Blame vs. Responsibility

Last week (May 31-June 6) both "Newsweek" and "The New York Times" reported in the Deepwater Horizon oil spill eco-disaster in the Gulf of Mexico, the first rig to experience a blowout while drilling in such deep water (about 5,000 feet down). Both publications reported that (as many people are now asking), the BP company did in fact have a plan to respond to such an incident. The document was titled, "BP Regional Oil Spill Response Plan - Gulf of Mexico" and it was approved by the federal government. But if you think this disaster was unfathomable, get this: the report includes discussions about protecting walruses, seals, and sea lions - animals that do not even exist in the Gulf of Mexico! The report also lists a Web address for a disaster-response contractor that is instead a Japanese shopping site! Lovely. That's what I find unbelievable. The response plan was not only a second-rate copy-and-paste job (presumably from an Alaska/West Coast response plan), but it wasn't even corrected and fact-checked. Isn't the only thing worse than a lie, a bad lie?

BP oil (and other big oil companies) = score 1 point for cheap self-protection.
Government oversight = score 1 point for loopholes and future disavowed involvement.
Earth, the global ecosystem, and all of the planet's inhabitants = score 0 points.

So if the blame will be shifted (at best), who is left responsible? Tough question. But I know those oil-covered dead dolphins, the oil-covered shellfish, and the oil-covered birds had nothing to do with a metal pipe stuck in the sea floor one mile down. I think we're all responsible...and we will continue to be. The question is: how and for what will be responsible?