Not in my back yard

This morning I was listening to the Today Programme on Radio 4 when I heard an interview with a research scientist who was being interviewed about the recent BP Gulf of Mexico oil spill.

Having heard the recent confirmation from US government scientists that this was the world's worst oil spill of all time, I was amazed to hear one of the facts from the research scientist. He stated that if the Gulf of Mexico was scaled down to the size of an Olympic swimming pool and the oil spill was scaled down by the same amount, the oil spill would amount to one gram of oil in that swimming pool. Now that fact does not diminish the impact that the spill has had on the lives of the families of those that were killed in the accident, the fishermen and their families who depend on the coastal fishing industry, and the many that rely on the tourism in the region. It does, however, make one think about the scale and press coverage that this corporate irresponsibility has received in comparison to other corporate irresponsibility - it seems to just depend where in the world it is happening.

The one example that springs to mind is the spills that are taking place on an almost daily basis in the Niger Delta. These may not be one single vast spill like the BP spill, however in cumulation they are huge. The Nigerian government estimates there were over 7,000 spills, large and small, between 1970 and 2000, according to the BBC. That is approximately 300 spills a year, and some spills have been leaking for years. Vast swathes of the Delta are covered with tar and stagnant lakes of crude. By some estimates, over 13 million barrels of oil have spilled into the Delta. That’s the equivalent of one Exxon Valdez spill every year for 40 years, according to The Independent. How often do we hear about what is going on in the Niger Delta - I wonder how many swimming pools these spills would fill.

Now all of this certainly does not belittle what has happened in the Gulf of Mexico, or dim the light of what BP has done. What the spill there has done has raised the issue in everyone's mind because we are all hearing about it - so that must be a good thing. Hopefully the result of this high profile spill will make us all more concious and unaccepting of corporate irresponsibility wherever it is happening in the world.