Oil spills are clearly a destructive manmade tragedy that has affected our country and world for decades now. In light of the recent BP gulf spill, there is tons of information being written, spoken, and blogged about by the day making the crisis at hand much more real to the general public than ever before.
While typically much smaller in nature, oil spills happen each and every year around the world. Depending on the location of the incident and the surrounding environment, the cleanup, ecological damage, and associated costs can vary. However, even with these types of incidents being part of the industry, it has become rare to have one of this size and nature. Most adults recall the last incident of this nature, the Exxon Valdez oil spill, which occurred in 1989. That disaster left approximately 250,000 barrels of crude oil in the bay, whereas, the gulf oil spill, also known as Deepwater Horizon, has continually been gushing approximately 100,000 barrels of crude oil into the gulf per day since late April.
Deepwater Horizon is a much bigger disaster than the Exxon Valdez spill. However, with the timing being almost 21 years later to the date, technology makes this catastrophe a different type of problem to deal with.
The incredible gap in technology changes how the information and how the response is managed. In 1989, there were no bloggers; in fact, the Internet was nowhere near even the dial-up stage. Information was obtained and dispersed through the news stations and papers. There were no live cams that could show you the exact progress of the spill at any given moment, and consequently, the facts were slow to come. With all of the technology and information now available to the general public, managing this humongous mess becomes much more complicated.
Exxon wound up paying around 2 billion dollars to clean up the spill, not including punitive damages and civil awards. This was in a world where something of this nature had never happened before, and understanding the appropriate steps to take in preserving the ecological habitat was shaky, at best. This also happened in a place that was not largely inhabited and where the entire world could not know the intricate details at the push of a button.
With information being available at all times, managing this disaster becomes a real challenge. BP does not have the luxury that Exxon had to take time, assess, and mitigate the issues and problems at hand. Instead, they are managing a hotline where anyone that has any idea of how to fix the problem can call in and make their recommendation. They have to answer to the president, congress, and people of the United States in real time, not after the fact.
Whether the influx of information readily available to the public is a pro or a con will be up for debate for many years to come. However, faced with having to manage the general public's opinion and outrage, while at the same time trying to actually stop the gush of oil spilling into the gulf, a difficult situation is made even more so. While technology has, in many ways, become a great aid, progress may actually be held back because of the vast amount of information so readily available.
For more information on oil spills, visit http://nanospill.com.
While typically much smaller in nature, oil spills happen each and every year around the world. Depending on the location of the incident and the surrounding environment, the cleanup, ecological damage, and associated costs can vary. However, even with these types of incidents being part of the industry, it has become rare to have one of this size and nature. Most adults recall the last incident of this nature, the Exxon Valdez oil spill, which occurred in 1989. That disaster left approximately 250,000 barrels of crude oil in the bay, whereas, the gulf oil spill, also known as Deepwater Horizon, has continually been gushing approximately 100,000 barrels of crude oil into the gulf per day since late April.
Deepwater Horizon is a much bigger disaster than the Exxon Valdez spill. However, with the timing being almost 21 years later to the date, technology makes this catastrophe a different type of problem to deal with.
The incredible gap in technology changes how the information and how the response is managed. In 1989, there were no bloggers; in fact, the Internet was nowhere near even the dial-up stage. Information was obtained and dispersed through the news stations and papers. There were no live cams that could show you the exact progress of the spill at any given moment, and consequently, the facts were slow to come. With all of the technology and information now available to the general public, managing this humongous mess becomes much more complicated.
Exxon wound up paying around 2 billion dollars to clean up the spill, not including punitive damages and civil awards. This was in a world where something of this nature had never happened before, and understanding the appropriate steps to take in preserving the ecological habitat was shaky, at best. This also happened in a place that was not largely inhabited and where the entire world could not know the intricate details at the push of a button.
With information being available at all times, managing this disaster becomes a real challenge. BP does not have the luxury that Exxon had to take time, assess, and mitigate the issues and problems at hand. Instead, they are managing a hotline where anyone that has any idea of how to fix the problem can call in and make their recommendation. They have to answer to the president, congress, and people of the United States in real time, not after the fact.
Whether the influx of information readily available to the public is a pro or a con will be up for debate for many years to come. However, faced with having to manage the general public's opinion and outrage, while at the same time trying to actually stop the gush of oil spilling into the gulf, a difficult situation is made even more so. While technology has, in many ways, become a great aid, progress may actually be held back because of the vast amount of information so readily available.
For more information on oil spills, visit http://nanospill.com.
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