Criticism of BP

Some other quotes not on camera: ¹

• “What the hell did we do to deserve this? (said to fellow executives) (New York Times, April 29)
• “We will only win this if we can win the hearts and minds of the local community. It’s a big challenge.”(Financial Times, May 13)
• “The Gulf of Mexico is a very big ocean. The amount of volume of oil and dispersant we are putting into it is tiny in relation to the total water volume.” (Guardian, May 14)
• “Yeah, of course I am” (when asked if he sleeps at night) (Forbes, May 18).

It is pretty easy to see why so many criticized how callous the responses of BP were to the disaster especially their CEO Tony Hayward, which can be seen in the videos above such stating “I’d like my life back”. This lead the public to believe that BP held no actual regard for the people of the Gulf Coast they were supposedly trying to help, but through the use of apologies such as the famous one below, they were able to repair their image and recover to their reputation previous to the spill in a matter of a few years. This phenomenon has daunting implications given how fast the public is able to forgive and forget with no policy change in the company coming about as a result.

More Information On Intended Scientific Effect of Dispersants
Pro Dispersants:

Con Dispersants:
(skip to 10:08 for first video for pertinent information)

The technical aspects of dispersants that are pro dispersant seem to rely heavily on the assumption that the oil will be eaten and absorbed by bacteria once it sinks down, but a large problem is, as Jean-Michel Cousteau states, that so too will plankton, which form the lowest link in the food chain thereby affecting all marine life that directly or indirectly thrive off of plankton. The Dispersants thus just seem to break up the oil from the surface reinforcing an out of sight, out of mind sentiment of the public and BP in attempt to resolve the problem as fast as possible.

Page Number Reference:
1 – Introduction/Navigation Page
2 – Exxon Valdez Oil Spill
3 – BP Oil Spill
4 – Interesting Additional Information
5 – Site Reflections