Ever since BP’s platform explosion, frustrations continue to spill over. Business owners, tourism officials and politicians are crowding onto the slippery-dickery debate dock of who’s going to suffer most from 5,000 gallons of oil leaking daily into the Gulf of Mexico.
Just for a moment, let’s skip past the dead birds and iridescent swirls of oily marshes and listen to a few laments:
From a wedding coordinator: “We’re trying to calm brides panicking that their beach weddings may be ruined by the stench of petroleum.”
From an environmental group (believe it or not): “If this spill happened just three miles off our coast, how many people from around the world would be cancelling hotel reservations?”
From a dive shop owner in Key West: “There are three sports in Key West: drinking, fishing and diving. In that order. The only one that is not going to be affected is drinking.”
Granted, businesses and industries have every right to be worried and mad about how their profits will be affected by the spill, but let’s hope they also acknowledge the danger posed to local wildlife and its habitats. Every day media introduce us to more photos of oil-soaked birds. How can any of us look the other way?
Interestingly, BP rebranded itself in 2000, making its name synonymous with Beyond Petroleum to communicate “a future independent of fossil fuels.”
Pretty slick.
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