A Dinonalysis of the Deepwater Horizon Disaster and Response

Here out west, the whole affair seems almost surreal. The images of birds coated in oil, suffering, fill me with despair. I can only imagine how those who live along the Gulf feel, and how anxious Eastern Seaborders must be since the oil could eventually end up there, too. After the jump, I’ll offer some brief thoughts about how the disaster has been covered and how the Obama Administration could respond more effectively.




First, I think the despair everywhere is palpable, and the source of it is probably an understanding, deep down, that there simply is no fix for what has happened. A cleanup there will be, and a big one, but it will be partial and the damage is closer to permanent than not – it’s a matter of decades, not months. It was opined once that humanity only sets itself tasks it can accomplish, problems it can solve, but times like these challenge that statement and lead us more in the direction of the satirical Dr. Strangelove, where humanity reveals itself to be so utterly feckless and inane as to be scarcely worthy of continued existence. At least I was able to laugh at the craziness and stupidity of General Ripper, Buck Turgidson, the Nazi scientist Merkwurdigliebe (Dr. Strangelove), the devious “Rooskies” with their playboy Premier Dmitry Kissov, and our own fearless leader Mirkin Muffley. I find it impossible to laugh at the present horror, especially, I suppose, because we’ll still be around to see what we have done. In the film, Slim Pickens as Major Kong took care of that little problem for us….

Second, the news coverage of this event has at times been spotty and slow, inconsistent. Part of the problem may be that the responsible parties have a strong interest in minimizing the apparent damage – the less we see and hear, the better it is for them. But another contributing factor to the fitfulness of media concentration on the unfolding catastrophe only speaks to the shortness of the public’s attention span and the news outlets’ understanding of that factor: unless something exciting is happening with the repeated attempts to cap the well, there are long periods of silence in the coverage. In the downtimes, we continue to occupy ourselves with bad baseball calls, silly dealmaking on the part of members of the Obama Administration, and other things, some of which are important but which in no way rise to the level of the Deepwater Horizon debacle. And I suppose partly our fitful attention is a function of our despair.

Third, the Obama Administration’s response to the situation has been honest enough, but too beholden to BP’s promises and actions, and at times it has been agonizingly slow. The prescription here isn’t that Obama should ceremoniously don a deepwater diving suit and then start hopping up and down with rage – that would be childish and ineffectual, though I understand the temptation in this era of “mission accomplished” and flight-suit posturing as opposed to genuine leadership and crisis management. The trouble all along, almost from day one of this 45-day ordeal, has been a matter not of emotion but rather of concentration, or at least the strong demonstration thereof since I don’t mean to imply that there’s really any lack of concern. I think what a lot of people are looking for is the sense that the president understands the depth and gravity of the situation. To that end, I would suggest that he cancel any overseas trips, ceremonial or recreational events, etc., and perhaps even set up something of a second White House along the Gulf at least through the initial stage of the massive cleanup efforts we know will be required. If that takes a month of his time, so be it – there are other important things to deal with, things that cannot be ignored, but there is absolutely NOTHING more important going on right now than this.  To be fair, this is an eventful presidency, and Barack Obama seldom seems to have a moment free of worrying about some big new thing. If I ever forget (in some other lifetime), please remind me never to run for president. I would rather wrestle three large, angry stegosaurs with a big rubber band around my snout and my tail tied into a knot….

With the well capped – which could happen as early as today if luck is with the engineers doing the “cut and cap” procedure – I am hoping that the Obama Administration will immediately (not a month later, after some commission has talked the matter to death) begin implementing an all-out, concentrated, massive cleanup and economic recovery program for the Gulf States. Get the oil people and the fishermen back to work right away trying to stem the oil and clean up whatever can be cleaned up of the gunk that’s already come ashore. Anything that can be done, should be done, and it should be seen being done. Prosecuting any recklessness or wrongdoing discovered on the part of the responsible entities is a second avenue. Yet a third thing to do is to stand up NOW for transitioning us as rapidly as humanly possible towards reliance on cleaner energy sources: the Oil Age, as of Deepwater Horizon, should be declared over.

Fourth, the utter depravity and incoherence of the right wing in this country is, if anything, even more breathtaking than usual in such a crisis. I’m sorry to say that in my term “extreme,” I include many supposedly mainstream Republican politicians and their talking-head and ordinary supporters. They remain hopelessly oblivious to the role that their own deregulatory, insanely pro-corporate and anti-environment stances for several decades running have played in the run-up to this disaster. I accept none of their transparently dishonest and contradictory criticism of the President's handling of this crisis. A party that has consistently claimed the government should barely exist is now screaming that that same government needs to “commandeer” all available resources. They’re also telling us that “Drill, baby, drill” didn’t mean what we thought it meant. Well, of course it didn’t, because after all, who are you going to believe – them or your own two ears? There are always just as many or as few fingers in front of your face as the Grand Old Party needs you to see. Whatever the results of the 2010 elections, I don’t believe we even have a viable two-party system at this point: what we have is one often ineffectual but at least sane party, and another that I can only describe as divided into two main camps: juvenile and outright insane, with both camps vying for supporters based on their willingness to pander to the most outrageous, barbarous sentiments in the American public. This attitude is doing us a grave disservice as we try to fend off at least the worst consequences of human arrogance and stupidity.