The BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico has caused a whole range of reactions, from rage to indifference. Some have even come to BP and the oil industry's defence, saying that the spill shouldn't prevent others from drilling. Apparently it was a "freak accident". BP did everything right and it could never happen again, so there's no reason to stop other drilling activities.
Has the world lost its mind?
The oil spill has caused unforeseen ecological impact that mere humans could never have predicted, try as they might - and they did. The reason the drilling was approved by the government was because by their estimates, even if a spill did occur, it would be containable. All predictions were wrong.
This tells us that there's too much going on in the environment that we don't understand, and we shouldn't play with fire if we don't know how it's going to react. According to a survivor of the explosion on the rig, all procedures were followed through and the valve shouldn't have failed. But it did. According to others in the industry, there shouldn't have been that much gas build up in the reservoir. But there was.
The result is an unmitigated disaster. To make matters worse, Hurricane Alex has arrived on the scene, and in what I can only call a measure to allay fears or BP bribing people to help them manage the backlash, people have already come out to say that the hurricane may actually help cleanup efforts. And let's not forget, that 2 months and 10 days later, the well is still spilling oil, spewing out millions of gallons of oil into the ocean every single day. That's not an exaggeration. Here's the website: BBC News - Q&A: Why estimates of the BP oil spill keeps changing.
Let's face it. We don't know enough to say that we properly understand what's going on when people drill that deep. We don't know enough to properly predict what would happen in the event of a failure. As a result, we don't know enough to properly react when a failure occurs, and we don't even come close to understanding the long-term impact of the spill on the environment.
And people are saying there's no reason to stop the drilling?
Wouldn't it be more logical to stop the drilling temporarily in order to conduct studies and understand why the disaster happened, exactly how the disaster happened, and what can be done if it happens again? Sure, some already rich oil companies will take a hit to their profits, but chances are they won't even come close to making losses. Sure, some people will have to suspend their work for a while, but chances are they'll find a job again just as easily because there's a shortage of skilled workers in the oil and gas industry.
What we do know is that the world cannot take another BP/Transocean spill. What will we do if it happens again?
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