Thus far on the blog we have avoided mentioning the BP oil spill for a number of reasons. One is that it is so well covered by the media that updating you on progress seems redundant. Another is that there is no real 'opinion' to be had about the matter, as in no one wants oil to keep flowing, so everyone is obviously wanting the various solutions employed to work.
However, today I bring to you: Pothast on the BP oil spill.
Now as I said before, there really is no 'opinion' on the spill to be had. It is very easy to say that the whole disaster was handled badly by BP. Capping the oil well has taken far longer than it should have, Obama didn't intervene when some argued that he should have, and there still remains quite a large problem for those that live in the Gulf area.
In fact, although the amount of oil still flowing has reduced considerably, there remains 200 million litres of oil in the area. Let that sink in for a second, 200 million litres. I'm not sure how large your car is, but chances are it takes in anywhere from 30-60 litres of fuel per fill-up. That is a ton of oil.
Environmentally, the whole ordeal is a total and utter disaster. The ecology of the area has been hit and will take hundreds of years to recover, if it ever does. People in the area have seen their businesses destroyed, and an impending hurricane season is arriving.
However let`s take a step back. It`s very easy to criticize, but what have we learned?
Well it's important to look at the balance of resource v. risk, that is to say if we keep tapping deep-sea oil wells, what is the risk that this sort of catastrophe will repeat itself? We as the public have been told that these oil wells are usually safe, and shouldn't be cause for concern. If that's true then what happened?
In the months and years to come we will learn more about this disaster, and the politics and policies surrounding it. However, as citizens of developed nations, we must ask: is it worth it?
Keep e-volving
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