Lest We Forget: The BP Oil Spill
It’s ‘Cover the Night’ night in the United States and so as we speak Kony 2012 believers are plastering the town red. Seeing as that’s a Third World subject I should probably write about that. But April 20 has another significance, more First World focussed. Two years ago, on April 20 2010, was the BP oil spill on the Gulf of Mexico.
The fight is still raging on to hold BP properly accountable for the cleanup. Of course BP has put money down, but nowhere near enough to reflect the true extent of their liability for the scale of the ecological disaster they created. Congress hasn’t passed any legislation to respond to the disaster, even though residents are clamouring for it. Fishermen and scientists are alarmed by how many of the sea creatures in the area are suffering from deformities (eyeless shrimp, clawless crabs, fish with legions). The impact of ecological disasters of this scale don’t go away. They’ll be felt by this community (and by the sealife and the coast itself) in a myriad of ways for decades/ever.
NOTE: If this is how the West deals with an ecological disaster it causes on its own soil, can you imagine how they deal with an ecological disaster they cause in the developing world? Check out this article on what oil companies (with some help from the local government) have done to Nigeria’s eco-system and drinking water. At least the Gulf oil spill makes the news.
