BP says it will make it up to everyone who was hurt by the oil spill. But you and I (and they) know that this is impsiosble. You could liquidate BP, sell all of its assets, and it would pay for only a small part of the damage. Even if BP is liquidated, even if its investors are sued, you and I (and they) know that 99% of this mess will fall on the victims and the taxpayers.The lawsuits will not be to make BP be responsible and pay for the damage, they will be by victims struggling and fighting over what funds are available, to get their share. Tens of millions of people will be affected by this. In terms of actual monetary damage, it will be several times bigger than 9/11.BP will do what Exxon did after the Exxon Valdez disaster. They will spend a billion or so, enough to sound like a lot of money but for a company that makes tens of billions per quarter it’s not really that much. Then they will spend another few hundred million in public relations, putting ads on TV showing people washing oily birds and doing cleanup in reflective vests and hard hats with BP’s logo on them, and claim that they are a responsible company, that the accident was an act of God’, and that they cleaned up their mess like good citizens. The taxpayers will pay much more, maybe 100 billion before we’re done. And fishing and tourism in the Gulf will be damaged for decades. (Fishing in Prince William Sound, where the Exxon Valdez spill was, has still not come back to anywhere near its pre-spill levels.)We are reaching the time when human technology really can destroy the earth. We never think about these things before it’s too late. We never take pro-active action. What did we really learn from Bhopal? From the Exxon Valdez? From 9/11? Apparently not much.
BP says it will make it up to everyone who was hurt by the oil spill. But you and I (and they) know that this is impsiosble. You could liquidate BP, sell all of its assets, and it would pay for only a small part of the damage. Even if BP is liquidated, even if its investors are sued, you and I (and they) know that 99% of this mess will fall on the victims and the taxpayers.The lawsuits will not be to make BP be responsible and pay for the damage, they will be by victims struggling and fighting over what funds are available, to get their share. Tens of millions of people will be affected by this. In terms of actual monetary damage, it will be several times bigger than 9/11.BP will do what Exxon did after the Exxon Valdez disaster. They will spend a billion or so, enough to sound like a lot of money but for a company that makes tens of billions per quarter it’s not really that much. Then they will spend another few hundred million in public relations, putting ads on TV showing people washing oily birds and doing cleanup in reflective vests and hard hats with BP’s logo on them, and claim that they are a responsible company, that the accident was an act of God’, and that they cleaned up their mess like good citizens. The taxpayers will pay much more, maybe 100 billion before we’re done. And fishing and tourism in the Gulf will be damaged for decades. (Fishing in Prince William Sound, where the Exxon Valdez spill was, has still not come back to anywhere near its pre-spill levels.)We are reaching the time when human technology really can destroy the earth. We never think about these things before it’s too late. We never take pro-active action. What did we really learn from Bhopal? From the Exxon Valdez? From 9/11? Apparently not much.