Black Gold Or Black Death?

By Author: Arianna Palmer
Total Articles: 1
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The events after the BP oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico attracted a lot of controversy in regard to the cause of the spill, its accountability and measures to prevent such happenings in the future. The controversy brought about a lot of interest, which resulted in the special privileges of this burning issue at all levels of discussion tables. The scale of environmental threat that the oil spill posed was an important lesson in relation to preventing similar disasters and taking proper measures after oil spills.

The debate on who was to fund the cleanup activities after the oil spill is an important lesson for Canada. Judging from this event, Canada was able to realize that insurance policy in regard to accountability of offshore oil spills was outdated and needed refreshment. For example, the Canadian government does not provide public insurance for homeowners in case of fire or theft. Therefore, it raised so many questions why the Canadian government would foot the bill of the BP oil spill. This is because the oil spill exceeded $40 million, and under the current Canadian law, oil companies are only accountable for ...
... compensation of up to $40 million of absolute liability despite the magnitude of fault or negligence.

The BP oil spill led to loss of life and threat to loss of marine life. For that reason, the Canadian government stopped issuing licenses for drilling. The same mode is present in most North American nations. The nations within North America are hesitant towards issuing more licenses for drilling. This is after the nation learnt a “wonderful” lesson from the BP oil spill. The spill happened in time to save the madness that was going on around the Arctic in respect to big oil companies fighting over the next available and accessible oil and gas fields.

The BP oil disaster was one of the most important platforms for learning the dangers of oil spills. Perhaps this lesson should make the oil and gas companies avert their energies elsewhere in search of its alternative source. With the climate change and global warming in mind, oil should be the last form of energy on earth. China is leading the way by investing heavily in alternative sources of energy such as geothermal energy. The oil spill raised a lot of concern and curiosity over the risks of a Gulf-type disaster to the environment. This was perhaps the best lesson of the 21st century. This is due to the number of concerns emerging from the oil spill. First, there is the concern about the impact on the world if every oil rig spilled. Where would the world get it energy from? Does the world depend too much on oil for energy? Secondly, there is a concern the world is not doing a lot to find alternative sources of energy rather than oil and gas. Thirdly, there is concern that the world is neglecting the magnitude of future risks and dangers that can arise from frequent oil spills.

Overlooking oil spill disasters and starting a blame game will only encourage more oil spill disasters to continue. Stiff measures should be introduced to oversee the requirements for oil rigs. For example, after the disaster, BP blamed the type of cement used. BP has the mandate to buy cement that favors their work, and therefore, they should not blame anyone. The company should plead guilty and find ways to prevent such disasters from ever happening again. It is very shameful that even the new BP CEO had the nerves to state that the accident was a “shared responsibility” failure. At such rate, the Black Gold will turn into the Black Death.

About the author:
Arianna Palmer works as a freelance writer at the service which is called Top-papers. There you can buy term papers online and be sure that you will receive high-quality writings. The author is interested in learning environmental threats because this theme is very important.