British Petroleum oil spill from another angle

Accidents happen. No one is immune to that.

It happened also to British Petroleum, a prominent international company. The exact causes of the explosion, which led to the huge continuous leak of oil into the Gulf of Mexico, are still to be determined. Strangely, it coincided in time with Obama’s intentions to lift ban on off-shore drilling, which due to new technologies started to be regarded as an environmentally safe operation.

Not any more.

Al Qaida yet again? A plot to stop off-shore drilling again, and keep America on a needle of foreign oil imports? A plot to kill BP? Versions vary.

News are full of reports that BP’s shares are at lowest in 15 years. Web is full of predictions that BP will collapse.

It reminds me of PanAm, which no one could have imagined that it might disappear. But it did after that sorrow accident. One accident, and you are wiped off the market, even if you are number one.

Remember Enron? It used to be a success case study in some MBA courses. Forever gone.

BP now?

I hope not, because the truth is that the situations are completely different compared to PanAm, or Enron. I hope not, because world won’t become better without BP.

What started as an accident (or was it?), in any case is not anymore an accident. After almost two months it turned to become a natural disaster.

A natural disaster, which not only can turn the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean into another Chernobyl dead zone, but if the leak continues at same pace, then the Gulf-Stream might take the oils also to Scandinavia and Europe. The oil reserves in the Gulf of Mexico are said to be enormous, so in the end it will be sufficient to spoil the global oceans.

Images of the effects of the oil spill on the submarine life, on the beaches and beautiful birds and other sea and coastal creatures are terrifying, but politicians seem just to be rubbing their hands at the site of falling giant and pointing responsibility only onto BP. Will huge fines save those beautiful beaches and submarine fauna?

Strange attitude, isn’t it? They rushed to save banks that cheated half of the planet, pouring billions into them, but they turn a blind eye to an accident turned natural global disaster and leave BP on its own. It may cost Obama more dare than hurricane Katrina. And it may cost humankind more dare than eruption of Icelandic volcano Eyjafjallajokul, which was a clear bell of warning, that humans even at this level of technological advance shouldn’t f... play with Mother Nature.

It has long become clear that eliminating the British Petroleum oil spill should have already turned into an international coalition effort - this is not a closed case anymore. Maybe someone somewhere has an exclusive idea or technology to close the powerful fountain of oil? However, corporate and state egoism, political complacency and short-sightedness are impacting us all, including those who have all the power to undertake joint coordinated actions, but won’t do it. Appointing a scape goat won’t help anything. The BP oil spill is damaging not only the Gulf of Mexico and the Earth, but something more - it is undermining belief in the rationality of men, who should have a different approach to such tragedies.

The truth is BP oil spill shows more than anything else, that the world, in spite of all various United Nations organizations, lacks not only an understanding of new man-made (technological) disasters and challenges, but has no adequate joint resilience mechanism or organization for an internationally coordinated battle against such disasters or to prevent such disasters.