Forgotten, But Not Gone

News about the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico used to be everywhere. For months, it was impossible to open a newspaper or turn on the television without seeing a picture of an oil-covered pelican or a photo of black plumes gushing from an underwater vent. But as soon as the leaking oil well in the Gulf was plugged in September, the story dropped off the national news faster than a sinking rig.

Of course, the Gulf is still reeling from the damage. Just last weekend, miles-long stretches of weathered oil were found floating off of the coast of Louisiana, threatening the closure of fisheries that had just been reopened. However, without as many visible signs of damage, the American public has moved on, devoting its limited cognitive energy to more pressing issues like the rescue of the Chilean miners or NPR commentators who get nervous when flying with Muslims. The few public opinion polls that even contain questions about the oil spill have found that concern about the spill pales in comparison to the economy, budget issues, or health care reform.

Few of the campaigns for 2010 outside of the affected region along the gulf coast have even mentioned the spill, its cleanup, or offshore oil drilling in general. Although spending on campaign advertising has reached a record high this fall, the content seems much more focused on trade relations with China, illegal immigration and abortions than the worst environmental disaster in U.S. history.

When the new BP CEO, Robert “Bob” Dudley, blamed the media on Monday for creating a “climate of fear” in its coverage of the Gulf Coast spill, hardly anyone noticed. Compare that to the outcry when the former BP CEO was caught saying things like, “I want my life back.”

Even legitimate reports about the progress of the cleanup often cite confusing or contradictory findings. Fishermen in the region say that they have been seeing oily patches for days, contradicting claims by Coast Guard scientists that very little oil from the spill remained in the gulf, either on the surface or on the ocean floor.

It’s unlikely that the Coast Guard is trying to hoodwink the public. Tests conducted by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration on samples of both water and soil at various depths and distances from the coast found low levels of contaminants. But we don’t have good ways of knowing where the oil is, how much is left, and how it is affecting. Therein lies part of the problem: It is easy to get worked up by quotable figures, like barrels of oil leaking per day, but hearing scientists say “we just don’t know” isn’t enough to send cable news commentators into a spasm of righteous indignation.

Gulf publicity has suffered from the decrease in visibility of oil-covered birds, but that doesn’t mean that the birds are free from harm. Birds who ingest oil can suffer from ulcers, pneumonia, or liver damage, and eating contaminated food can adversely affect their ability to breed and take care of their young. In addition, reduced food supplies due to effects elsewhere in the food chain can push some avian populations that are already endangered to the tipping point.

Hearing about damage to big animals, like turtles, birds, and dolphins, touches our hearts more than plants, invertebrates, or microbes, but damage to habitat and animals low on the food chain contains the greater risk and the greater uncertainty. For instance, oil is hard to remove from the soils of estuaries and marshes, and it does the most damage by preventing marsh grass from growing. The grass is an important food source and provides cover for small animals, and having less grass will contribute to erosion. But we don’t know how reduced estuary land will affect the region over long periods of time.

The oil has also likely damaged ecological systems that we have yet to discover. The ocean remains a largely unexplored frontier, and new species and ecosystems are found every year. Undiscovered species may someday prove to have medicinal or agricultural value, and we would be robbing ourselves of future advances if we allowed these organisms to go extinct.

As responsible citizens, we must finish the cleanup and take steps to prevent another spill from happening. The only reliable way to ensure a natural disaster on this scale does not occur again is to end offshore oil drilling, especially on deepwater rigs, and minimize large oil shipments across the open ocean. Tougher regulations and enforcement will not change the fact that any machine or vessel built by human hands may someday break or malfunction in unforeseen ways. Until then, the best we can do is to remind the public that while the leak is plugged, the damage remains.

Adam R. Gold, a Crimson editorial writer, is a physics concentrator in Adams House. His column appears on alternate Fridays.