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Originally Posted by rcheshire
This can be said for the Alpha Platform, Exxon Valdez, Esso/Exxon Sale plant explosion, the Alaska pipeline and any other organisational accident/incident you care to mention.
The interesting thing is that there is plenty of literature to show that these types of accidents are avoidable - Prof. James Reason, if your familiar with his work, defined organisational accidents 20 years ago - however, they are discussed as an 'event', as though in isolation - memory is short. The issues leading up to this are systemic, and in BP's case chronic. There are few organisational failures associated with this disaster that differ from previous disasters.
Exxon paid out only $500,000 in damages years after the Valdez memory and the people affected had moved on. It will be interesting to see 10 years down the track while BP stall action against them just what the consequences are - I would suggest minimal. It's cheaper for BP to pay out millions in legal costs, than accept responsibility - which was Exxon's strategy.
My guess is that this will bring about reform, and BP will be shown to have a culture inconsistent with the risks that its business involves. The Alaska pipeline affair was sufficient to show that BP's culture is problematic - time for a change of management.
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But it all really boils down to proportionality, with profit margins on one side and risk on the other.
Risk has now become a battle between technology and Peak Oil related issues.
The planet has finite Fossil Fuels left, and those remaining resources will become cost-ineffective to get out of the ground well before we physically run out. Humanity had been given a ration of usable energy to do whatever it wanted...and we partied.
This issue can now be related back to exploration of space. Going into space and especially long duration isn't about the vehicle and the crew, it's about 'Establishment'. The Apollo program employed 450,000 people and the industry surrounding it consumes energy. In the movie/doco 'Collapse' Michael Ruppert believes that we have run out of time to come up with new energy resources sufficiently capable of replacing fossil fuels...and the key words here are "sufficiently capable of replacing". He believes we will hit 'Peak Oil' well before industry can find new solutions, tool-up for the technology and convert across.