The BP Disaster

I’ve got no doubt that when they get down to the investigation of the horrendous accident in the Gulf of Mexico, they will discover, as ever that it was caused by the oil companies’ penny-pinching ways.

I’ve lost count of the number of oil rig accidents which have occurred in the North Sea. The companies are completely uncaring of their employees’ welfare and people die because of the sheer greed of the companies.

Even although the profits which the oil industries make are eye wateringly enormous, they can’t bring themselves to spend paltry sums of money on maintenance. I’ve seen photographs of pipelines which look like badly patched quilts and obviously the only safe thing to do is to replace the broken pipe. It must be terrifying to work on an oil rig under such conditions.

The first disaster which I can remember which concerned oil was when the oil tanker Torrey Canyon ran aground on rocks between Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly in 1967 when I was 8 years old. You can read about it in an article which was published in The Guardian yesterday.

I can’t see how the oil is ever going to be cleaned from the sort of coastal grasslands which I have been seeing on TV.

2 thoughts on “The BP Disaster

  1. Katrina,
    I had no idea about all of your oil spills in the North Sea. I’ll have to investigate that–it’s dreadful.

    I don’t think that most Americans realize that the effects of this catastrophe will visit us for many decades to come. The extent of the devastation is too massive for people “to get their heads around” at this point. This modern cliche seems apt. People are in shock and denial. The Gulf is so important, not only to the US, but to Mexico and all the nations in the Carribean.

    Everyone I know is very upset about it and the subject begins all our conversations with friends, even though we live thousands of miles away. We feel helpless.

    Thank you for the post!
    Judith
    Reader in the Wilderness

    • The Gulf of Mexico disaster has disappeared from our news at the moment but I’m guessing that things aren’t any better. The amount of oil involved is just mind boggling.

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