Down in the Gulf of Mexico a major ecological disaster took place this summer. Over 400,000 tons of crude oil was spayed into the ocean at a depth of almost 2 kilometers. A mile and a half doesn’t seem that far when you’re jogging down the sidewalk or in the gym but, when it’s compounded with steel crushing pressure and freezing temperatures the distance takes on a whole new meaning. The Deepwater Horizon oil spill has become an international wake up call for oil companies trying to make the next big profit offshore. The author of “How to defend against future oil spills” claims that researchers and regulators are not doing enough to keep up with the changing risks of pipeline leaks and blowouts. Obvious blunders include a lack of recorded information about pipeline breaks and a disregard for risky drilling endeavors. An author offering a different point of view discusses in “Our Fix-It Faith and the Oil Spill” that people rely too much on quick advances in technology for safety instead of fully understanding the effects of oil leaks. I believe oil companies are to blame for the neglect of safety protocol in blowouts and these two authors support that by looking at different errors of judgement as the main causes.
In “How to defend against future oil spills” the author is disappointed by the lack of collaboration between environmental groups on the data recorded on major oil spills. The Deepwater Horizon is not the first major pipeline blowout in the Gulf’s history, Ixtoc 1, and yet when it happened the same ineffective procedures on monitoring the spread and initial clean up were attempted. Of course the attempts, which failed for Ixtoc 1, also failed for Horizon, but the question remains, why had the oil companies not recorded these findings for future emergencies? The rarity of pipeline catastrophes limits the recorded data on leakage rate and mass clean up. The other huge problem the author finds with the research on oil leaks is the lack of funding being put toward clean-up research. Millions are spent to discover faster ways to drill while disaster research is, as the most recent incident in the Gulf shows, under funded.
In “Our Fix-It Faith and the Oil Spill” the mentality of big oil companies is attacked instead of their research methods. The cost of a disaster doesn’t outweigh the benefits of a risky profit in the eyes of oil tycoons. Everyday in the U.S. technology evolves exponentially. In random polls it proves that Americans always believe a solution to a major problems can be solved quickly after it’s beginnings. This lack-a-dazical attitude of “we’ll fix it if and when we come to it” shows a huge flaw in moral responsibility. Instead of pushing for tighter regulations and more effective, cleaner procedures, people want the next best thing. Many times as soon as construction of a pipe 1 km down begins, another pipe 2 km down is already in the planning stages. This picture shows the structure of a standard oil rig and the location of the blow out preventer which has so far twice failed stopping major leaks in the gulf. Because technology advances so quickly people are rushing for higher results before previous endeavors can be fully understood to their most extreme limitations.
The problem proposed by these two articles is that oil companies are being allowed too much freedom. Ecological disasters affect everyone so perhaps it is safer to know how to clean up a mess before you make one. There has to be more pressure put on oil companies so that it could ruin a corporation to make the type of mistakes that are being made. The fact that these two authors argue different elements of the same problem shows that there is a lot that needs to be done to keep major leaks from happening in the future. Both authors arguments support the others cause by demanding change in company policies. If procedures do not change soon another disaster is surely inevitable.
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