Andy Wimbush is nef‘s Communications Assistant and blogmaster.
The word spill doesn’t really do justice to the unfolding disaster in the Gulf of Mexico, brought to you by oil giant BP. A spill, as Sophie Elmhirst has pointed out, is what happens to milk: “There’s no point crying over it, as the saying goes”.
But before you start wondering whether to call it a slick, a disaster, a catastrophe, be sure to pay a visit to IfItWasMyHome.com. Enter your home town and watch as the big black blot of oil is superimposed on where you live. Here’s what it looks like dumped on nef HQ in London, engulfing most of East Anglia, and stretching right across to the Breacon Beacons.
At this point, most words feels like an understatement.
(Hat-tip to @JohnHitchin for the link)
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3 comments
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2 June, 2010 at 1:19 pm
Macrocompassion
There is a point in crying over spilt oil. The results are more significant and perhaps the experience and expense in both money and ecology losses will encourage the oil drilling companies not to permit it to recur, even if some oil stays untapped.
4 June, 2010 at 11:27 am
Bringing the BP oil spill home (via the nef triple crunch blog) | Miss Lady Green
[…] Bringing the BP oil spill home (via the nef triple crunch blog) Posted on June 4, 2010 by missladygreen I had not realised how big the oil spill was… but depicted on a map of the UK shows it all too well! Just one of the instances where language fails to encompass the severity and size of a disaster – the word ‘spill’ just doesn’t cut it! Andy Wimbush is nef’s Communications Assistant and blogmaster. The word spill doesn’t really do justice to the unfolding disaster in the Gulf of Mexico, brought to you by oil giant BP. A spill, as Sophie Elmhirst has pointed out, is what happens to milk: “There’s no point crying over it, as the saying goes”. But before you start wondering whether to call it a slick, a disaster, a catastrophe, be sure to pay a visit to IfItWasMyHome.com. Enter you … Read More […]
7 June, 2010 at 11:16 am
rachelincolombia
It´s a great way of bringing home the implications of disasters like this. And even thought the disaster is in many ways unique, there are so many lessons to be learned. If we look at the oil industry worldwide, the net environmental and social cost of it is massive, and that´s before climate change is even considered. At Due South, we´ve looked at tha situation in the Niger Delta http://www.iied.org/sustainable-markets/blog/tale-two-deltas , and will be looking at more issues on it. It´s particularly worrying that much of remaining oil reserves seem to have much greater environmental and social implications than conventional reserves, either because they´re harder to extract or lead to greater amounts of greenhouse gas emissions. The Gulf of Mexico disaster should be a message to all of us, and if anyone´s interested, please stop by at Due South to let us know your thoughts.