Written by Olivia Twining
I’m sure everyone has heard about the BP oil spill on the news, but do they fully understand the extent of damage that has been done to the gulf and to marine life? Do they know that the toxic chemical Corexit is being poured into the ocean each day to try and dissolve the oil? The video posted above will show you what really goes on behind the scenes and the truth about what BP is hiding from us.
The product currently being used to try and soak up the oil is called Corexit. When the Corexit dispersants are deployed on the spilled oil, the oil is broken up into tiny bio-degradable droplets that immediately sink below the surface where they continue to disperse and bio-degrade. However, as seen in the video, Corexit has been said to have many negative (toxic) effects on the environment and on the marine life. BP has told us that Corexit is not harmful, however when having read the label, the truth is clear; Corexit is four times more toxic than the oil it is trying to dissolve. To better understand the effect that Corexit has on the environment, watch the video posted below. You can clearly see the chunks of oil (the result of using Corexit) floating beneath the surface. What has BP done to our environment?
GRAND ISLE, La. — Local and state officials here voiced desperation on Thursday as their fears became far more tangible, with oil from the BP spill showing up on shore as tar balls, sheens and gooey slicks. In Washington, the Environmental Protection Agency said it had told the oil company to immediately select a less toxic dispersant than the one it is now using to break up crude oil gushing from a ruined well in the Gulf of Mexico. BP was accused of having “fallen short” in keeping the public informed about the product Corexit. Is BP trying to hide the fact that they are using a toxic chemical to try and “cover up” the oil by forcing it to collect and clump together underneath the surface? BP is trying to make the situation appear to be better, when in reality, they are only making it worse. The oil is now turning into what locals call “thick brown frosting” and “brownie mix.” Euris DuBois, the police chief of Grand Isle, claimed “It seems like BP doesn’t care.” Read the New York Times article on Corexit HERE, and to read even more about Corexit, click HERE.
Not only did BP hide the effects of Corexit from all of America, but they also made little effort to help clean up the mess. BP did not execute the proper measures of clean up that they should have in order to please America. However, what’s done is done, and we must move forward.
It’s not fair, but big businesses often do selfish things. And it is clear that a selfish went on hear. This is the anti-green thing to do. BP took hits from bad publicity for the actual oil spill, but the extent of the damage to the wildlife being harmed wasn’t as big of a topic unless those animals harmed were related to business in some way like shrimp. I didn’t follow the story close enough when it happened. Seeing the damage to the ecosystem as a result is sad. Of course the chemicals being poured into the gulf were harmful. Again, it was an unfortunate story.
Jackson, while I do agree that we have to move foward and not live in the past, that doesn’t mean persay that we have to forgive BP. The damages caused by BP’s actions over the past few years are terrible. They should be heavily fined for their damage to the environment. In order to stop these acts from repeting we should remember BP’s past actions whenever we do work with them and be extremly cautious when working with them. All in all, Jackson, while i do agree that we need to move foward, that doesn’t neccesarily mean that we need to forget.
Teal, your outlook and plan on how we should handle this issue and other issues involving BP is truly eye opening and inspiring. While we don’t have to “forgive” BP we have to move forward and not dwell in the past, we have to fix the problems they caused NOW and worry about punishing BP later.
I agree with Teal 100%. Yes BP made poor decisions but their poor decisions dont just harm other businesses, they harm the environment which is irreplacable. There should be serious consequences for mistakes like these and I think that fining is a fair punishment. We need to clean up their mess but BP should also be in charge of cleaning up as well rather than have people do it for them.
I agree with you guys (Teal and Larson) to an extent. I agree that BP made some costly mistakes. Lets all be clear in that BP is responsible for a GRATUITOUS (sat vocab) amount of deaths. It wasn’t just the fish that died, it was a variety of different species that had to suffer. However, where I disagree is in your response to their actions. Punishing BP, in my perspective, would do no good. What is done is done and punishing them is not going to make anything better. Certain consequences need to be put in place to ensure that something like this doesn’t happen again. BP got a little cocky and stopped following protocol on their drills. In result, the oil spill occurred. I think the results of the spill gave BP enough bad publicity to where they would not dare let something like that happen again.
Cameron I don’t know if your statement about BP not following protocol is true, but assuming that it is, I would definitely argue that the next step would be to raise the standards of protocol or even raise the severity in failure to comply with it. Obviously, there is nothing we can do now but to find ways to help accelerate oil clean up on the the Gulf. Although something we can do is raise awareness of the realities of the harsh damages as a result of BP’s mistake to encourage others to take an active role in the clean up.
I agree Teal. Even this was a total accident, it is still BP’s fault and they had emergency and preventative procedures especially for events like this that COULD have set in place but weren’t. BP should definitely take the blame, as they are, and some form of a punishment should be given to them, being a fine or something of the like. But like Jackson said, we need to move on. What is done is done, and there’s nothing we can go back and fix. What BP can do is to make their oil rigs safer and more invulnerable to disasters like this, for example making the drills more secure and going through more tests to make sure the rig is completely safe and efficient.
The fault here belonged to many sources not just BP. Yes, it can be argued that they are greedy and wanted to cut corners to save money, but the reality is that these corners were cut a long time ago and the standard for bad safety regulations was formed. BP did do a few things right in this situation though. They gave almost 1 billion dollars to help clean up the spill and basically cleaned house with their corporate managment. BP lost a ton of money over this, so it is unlikely that they will continue to cut corners and carry out in this manner ever again.
I feel like the only way to categorize the oil spill is an epic fail. Obviously it was not BP’s intention to lose all this oil and cause so many problems but they could be doing more to help with cleanup efforts. I heard a commercial the other day that was promoting the gulf that was effected by the oil spill and it was sponsored by BP. The videos that were posted on this article were from May 2010 so I wonder if there has been much progress with the recovery of these ecosystems. I think that BP has a responsibility to make this situation right for all the victims of the oil spill.
Why can’t BP just come out and say, “yes it is more toxic” and get rid of it? What more damage can they do to their name? They have already spilled millions of gallons of oil into the ocean and are killing all different types of wildlife. It amazes me how BP is still using Corexit risking more lives just to try and get this situation over with. And Corexit must not be working if these videos were posted over a year ago.
Dallas, why would BP ever go out and say that? BP had been all over the news for this occurence and has definitely lost a massive amount of money over this crisis. It is obviously bad that they are using this, but it was the economical decision that BP had to make to save their failing company.
When did saving a business become more important then saving the environment? If BP knew that this product was more toxic, risking lives, and just settling at the bottom of the ocean why couldn’t they have just stopped at admitting they screwed up with the oil spill. Then an organization with more knowledge about marine life and clean up could have taken care of this problem with better handling.
Yes we wish BP would do that but what business ever admits their wrong. Thats so rare. Businesses goals are to make money and thats it. So openly admitting their wrong will fail their business so why would they do that! I just want a more knowledgeable company to come out and take care of this problem on their own.
BP and other big companies aren’t going to own up to their mistakes because it will hurt their business even more. Dallas I think you need to remember that big businesses are selfish and there number one goal is to make the most money possible, which is why they wanted to sweep the corexit under the rug. In a perfect world businesses would think about the earth first and money second, but the world we live in today people aren’t just going to own up to their mistakes even after they already made a huge mistake. Like Reed said the corexit was the best option for BP to clean up the oil and try and safe some money at the same time, which obviously is not working out.
In a perfect world, companies such as BP would be able to put there large egos aside and own up to their mistakes, but sadly that just isn’t the world that we live in. We just have to accept that companies such as BP would up there mistakes because it would absolutly ZERO sense economically and all decisions a company makes are with their one best intrests in mind. BP doesn’t care about using products such as Corexist that risk lifes as long as they continue to make money.
Unfortunately, I have to agree with Andrew. These companies aren’t just going to throw away the reputation that took decades for them to earn over one accident. BP has made it’s bed, and now it has to lie in it. Their clean up chemical corexit, which helps disperse oil slicks, does just that: it disperses the oil, not break it down or degrade it. The result of using this chemical may fool the public to think that they are lowering the amount of spilled oil in the Gulf, but all it’s doing is creating smaller and smaller clumps of oil that the public eye can’t see. I feel like BP will never feel the hurt of this extensive damage except in their pay checks and it’s up to people like us, who are aware of the situation, to feel the hurt of the species that are dying from this incident.
In a perfect world this would have never happened. But unfortunately we don’t live in a perfect world and so we have to deal with devastating situations like these. BP has done so much damage and now it needs to fix that damage. Its unfortunate that BP cannot learn from their mistakes and be honorable enough to do the right thing. It is things like this that has put our world in its current situation with so many environmental problems. Hopefully, one day the lesson will be learned…
When the oil spill was in full effect I clearly remember BP stating that the issue would quickly be resolved and that minimal damage to our oceans would occur. Obviously, one year later that statement was completely false. When we have big buisnessmen trying to help our environment with sometimes little knowledge over the environment itself, it’s just a recipe for disaster. Like Catherine said I wonder how much progress has been made since the spill happened and was fixed. It’s extremely sad to see how some of the species were affected by the oil spill. This BP oil spill should be a wake up call to other companies that horrible accidents like this can happen.
I agree with what everyone is saying here. I think it is horrible what BP is doing in order to “fix” what has happened. The oil spill has done so much damage to the environment already, why should they further destroy it? Like Dallas said, BP already has a bad reputation in the minds of most in our nation. So I do not understand why they feel that they need to hide yet another mistake they have made, they should come out and admit to it and work to fix this. I think it is horrible that many species are suffering because of this massive mistake on their part and something must be done.
I agree with what abby is saying on the fact that BP should just own up to their mistakes instead of trying to cover it up. It’s not helping anyone, meaning the animals, people living there, or the environment the way BP is handling this. Using something that is more toxic is not going to help the water, plants or plant life later on when they “pick up all” of the toxic oil that is clumped together. I really agree that people need to not just boycott BP but actually go see and help the people who have to deal with this long after the cost guard and everyone else leave. I really think both of these videos make you think more intensely about what happened and what should be happening to fix it.
I could not believe the countless number of pelicans being washed up onto shore everyday due to the amounts of oil that is out in the ocean. The birds were literally black, drentched with oil. It made the birds barely able to move and unable to function properly. BP does need to fix this problem fast. But, I can tell you right now they are not approaching this “fix” in the correct way at all. The toxin corexit is actually four times worse than the oil itself. These toxins they are polluting the ocean with is not to help the environment, but to save BPs backs. They think by using this product will break up the oil and make it easier to clean up. It actually pollutes the ocean even more causing more damage and harm to marine life and birds. If BP can’t even help out the ocean’s oil spill then who will?
I think you make a great point about how BP is only worried about saving their back and they don’t care how they have to do so even if it means killing various species of aquatic life with their toxin, corexit. That is just the downfall of large companies like BP; they will never appeal to the public in a personal way. If BP showed more care in the interest of their customers and not the size of their paycheck, we would probably see more eco-friendly ways of oil clean up taking place. Unfortunately, until that day comes, more and more individuals will die from the only two things BP has managed to put into the situation: oil and corexit.
I do believe that BP is doing with this toxic chemical, Corexit, is not good. Although I am not supporting BP here, I do believe that are at least trying. Once the oil spill happened, people were immediately all over BP asking what they were going to do. They needed a very quick response, and Corexit was it. Now hopefully, this chemical will not continue to be used. I hope it is just a short-term solution as BP searches for a new solution. Another thing that concerns me about BP is that they had prevention plans and procedures incase this happened, but they never put them in place before this happened because it was not required. I do have to say, BP has given themselves a terrible name, and rather than trying to cover up and hide more bad facts about themselves, they just need to get it together and find a solution to this oil spill that is still affecting the Gulf of Mexico.
BP was trying to fix the oil spill, but rather it furthered its damage more. The ways they come about fixing the problem is pretty sad, since they are making many innocent species suffer. Like Dallas said, I am also confused that they won’t come forward and admit what they’re doing is wrong and they should stop. Obviously BP and everyone else realize they are the ones causing the further harm, so why not admit it and stop them? Something should happen to make them stop harming our ecosystem. It has already gotten bad enough, we should now have a turning point before it gets even worse!
BP was just trying to do what they thought would help most in the aftermath of the oil spill. Sure it wasn’t the right decision to use the Corexit, we realize that now, but we need to move on and keep trying to clean up the mess they made. Once all the ecosystems are back to normal, then we can deal with BP. The real problem is the destruction of the wildlife, not how we’re going to punish BP for what they did.
Bri I don’t really know if BP was really trying to fix the oil spill with the best resources possible, they were just in damage control mode after one of the worst public relations disasters in history. They used cheap products that could be potentially damaging to the environment such as Corexit so they would appear as if they were genuinely remorseful, while in reality they were just upset that it happened and used the cheapest product possible so they could look good while spending little money. I personally believe BP deserves little of our sympathy or be granted the benefit of the doubt and they should be punished severely for the damage they have cause to the environment and countless lives.
I think it is very crucial that BP just own up to the mistake they made and learn from it. By trying to cover it up and not saying anything they are only making matters worse. Clearly the damage was devestating to the enviornment and BP reallu just needs to come forward but unfortunately they won’t. I don’t think that they will because they are trying to protect their image and their reputation even though everyone already knows what the problem is. In cases like this it is nice to have the source of the problem own up to what they did wrong in an effort to make it right but alot of the time it is not what happens.
Although this may be true that they dont want to own up i really dont think that is the point of this problem. I think the real problem is how much this one mistake affect a lot of different things. It hurts the water, plant life, animals, and the people around the area. Although it should be BP’s main job to take care of stopping the problem and then cleaning up i think they also need to look at the people they are affecting too. This is not an easy problem and fix. This has to take consideration and actually caring on how to fix this problem.
This is such a dated post. It’s been a year and a half since the oil spill, and BP has been cleaning up the mess since it started happening. It was a mistake; sh*t happens. People need to get off the back of BP. No one knew how to clean up the spill, so when Corexit was suggested as a dissolvant that kept the oil below the surface of the water (which was the largest concern to begin with because it was the most visible and caused all the damage to the animals that weren’t aquatic but relied on the ocean for survival like the pelicans). People are so quick to blame BP for everything, but they took a massive amount of responsibility for the event that they could not control.
Anyways, if anyone were to do research on it now, they would see that BP no longer manages the cleaning of the Gulf. They had a time plan that just ended on November 2. Also, the coast guard has declared that 90% of the oil from the BP oil spill has been cleaned from the Gulf and is no longer more dangerous than any other oil sources in the ocean. BP has moved on to the restoration of the Gulf, meaning they are planting new plants and sand and establishing new marsh.
BP is fixing their mistake more than anyone else even tried to. They are a massive organization, and therefore had more responsibility to clean up the spill, so they stepped up and did it. They set aside 1 billion dollars just for cleanup and resoration. People need to relax.
Zander I agree with you on many of the points you made but I would say that BP did have somewhat control over this incident. They are the ones who employ the workers to build and wield these oil rigs. Im not saying corporate should be the ones to blame for this incident like you said they have set a 1 billion dollars aside to clean up the mess. BP should have just done a better job educating their workers to construct this rig so devastation like this can be prevented in the future.
Johne, it wasn’t an accident caused by lack of work safety. It was a methane bubble that escaped from the drill location (which happens often), which then traveled up the drill line (which rarely happens), got into the combustion system, and caused an explosion. There is nothing that BP could have done to train for such an unusual incident. Like Cameron said below me, damage was going to be done regardless. It was pure luck that it was BP that was involved. At least they tried to help, which they did.
Ok I was unaware of this and I now see how rare this incident was. Thank you for explaining the devastation in its entirety.
Thanks for mentioning this Zander. I had a similar opinion when the oil spill first occurred. The oil that spilled belonged to BP, but I have a hard time blaming them 100% for using Corexit to clean up. Like you said, they were scrambling around trying to find a quick way to remove most of the oil from the surface. The life under the sea was hurt as collateral damage, but the spill was largely covered up. When an oil spill like this happens, many organisms are going to die and BP did their best to try to limit the effect that the oil had on the ocean’s surface and on the shoreline.
I am not saying the BP is perfect, only that they probably made the right choice given the circumstances back then. In hindsight, they might have been able to come up with something better, but given the time crunch and the scope of the accident, this was okay. Harming the environment intentionally is never good, and BP knew the consequences, but I think we need to move past their efforts to clean up and try to figure out how to restore the ecosystem that was lost.
I’m glad that Zander brought this point up. The article is so dated, and do we really know what the current staus is on the oil spill? Like he said, BP no longer manages the cleaning of the Gulf, so we can no longer put them for the blame. I think it is a crucial step for them to be now focusing on the restoration of Gulf. I think that instead of dwelling on the past, we need to focus on the future and the present, and how BP is trying to fix their actions.
I think it’s sad that this tragedy happened, but I think we need to keep exploring and pumping oil from the golf. We need oil and we need it cheap for our economy to prosper. What happened in the golf was an accident, and I’m sure it is bound to happen some other time at some other place. I’m not defending BP in any way; I think their efforts to clean up their mess wasn’t enough. I think what needs to be done is to create regulation that will help prevent accidents like this from happening. Also, more regulation can be passed over how the oil companies have to respond to a situation like this so that next time, if it happens again, it will be more efficient and less damaging to the environment.
I think the we should focus less on criticizing BP and focus more on how we can work together to fix the problem and clean up the Gulf. Its quite obvious by now that BP has messed up and even though they have tried to clean up their mess, their efforts have not been effective. Since BP is not making progress I think it is time that someone else step in to try to find a better solution. Perhaps our government should be more involved, or maybe just the people. I like the video because it makes more people aware that the oil spill is not something that is over and done with, however, I wish that the tone was less critical and more inspiring to participate in a solution.
The whole oil spill was all BP’s fault, but still people’s critizicism towards them is not going to change what happened in the past. Right now we need more people to solve the problem, not tell everyone else what the problem is. We all know what the problem is. If more people would make more of an effort to help instead of talking about how bad BP is all the time, then we would have made much more progess up to this point.
I agree with Niko, in that enough people have already given BP enough criticism and identified the problem. It is now up to someone to come with the solution to fix and prevent this from happening again.
I think Niko raises a great point. I think that BP should man up and begin fixing their mess. To do that they need to begin clean up. If they don’t, some one should.
I think that these techniques for solving oil spills are outdated and extremely inefficient. Recently, companies completed the X-prize Oil cleanup challenge. The winning team that cleaned up the most oil, compared to modern techniques, wins $1 million. The winning team was able to capture about twice as much oil (http://www.popsci.com/technology/article/2011-10/x-prize-challenge-seeks-new-designs-and-inspiration-clean-future-oil-spills) compared to previous techniques.
The greater issue is solving the cause of the problem and not the problem itself. Corporations, such as BP, plan to fix their problems instead of change the causes. The reasoning behind that goal is money. Corporations always wants what best for money instead of what is best for everyone. The problem needs to be solved by both sides and hopefully sooner rather than later.
It’s sad that the people whose job it is to clean up this mess don’t care enough about their own environment or country to do it properly. It’s also sad that after learning that Corexit has negative side effects on our environment, they continue to use it. I feel like they need to realize that continuing this treatment of the BP oil spill won’t solve the problem – it will only harm the environment more. But if they aren’t going to do anything about then we need to realize that and actually get up and do something about it if we care so much about our environment as we say we do. I agree with Niko that we need to search for a solution rather than continue to criticize their faults.
Fallon, I totally agree. Its really frustrating to sit on the side lines and watch BP be so selfish. But as you and Niko said, sitting around and complaining about BP is not actually going to change anything. Real and effective solutions need to be found.
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