The BP Disaster: A War Against Forgetting

[n2doc]

Mitch Anderson

The struggle of man against power is the struggle of memory against forgetting. Milan Kundera

It was exactly one year ago today: a terrifying explosion, flames engulfing an offshore oil rig, 11 men dead. The beginning of one of the most horrifying environmental tragedies in US history -- BP's oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico.

I remember the images. The towering and ominous plume of toxic black smoke rising off the coast. Miles of snaking orange boom abandoned on desolate beaches. The endless live camera feed of crude oil gushing out of the broken pipe on the sea floor. Mud-stained and rain-soaked American flags drooping over rickety abandoned houses. Oil clean up crews and bird rehabilitation units working on converted seafood loading docks. Government officials speaking of "an invasion of oil." The prim British businessman (and then CEO of BP) Tony Hayward commenting that he "would like his life back." The confused screaming birds with oil soaked wings. The sheen of oil coating the bays and choking the marshes.


end part:

Today, we should remember. We should wage a war against forgetting. It was only a year ago that the horrifying black plumes of smoke began to rise off the gulf coast and the waves of oil began to choke the marshes, kill the fish, poison the people. And yet, there is a profound sense that even this disaster, in all its enduring horror, is beginning to fade from collective memory. And of course, for BP and the rest of the oil industry, our forgetting is their advantage.

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/manderson/detail?entry_id=87417

[Mimosa]

1. History teaches us what happens once can happen again.

N2Doc, thank you.

[truedelphi]

2. I listened to the C Span televised recordings of the

Congressional Hearings of July 23rd 2010 on the problems leading up to the disaster.

One of the top witnesses was a Mike somebody (forget the last name) but he was the Chief Operating Engineer on the oil rig.

He knew for over six weeks prior to the explosion that the BlowOut Preventer
was not intact, and was therefore not capable of working.

However, by then he had been so indoctrinated into the BP And TransOcean culture of incompetence that he didn't make a stink about it. Which is really a shame. If he had wanted to, he could have shut down the entire operation any time before the explosion. (he had that much authority.)

Of course, if he had, I imagine he would have been summarily fired, and the operation would have gone ahead anyway. And that is probably why he didn't bother to do that.

[truedelphi]

3. Big K & R. n/t