Janet CollinsDon’t Ever Forget About Leaking Oil
July 13th 2010 10:29
After twelve weeks of an oil spill that will go down as the worst, or at least one of the worst, spills in memory there is now a possible solution to contain the spill. Why had no such strategies been in the oil giant’s program in case of such an emergency? And why did it take so long?
On April 20 this year, the Deepwater Horizon rig that was leased by BP, exploded and burned. Eleven workers were killed and the rig sunk two days later leaving an oil spill that has continued to this day. In fact, oil has been spewing into the area since.
Now there seems to be some sort of solution to gag the oil spill even if it is not entirely guaranteed. Even if the new solution stalls the oil from spilling even more into the ocean, it is hardly going to rectify the damage that 83 days of oil gushing into the Gulf of Mexico has done.
In an age where we are really mindful of things such as occupational health and safety, it beggars belief that an accident like this one could have happened without any precautionary measures, should an accident like this happen, being put into place.
For a few weeks it made headline news but like most stories, we tire of them and the incident slipped back in the news so that, particularly in Australia, the disaster was no longer in the forefront of our news bulletins. That does not mean that oil will stop flowing to the beaches and the outlying waterways in the Gulf of Mexico.
To put it even more bluntly, the oil spill will continue to do a lot of damage even if the last measure to cap the oil spill works. It has been spewing into the ocean for 83 days. That will have a lot of ramifications for a long time.
While this new found measure of capping the oil spill might be cause for celebration, it is not a surety and while it might prevent more spillage, does nothing to clean up the harm that has already been done.
If there is anything that this episode has taught us it is that prevention is better than cure. Anticipation of an incident like this one and putting remedies into place should such an incident occur would have been much better.
Serious regulation should be put into international policy quick smart. Otherwise, we will have it happen again and again.
When it slips to the back pages of news internationally, we have no hope. It should always stay on the front page.
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