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The oil may have stopped flowing, but BP’s work is far from done
By Lauren | July 19, 2010
We’ve finally gotten some reasonably good news out of the Gulf of Mexico. It seems that the new cap that BP put on the leaking rg is (mostly) stopping the flow of oil and gas into the water. Now, as long as the seabed doesn’t start crumbling and leaking like an overbaked pie crust from the pressure of oil building up underneath, BP has some hope of completing its relief well and capping off the leak for good in the next few weeks.
So, why isn’t this great news? There are at least two reasons. First, there’s still a significant likelihood that the new cap can’t stop the flow for long. Second, BP still has to deal with the hundreds of thousands of gallons of oil and dispersant that have already poured into the Gulf and fouled about 500 miles of our coastline.
The cleanup effort is going to be almost unimaginably massive. Think back to the last time you spilled a few drops of butter or oil on something made of silk - a tie or blouse, perhaps. Remember how tough it was to get that stain out? Now, multiply that tiny stain by hundreds of miles of fragile, delicately balanced ecosystem, and just try and visualize how much work will go into mopping up this spill.
This sorry situation demonstrates why prevention is so important. While I’d love to believe that BP will be able to remove all of the oil, the sad and ugly truth is that the Gulf coast will probably never be the same as it was before the oil rig blew. Will BP get the coastline cleaner than it is right now? Probably. Will it ever be as clean as it was before the spill? Sadly, it probably won’t.
Topics: Business Ethics, Risk Management, Social Ethics, corporate responsibility, ethics |