The long term impact of BP's oil disaster will be felt for years to come. BP has placed a cap over the damaged well-head but this is just the beginning. Rolling Stone spells it out in alarming detail in the piece The Poisoning.
Jeff Goodell writes: "Since the blowout in late April, up to four million barrels of oil and nearly two million gallons of toxic dispersants have been dumped into the Gulf. The clean-up operation will continue for months, but it's mostly PR – only a small fraction of the oil will actually be removed. More important, no one has a clue yet what the longer-term effects of this catastrophe will be: how many dead dolphins will wash up on the beaches, how many local residents will lose their livelihoods, how the complex ecosystem of the Gulf will be altered, or, indeed, what the political fallout will be for the Obama administration. Sorting all that out is a much larger story, and right now, it is just beginning."
Goodell makes the point that BP responded to the disaster by pumping nearly 2 million gallons of toxic chemicals into the Gulf in an effort to break up the oil into smaller slicks. We have to remember that this has never been done before, not on such a massive scale. BP has in effect turned the Gulf of Mexico into a vast science experiment. The consequences, untested and unforeseeable, will haunt the planet for decades.
What we're seeing now is just the first chapter in a story that's likely to run for many years.
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