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“The farm runoff from Iowa and other agricultural states in the Mississippi basin is creating dead zones in the Gulf of Mexico. With the rising temperature of the planet and increasing acidification of the oceans, life as we know it in the ocean is likely to change forever.”

Okay, so do the skeptics get it yet? There is a reason many Iowans oppose off-shore drilling and exploration for oil and natural gas. It is not because we didn’t like the political party of the proponents of “drill baby drill.” It is because stuff happens, stuff exactly like the British Petroleum oil spill and its developing environmental consequences. With an estimated 4,000 oil platforms currently operating in the Gulf of Mexico, it is surprising have not heard of other substantial oil spills.

I knew some shrimp haulers when I worked in the transportation business. They often drove more than 900 miles without sleeping to preserve crustacean “freshness” and deliver shrimp from Gulfport and Mobile to Chicago. Their companies would pay the log-book violation and speeding tickets and drivers worked with suspended licenses to get their product to market. According to Mobile Baykeeper, the largest environmental advocate in the Gulf Coast, “the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico has the potential to destroy the most productive fishery in the world.” We won’t have to worry about those overnight shrimp haulers if the gulf fisheries exist no more.

A cynic could argue what does it matter anyway? The farm runoff from Iowa and other agricultural states in the Mississippi basin is creating dead zones in the Gulf of Mexico. With the rising temperature of the planet and increasing acidification of the oceans, life as we know it in the ocean is likely to change forever. By 2050, the oceans could be dead. So why worry? The answer: we are all connected, in many ways, in the web of life.

Iowa’s connection to the Gulf of Mexico and what we can do to help is as real as your front yard or the city park you visit. How do you care for your lawn if you have one? If you use chemicals such as fertilizer, weed killer or insecticide, it is nutrients in those chemicals, combined with others used in row crop agriculture, that cause the dead zones. Dead zones are a problem because their algae blooms consume oxygen, reducing oxygen level to below what can support marine life. We are trading the natural food protein of the gulf fisheries for the subsidized row crop protein and starches of corn, soybeans and wheat. The food is cheaper at the store, but no bargain. As I mentioned, we are all connected.

What I didn’t know until after the BP platform exploded was that according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Service, offshore operations in the Gulf produce a quarter of the U.S. domestic natural gas and one-eighth of its oil. In addition, the offshore petroleum industry employs over 55,000 U.S. workers in the Gulf. According to Grist, the Gulf of Mexico is turning from a magnificent resource to an industrial sacrifice zone. Oil and natural gas connects the Gulf to Iowa as well.

The reasons for the United States to become energy independent are many. They are related to national security, transfer of wealth and finding jobs for people that want them. If the disaster in the Gulf of Mexico does nothing else, it should remind us that it is in our common interest to reduce or eliminate our dependence on fossil fuels and to seek viable and scalable alternatives before it is too late. If we do that, the jobs, wealth and security will come.