The BP Deepwater Horizon calamity of 2010 is different from all previous eco-disasters, not just in terms of the environmental damage done and the loss of eleven lives, but in the fundamental way that nature has been pitted against herself.
In a “normal” disaster, such as the Exxon Valdez incident in Prince William Sound, Alaska, in 1989, eleven million gallons of oil were spilled. In 2002, twenty million gallons were lost after the sinking of the oil tanker Prestige, off the coast of Galicia, Spain.
Despite the devastating effect that these two events and others have had on delicate eco-systems, as well as the local economies, they pale in comparison to the staggeringly destructive genie that was uncorked by the Deepwater Horizon incident. The difference is that with all previous events, with the possible exception of the Ixtoc rig disaster in 1979, a comprehensible amount of oil was spilled. This is not the case with the current BP deluge, which could involve volumes that are orders of magnitude greater.
Deepwater Horizon has unleashed earth’s primordial forces against each other. These two great fluidic magisteria, the ocean and the vast subterranean gulf oil reservoir, were never meant to come in contact with each other. It took tens of millions of years to form the oil that is spilling out, since it is the product of ancient, dead plants and animals. The deep, man-made hole connecting the two reservoirs, can be compared to a rift in the space-time continuum, assuring the mutual destruction of both universes.
Oil is highly toxic and kills nearly all life that it comes into contact with. Compounding the problem, is the fact that oil and water don’t mix due to their differing valencies (the way that their electrons are held by the nucleus). These properties guarantee long term, devastating pollution and the destruction of eco-systems. The people, fauna and flora of Prince William Sound and Galicia, still have many decades of man-induced misery to look forward to.
As a fluid mechanician, a former oil rig worker and an environmentalist, I’m totally horrified by this catastrophe. My heart goes out to the folks living around the gulf. The management of BP need to do better. But remember, they are not monsters. Oil extraction is inherently, a very messy and dangerous business. BP employs eighty thousand people while supplying an energy-hungry world with its most needed commodity. BP also earned $27 billion last year.
Surely, given the scale of this calamity and the enormous profits involved, we can and must learn to do better. This means employing all available resources to stop the spill, cleaning up the mess, raising our safety requirements, and ensuring that such a plague, of biblical proportions never occurs again.
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