Uncovering a Very Murky Truth
Op-Ed By Camila Tellez
British Petroleum (bp) has attempted to obscure the horrors of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill from our sight. As Dr. King stated, “Everything that we see is a shadow cast by that which we do not see.” In the case of the bp oil spill, we are not seeing the full extent of the impact of this disaster. The effects will continue to linger for decades to come. We can only believe the meager information that is handed to us and be constantly tempted to believe that the worst of this has passed. The damage done is irreparable, and bp’s failure to put a full-hearted effort into cleaning up the coast and repairing the disintegrating marine food chain is disappointing.
For months, the oil rig pumped oil into the ocean constantly, producing a total of over 60,000 gallons of oil each day. Animals continue to die, including tuna, sharks, dolphins, turtles, and pelicans. More and more evidence shows both the long and short-term lethal consequences of the spill. We see pictures of dead coral now, but the effects will continue to linger in the coming years affecting the capacity of coral to photosynthesize and reproduce. As the oil continues to seep into the Gulf’s food chain, it will take clusters of species out with one blow. For instance, a specific species of shark, called the whale shark, fall ill from eating contaminated plankton. Crude appears in shrimps’ and fishes’ gills, which suffocates them, leading to decimation in the profits of fisherman, and drastically shrinking Louisiana’s economy. The government and media are unsure of how much this disaster will cost in the end, including the cleaning effort, compensation for individuals and small businesses, unemployment claims, and legal issues. The real damage is unquantifiable and the lives and species endangered, priceless. The ecosystems may never be fully restored and the food chain may never be completely repaired. This specific crisis would have attracted Dr. King. He would have illuminated the situation with views of equality, and respect for all. In this case, the earth and its creatures are the ones pleading for fair treatment.
Bp has pumped $93 million dollars into an ad campaign ironically named, “Making It Right.” It displays the ex-CEO of bp saying how “deeply sorry” he was for “the tragedy that never should have happened” (the oil spill). But we compare the investment in the ad campaign against the $50 million a year for 10 years that Bp plans to invest into wildlife and ecosystem research and it seems unbalanced. Bp has also spent millions buying the search term “oil spill” from Google, to even further influence their reputation. This shows how important it is to bp to be considered a force of good in this battle for public opinion and its effort to affect its stock price and maintain its stockholder loyalty. While bp diminishes its support towards the gulf and the wildlife, its focus is narrowing down on giving the company a more respectable reputation via media and internet.
Some argue that the campaign backfired and worsened their public reputation. The stock fell dramatically when the ad began to air, and continued to worsen in the following months. Was this campaign useless? Obama even publically warned bp to be careful with their use of money, stating that “they’re spending that kind of money on their shareholders and spending that kind of money on TV advertising, that they’re nickel-and-diming fisherman or small businesses here in the gulf who are having a hard time.” “Words are cheap” Alabama Republican Jo Bonner said, “It’s time for action.”
The money spent on these notorious advertisements and internet search terms could be better spent saving wildlife from asphyxiation or poisoning in the Gulf, or helping businesses that are sinking in Louisiana. Bp could have spent the money on employing scientists to help think of solutions such as bacteria that can help ingest the oil, or generating consistent employment in the Gulf. If they took action, maybe we wouldn’t scoff so much at bp's unbalanced effort. “Injustice anywhere, is a threat to justice everywhere,” said Dr. Martin Luther King famously. If we cannot bring fair distribution of resources to the coast, then all of bp’s efforts have been failed efforts.
Bp must begin to think of innovative ways to try to resolve this issue. They should think of ways to diminish the amount of oil in the ocean, prevent any spills in the future, and control long-term effects that this spill may bring in the future. They have the resources, but now they must use them to find more satisfactory solutions.
Dr. King shone light on the unfairness that was happening during the civil rights era, and helped bring justice to both sides. We must make bp understand their failed efforts, and make sure that they can redistribute the resources to aide our earth. Everyone, including bp, must carry the weight of the environment no matter how heavy on our shoulders, and everyone must do so with a sense of passion, equality, and determination, so that we can reach a better state for our planet.
