after throwing every kitchen sink in the Kohler factory at a disaster that in 10 years is going to make the Exxon Valdez spill seem like one of Lindsey Lohan’s late night tree runs. After all this….

37,820,422…. 37,820,434…. 37,820,446

Despite the obvious need for a serious discussion about whether offshore drilling ought to have a place – any place – in America’s energy future, the powers that be seem determined to cap the discourse well before it’s even tapped. They argue we need to focus our efforts on actually solving the crisis before us, before we allow ourselves the pleasure of such collegial considerations.

For all that you can say about America’s reputation, our standing in the world, or our commitment to energy independence writ large – and believe me, there’s plenty to be said to our disrepute – I can’t say I’ve ever heard anyone suggest that America is somehow incapable of multi-tasking.

Still, you hear it all the time, albeit in a veiled manner: We should re-evaluate our foreign policy and our propensity for meddling in the affairs of others – but we have to get rid of the terrorists first. That’s more important.

We should pursue financial regulation and institute tighter controls on the weapons of mass financial destruction that have brought us to our collective knees – but we shouldn’t mess too much with the financial system, at least not until we are back on our feet and “prosperous” again.

We ought to explore alternative energy – but don’t think about slashing our defense budget or raising taxes to pay for it. That would be ridiculous.

Since when did America start walking on two left feet? Since when was something as crucial as our national security too difficult, too complex, too risky or too explosive to take on? Since when do we admit defeat before the battle actually begins, or quit before the workday whistle has blown?

Nearly 50 years ago, on May 25th, 1961, President John F. Kennedy made his historic “Man on the Moon” speech. Eight years later, we put a man on the moon – two of them, actually. And while we haven’t been back since 1972, you’d be hard pressed to find anyone anywhere who truly believes we couldn’t make it back… if we wanted to.

And therein lies the rub: America has proven, at seeming times innumerable, that wills and ways are ours to forge in tandem.

Sometimes those wills and ways are noble and benign, and we look on as our astronauts take lunar swings with their sand wedges 250,000 miles away from the nearest golf course.

Sometimes those wills and ways are anything but noble, taken up not so much out of pride of achievement as seeming necessity for survival…. And we watch as mushroom clouds swallow two cities and a hundred thousand times as many human beings.

Sometimes those wills and ways are neither noble nor its counter, but simply… something to do – “a way forward”, as opposed to “THE way forward”.

Offshore oil drilling is just that: “a way forward” – less a marvel of modern engineering and ingenuity than a template of the status quo malaise that has kept us on the same fix for 150 years. Seen from a distance, these sea-bound behemoths appear as clumsy-looking steel dinosaurs with an appetite to match its harkening appearance. The only difference is this dinosaur can explode without warning, and ruin entire economies.

Now, with a Toyota’s worth of crude bellowing forth from the vanquished hulk with every passing second, we could all be forgiven for looking skyward for the malevolent meteor.

Unfortunately, all that’s left is the trailing streak of a disaster we might have seen had we just looked up – or down, as it were – a little sooner. Instead, like the dinosaurs before us, we’ve taken to scrambling and scattering, trying desperately to pick up the pieces amidst the gathering dark – aimless and confused but for fleeting glimpses of great feats past.

So if you’re looking for legitimate reasons for America to finally and seriously begin exploring, researching, and investing in alternative energy solutions, all you have to do is look a few hundred miles South of New Orleans, and a few thousand feet below the already toxic surface. There you’ll find all the reasons: 37,222,834 of them.

Need more reasons? How about 37,222,846 of them?

37,222,858?

37,222,869?

Let the rest of us know when you’re convinced.