Louisiana

In one of the great ironies of modern history, the Deep Water Horizon drilling platform in the Gulf of Mexico was blown to smithereens on April 20, 2010, and then sank two days later, on Earth Day. It was the 40th anniversary, to the day! Eleven workers died and 17 were injured as British Petroleum's 560 million dollar platform joined the ranks of the infamous and sank one mile to the bottom of the Gulf. So did the dreams of thousands of coastal workers in oil, tourism, and fishing. What followed was nothing short of an environmental holocaust.

An Exxon Valdez worth of oil spewed out of the sea floor every four days for nearly four months. A total of five million barrels. The consequences? A surface area of ocean the size of Oklahoma blanketed with oil. A submerged plume 60 miles long and a mile wide drifting with the currents (Lord only knows what will happen to this monster). Two thousand miles of beaches, bays, and marshes stained. An immeasurable toll on wildlife and coral reefs, much of it already threatened or endangered. And this is what we know.

All in all the U.S. can now claim two of the worst man-made environmental disasters of all time (wartime excluded)-the dust bowl and Deep Water Horizon. To be fair, the Dust Bowl was only partially man's fault. The drought was an act of God. Or so we think..

The most shocking subplot in this entire debacle was the revelation of BP's oil spill response plan. It would be hysterical if such things were funny, which, of course, they are not. Bottom line, they didn't have a plan for the Gulf. The one submitted talked about protecting walruses, sea otters, and other wildlife found only in the Arctic and other distant seas! It listed a marine biologist who had been dead for years as an emergency responder. It failed to mention anything about currents, prevailing winds, or other oceanographic or meteorological conditions in the Gulf which might be important in case of a spill. The plan also lists a Japanese entertainment website as a primary equipment provider. Yet BP claimed its plan could handle a spill of 250,000 barrels a day, twice the size of the actual spill, which it obviously could NOT handle. (next photo)

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In one of the great ironies of modern history, the Deep Water Horizon drilling platform in the Gulf of Mexico was blown to smithereens on April 20, 2010, and then sank two days later, on Earth Day. It was the 40th anniversary, to the day! Eleven workers died and 17 were injured as British Petroleum's 560 million dollar platform joined the ranks of the infamous and sank one mile to the bottom of the Gulf. So did the dreams of thousands of coastal workers in oil, tourism, and fishing. What followed was nothing short of an environmental holocaust. An Exxon Valdez worth of oil spewed out of the sea floor every four days for nearly four months. A total of five million barrels. The consequences? A surface area of ocean the size of Oklahoma blanketed with oil. A submerged plume 60 miles long and a mile wide drifting with the currents (Lord only knows what will happen to this monster). Two thousand miles of beaches, bays, and marshes stained. An immeasurable toll on wildlife and coral reefs, much of it already threatened or endangered. And this is what we know. All in all the U.S. can now claim two of the worst man-made environmental disasters of all time (wartime excluded)-the dust bowl and Deep Water Horizon. To be fair, the Dust Bowl was only partially man's fault. The drought was an act of God. Or so we think.. The most shocking subplot in this entire debacle was the revelation of BP's oil spill response plan. It would be hysterical if such things were funny, which, of course, they are not. Bottom line, they didn't have a plan for the Gulf. The one submitted talked about protecting walruses, sea otters, and other wildlife found only in the Arctic and other distant seas! It listed a marine biologist who had been dead for years as an emergency responder. It failed to mention anything about currents, prevailing winds, or other oceanographic or meteorological conditions in the Gulf which might be important in case of a spill. The plan also lists a Japanese entertainment website as a primary equipment provider. Yet BP claimed its plan could handle a spill of 250,000 barrels a day, twice the size of the actual spill, which it obviously could NOT handle. (next photo)

© Danny Kimberlin 2015