Learning in the Field
On April 20, 2010, an explosion on the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig killed eleven people working on the platform and spilled an estimated 53,000 barrels of oil per day. By July 15, when the leak was stopped by capping the wellhead it is estimated that about 185 million gallons of crude oil had been released into the Gulf of Mexico.
While the well was still spilling oil, a new class was designed to provide Penn State students the opportunity to understand what likely happened on the Deepwater Horizon and to be informed about the impact of a spill like this on the Gulf of Mexico. The class lectures included information about the geology of the Gulf of Mexico, the formation of petroleum, oil exploration, deep-water drilling and well-head engineering. We also studied the dynamic processes of the spill including the oceanography of the Gulf of Mexico, the dispersal of oil, its reaction with dispersants, its breakdown by microbes, its distribution onshore, wetlands and marine systems, how they function, and how oil affects plants, water, sediment and wildlife within them. The course also included attention to the human dimensions of the spill, in particular the ethical, legal, and political issues surrounding the disaster.
One of the capstones of the class was a trip to the Gulf of Mexico where we had the opportunity to learn “in the field” from resident experts. The comments to this post are our reflections on what we learned.
This trip was a great experience. There was a great mix of geology, oil industry, ecology and ethics. The Katrina tour was very enlightening and made me view the disaster and its effects in a whole new way. One aspect that I thought was minimal, however, was seeing any effects of the oil spill. At Shell we discussed many safety procedures put in place to prevent a blowout and at Cocodrie we witnessed the results of the oil industry’s presence throughout the past several decades, but not much about the direct effect of BP’s spill. One explanation of this is that we are currently in an awkward limbo where the oil is mostly cleaned up, but the possible long lasting effects (most likely on wildlife) have not begun. The most solid lingering effect that I witnessed was talking with one woman in a souvenir shop on Bourban Street who told us that that she lost two jobs as a result of the oil spill and was waiting for her claim to be processed. Our bus driver, Vernon, told us that his company lost some business due to the spill and had to cut back hours, but he said that all his coworkers who sent in claims got exactly what they asked, whether it be 500 dollars or 15,000.
This is not to say that BP is off the hook for their spill. Just because the spill is seemingly cleared up doesn’t mean that it is any less ethical to drill haphazardly, but a new ethical breach was brought to my attention through the trip: the ethics of the media. I feel as though they often ignore science and sometimes the fact and instead report whatever makes the best story. This mentality might have lead to the spill being blown (bad um ching) a little out of proportion. Granted, it was the largest spill in United States history and it was somewhat ridiculous that it took so long for the flow to be stopped. But, once the spill was capped, the media could have highlighted the good of the situation: the oil spilled was a light oil, the warm climate is a good environment for microbes to grow, and that the spill was far from the shore. So, basically, I’m not going to argue that the spill was not a big deal (mostly because I don’t think that’s a true statement), I’m just saying that I think the media twisted and over-exposed this story for its own benefit and that is not at all ethical.
In the larger picture, however, the presence of the oil industry in an otherwise pristine environment is very evident. This was most apparent in Cocodrie while we were speed boating through the Bayou and saw the dying cypress forest. This is a result of general industrialization of the area, but currently mostly the oil industry. Recently, the oil industry realized how important parts of the environment like the cypress forest was to the reduction of the erosion of the coast and, therefore to the safety of their capital, that they have begun campaigning to protect them. I believe that this is an ethical decision and that the oil industry should put even more energy into this industry. They see it as protecting their financial well being, but it’s also protecting the vast stretches of beautiful scenery that we drove past on our way to Cocodrie as well as the thousands of people in New Orleans. Their decision to protect the environment would be truly ethical if they made it for those reasons.
Looking back at the trip to New Orleans, the one thing that stands out most to me is the vibrant culture unique to the community of New Orleans. Every neighborhood had its own personality and history to coincide with its distinctive architecture. I enjoyed touring the streets during the day and night, seeing the atmosphere of the city change. During the day, the city of New Orleans is a relatively quiet, filled with touristy shopping stops. But at night, the city transforms into one massive party. I was startled the first night we got there to see how packed Bourbon Street was at 10:30 on a Sunday.
The different things our class did on the trip, I fell I never will have the opportunity to do again. The day we toured One Shell Square was probably my favorite. I thought it was fascinating to see the vast amount of technology that goes into oil exploration. The 3D Seismographic Center was incredible; I was amazed that they are able to reproduce the amount of data as they did on any well drilled in the Gulf. It was cool to see the RTOC and how they are actively processing information that comes in from these rigs. My other favorite experience was the airboat rides out in the bayous. Even though we only saw one alligator, it was still very interesting to see the vast array of wildlife living in the area.
I used this opportunity to try some interesting culinary creations offered in New Orleans. I found I had quite a liking to fried alligator as well as some other specialty dishes of the region. I made sure I ate plenty of Po’Boys and gumbo. You could easily notice the distinct taste of spices put in the food down there.
What stuck out to me was the spirit that the community of New Orleans exudes. For a city that has seen its fair share of tragedy, it amazed me how optimistic and positive its citizens stayed in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. I did not realize the extent of damage the hurricane had on New Orleans. It opened my eyes during the Katrina tour to the amount of work that still needs to be done to clean up from a hurricane that happened over 5 years ago. Gutted houses with spray painted exteriors were not an uncommon sight in the Lower 9th Ward and surrounding areas. The culture of New Orleans is unlike something I have ever seen before. The city has its own identity which makes it fascinating to learn about and explore. I definitely hope to go back sometime in the future.
As an engineer, I was discouraged during our class trip to New Orleans because I got to see first-hand what can go wrong when engineers make mistakes. The BP oil spill and the failed levees during Hurricane Katrina were both preventable disasters, yet they occurred mainly due to the negligence of petroleum and civil engineers. These disasters would not have occurred if the employees who built the levees and worked on the rig had abided by basic engineering codes and standards, but it was clear on our trip that carelessness and indifference resulted in a double whammy for residents of the Gulf Coast.
During our stay in New Orleans, I started to brainstorm some ideas as to where the engineers went wrong before these two disasters occurred. Did the engineers simply disregard government regulations and industry practices? Were the engineers under tremendous pressure by the government or company to meet certain deadlines? Were cost-cutting techniques utilized to increase profitability? Or were the engineers just sloppy in completing the projects? Although these questions may never be answered, it became clear to me that the answer was a blend of all of the above.
In New Orleans, we focused more on the engineering failures of the breached levees than we did on the failures of the petroleum engineers. These included using a weak I-frame levee design instead of using a stronger T-frame design, using outdated soil and geologic data during construction, and building trees around the levees which allowed the water to enter the city more rapidly. The petroleum engineering failures included misinterpreting a negative pressure test hours before the explosion, using a dangerous long-stem well design, and continuing drilling operations after a power outage on the rig. All of these mistakes could have been prevented if the engineers had simply followed the engineering code of ethics, which basically states that “Engineers should value the safety, health, and welfare of the public.” If the engineers in both situations had acted responsibly, lives would have been saved and Gulf Coast residents would not have to be dealing with disaster after disaster.
It will be extremely difficult for the Army Corps of Engineers and big oil companies to regain the trust of Gulf Coast residents in the future. Before the two disasters, people viewed the Corps and oil companies as beneficial partners that were working to ensure the economic and physical well-being of all residents. Now, people along the Gulf Coast are angry and frustrated because they put their faith in two organizations that were responsible for the destruction of human and marine life. All petroleum and civil engineers along the Gulf Coast are now viewed as irresponsible American citizens, even though nearly all of them are good people. The oil spill and the breaches levees during Katrina put a black eye on the face on engineering, and although life in New Orleans is back to normal people are still hesitant to allow these people to continue working for the benefit of the Gulf Coast.
Although I am still two years away from entering the workforce as an engineer, I still worry about the potential effects of engineering negligence by a co-worker that could result in another national catastrophe. The most important thing I learned down in New Orleans is that people must not only work where they live, but live where they work as well. The Army Corps of Engineers and the petroleum engineers working for BP should have put American lives before project deadlines by acting as if their own lives were at stake in the drilling and building process. Engineers operate at very high standards, and they work hard to ensure that there are no injuries or deaths along the way. Mistakes happen in every industry, but one can only hope that all engineers learn from these two disasters and “truly advance the integrity, dignity, and honor of the profession”.
Looking back on this trip and recounting it to friends and family has really helped the information to sink in. I now have the opportunity to make connections and put things together that I did not necessarily understand while I was down in New Orleans.
First and foremost, I drew the conclusion that our trip did not contain a lot of information on the Gulf oil spill but focused more on the oil industry from Shell’s point of view and Hurricane Katrina. At first, I was frustrated by the lack of information regarding the oil spill. Prior to the trip, I thought seeing New Orleans firsthand would clear up any questions or problems remaining concerning the oil spill. After really thinking about what I learned while in New Orleans, I concluded that the lack of information on the oil spill was due to the lack of effect on people’s livelihood. Yes, there are aftereffects of the spill but it was interesting to hear from many of our guides in New Orleans that things really are not as bad as the media makes it out to be. The impact of the oil spill (at least currently) has a smaller role compared to Hurricane Katrina and other human effects on the surrounding ecosystem.
Another realization I came to was the impact that humans have on the environment. I think we try too hard sometimes to either fix things or keep the status quo. The amount of land loss in the Gulf region is staggering and completely avoidable if only we allowed nature to flow its course. Forcing the Mississippi River to flow in a particular directions may lead to economic gains but certainly not to environmental gains. The loss of marsh and swamp land could be severely cut back if the Mississippi was allowed to flow its natural course, but humans refuse to let that happen. Also, with reference to the oil spill, trying to expedite the cleaning process can lead to environmental damage that otherwise would not have occurred if left alone. Nature has a way of fixing itself without the assistance of humans.
I think the main thing I learned from this trip is the interconnectedness of everything in that region. The ecosystem is closely tied to human impacts. Conversely, oil companies in the region depend heavily on the ecosystem for production. No decision can be made easily in that region without thought for effects on various other aspects of the region. There is no simple solution to every problem that plagues that region, both environmental and cultural. I think our background we received as a class before traveling to that region really helped me to understand everything I learned in New Orleans. I have a new-found respect for the difficulty of the situation down in New Orleans, and I feel blessed to have my eyes opened to the world outside of State College and Pennsylvania.
Where do we go from here?
Throughout the course of this class, from a science lecture on coastal wetland loss to an ex-industry executive’s lecture on ethical issues throughout the industry, from the Gaslands documentary to Not One Drop, all I ever want to ask the author, speaker, or industry leader is where on Earth they suggest we go from this point forward? We are faced with countless challenges from energy to environmental to social, and oh, by the way, they’re all interconnected! So what happens when you spend an entire semester studying something, and then, when you get to the place, with all of your preconceived notions, but attempting to keep an open mind, it’s totally different than what you expected? Then what? It was hard enough to make sense of the whole situation when we had the “facts” and learned the information in the classroom.
As my classmates have mentioned above, the mood in New Orleans was clearly very different than we were expecting. Not only was it different, it was disturbingly casual and surprisingly unaffected. What were we to do? Here we are, looking for the catastrophic effects of the oil spill on the social fabric of a community, the ethical implications, the environmental degradation, and if we hadn’t taken a class on the whole disaster, it’s hard to say if you could have noticed anything different in the city. Oil is a way of life. Spills happen. People are devastated, but this is a city reluctantly accustomed to human devastation. And when we were along the coast, in talking to people you’d think salt water intrusion was the real enemy, forget oil. And you know what, after thinking about, maybe it is the real enemy. A sign of larger processes at play. Directly linked to oil exploration and shipping channels and canals, but less directly visible, perhaps that is the real threat. Unlike oil, the salt water isn’t going away (at least on a human time scale). I think the trip to New Orleans really drove home how invested we are to oil. How much infrastructure is in place, that simply cannot be switched overnight. It is a working coast, there is no doubt about that, but it is unclear how much longer it will continue to “work.” What happens when the coastal ecosystem is essentially gone? When homes are ruined even more than they already are? When people lose land, not to the bank, not to the government, but to Mother Nature?
Going into New Orleans, all I could think about was our discussion in class as to whether or not New Orleans should be saved. As if it were a tangible thing that we could move from this obviously dangerous location to something like a vault. Of course it is not that simple, but that is how the discussion seemed to go. Do we save it or not? After visiting New Orleans, that is the ethical quandary that still resonates most violently with me. Who in the world are we to discuss “saving” or not saving an entire culture, city, civilization, and history. These are some of the oldest colonial settlements on the continent. And we are honestly discussing “saving” or abandoning all of it. After one day in the city, it was clear this was not really an idea worth entertaining. But after three days in the region, it was clear that perhaps we should give it a more in-depth look. Following the bayou exploration, the Katrina tour, and exploring the city, it became more clear that something is going to have to be done. I was relieved, then, to have our meeting with Mark Kulp where someone from the area really got into the prospect of saving the city. His opinion I highly valued, and his thoughtful consideration of a combination “band-aid barrier island renourishment” plan with managed retreat seemed very reasonable. It was at that point, that I saw people with knowledge of the matter were actively trying to work through the logistics of an issue I was afraid was being ignored out of stubbornness or ignorance.
It was not surprising then, to hear him quote the newly elected politicians stating that “we will not retreat!” Of course not. How could I forget? We are the United States and we don’t retreat, we engineer nature for our needs, on our terms, with our resources. (You’ll have to pardon the sarcasm) But I must say, as strong and compelling as our military industrial complex may be, New Orleans will give any believer a run for his or her money. Touring all of the tremendous engineering infrastructure, seeing the tremendous coastal wetland loss, and seeing the devastation of two hurricanes, salt water intrusion, home abandonment, and all other related ills, I must say, it almost seems like time to throw in the towel. I am certainly not condoning abandoning the city, as I mentioned, that is an ethical issue that need not be considered, it IS worth saving. But perhaps it is time to face the music and honestly start managing a careful and thoughtful “backing up” (I’m hesitant to use the word “retreat”) so that we can put our money (however limited it may be) towards long term investments and away from riskier and pricier engineering experiments that are untested.
So in the context of the Gulf Coast anyways, my answer to the “Where do we go from here?” question is a bit simpler than I may have thought. To higher ground and further upstream. It does not solve many of the bigger issues, but I think the acceptance of the reality is the most important step. And that can be extrapolated to many issues. If we stop debating climate change and simply plan for it, then we will be much better off. People are stubborn, and perhaps a couple hurricanes can’t even convince many, but the situation on the Gulf Coast is fundamentally different than it was one hundred years ago. So when long-time locals go off on how many hurricanes their family has weathered, it is hard to consider simply how much human activity has changed the fate of that coastline. I feel the same arguments apply to the ethical issues facing the Gulf as they do to climate change. Every change is not one more step towards the apocalypse (as much climate change writing seems to convey) but a reasonable and considered adjustment to our lifestyle may be all we need to carry on our lives. If we give a little, we stand to gain a lot, and I wish that mood would be more pervasive in the Gulf Coast. What did I learn on where we go from here? To higher ground we must head, morally and physically, as a community and as a country.
A class trip to New Orleans sparked a lot of interest with my family members and relatives over the break. I was asked “How was your trip?” many times and was surprised at myself for how much information I really soaked in while I was down there that I could relay to them. I would sometimes bring up the alligator we ate or how the city gives off a vibe like no other place I’ve been to. The one issue, however, that I felt I needed to tell everyone was what I learned about the erosion taking place down there which is not discussed outside of Louisiana.
While gator po’boys are interesting, this issue of rapid erosion really surprised everyone. I would explain to them how much land the state had lost since the 30s and how if something isn’t done, the vitality of this one of a kind city will be in jeopardy. Now with every hurricane battering its coasts, more land is lost and the storm surges only get worse as the land continues to recede. The big question the remained with them was why it was happening at such a rapid rate.
The main reasons were the need for sediment from the Mississippi River to be used to rebuild this lost land and how the dredging of canals for oil companies have sped up erosion to unheard of rates. I feel that the oil companies can’t be blamed though for making these canals. They have provided so much revenue and jobs for the state and its citizens. Oil companies have a firm grasp on the communities now because people in the community are so dependent on the industry in their hometown. If they had known years ago that making canals at such a massive scale would have caused so much strife for the state and city of New Orleans, something would have been changed. It seems such a shame though that such an amazing marshes and coastlines of our country will now fade away into the water, merely a memory for those lucky enough to see when it was still there.
I bring up this issue of the oil company and how their impact, despite having good intentions for the state, has caused massive problems for the region, to draw parallels to what is happening in Pennsylvania. The natural gas industry is just beginning to see the benefits that Pennsylvania has to offer them. The fear that remains with me, is that in 30 or 40 years, will Pennsylvania’s be saying the same thing the people of Louisiana are saying now? While Pennsylvania will not have to worry about erosion, there are many other concerns regarding natural gas drilling and fracking fluids.
I don’t want Pennsylvania to become another example like Louisiana of what can go horribly wrong when messing with the environment. Sure the oil companies down there didn’t expect the dredging of canals would have such a huge implication, but does that mean there are things these natural gas companies will overlook here, only to be proven wrong once there is nothing that can be done about it? We should learn from the past, and while natural gas drilling is a must for the state and country’s need for cleaner forms of energy, it is even more important that it is done the right way. The right way meaning nothing is overlooked or pushed aside as insignificant when dealing with our environment. Perhaps if we make the rules for these gas companies to follow from the start, we can reap the benefits of the natural gas industry without the unbearable burden that can come years down the road.
Katrina > BP Oil Spill, The Incorrectly Focused Media, and the Interconnectedness of Louisiana.
The biggest thing that I learned on this trip, and what I was most amazed by was the fact that Hurricane Katrina is still having more of an effect upon the region than the oil spill. There are two things that need to be taken into account with this observation: what we saw there and what we hear at home. In regards to the first observation, it must be noted that we were not able to go right to the coast and see that for ourselves, thus creating a bias in what we saw, or, really, did not see. Thanks to some rough seas or winds or both, whichever the reason was offered by the boat captain, we were prevented from seeing the coast and the tar balls and everything else we were expecting to see. What we did see was the destruction in New Orleans from Katrina. There is no proper way of describing the Lower 9th Ward. It is something you have to see. The decision to build there in the first place, and the decision to build there again raise ethical questions as interesting than the BP Oil does. Is it fair to build in these same places? Should they rebuild it? Can it be done safely so there isn’t another? These are the kind of questions involving population shifts and the ethics of storm rebuilding that are still being asked and weigh far more heavily on the area than does the issues of the oil spill cleanup. Which brings to me to the second observation, which is what we heard, and where the ethics of this whole lesson come into play, and why what we heard was wrong. The media, by all accounts what we saw and heard from the residents of the southern-most bayous we made our way to see, has overblown the entire situation. What is wrong with this picture? Obviously, an oil-rig blowing up and killing several of its workers is a great tragedy. The impact of the explosion since has calmed down, however. Media analysts hyped up the entire thing to make ratings for themselves, which is entirely wrong. We still hear things about how the seafood is not safe to eat and the beaches are not safe and blah blah blah. We were there. We saw it (to an extent). We ate the seafood, and lots of it. I am not sick, and I would make the assumption that no one else in the class has gotten sick. The media hypes up a minor thing like oil on a few dozen shrimp in order to scare us into not eating the seafood from the Gulf region. Frankly, this is as unethical as hiring incompetent people to run your oil-rig in an unsafe manner. Tarnishing the reputation of the gulf hurts it as much, if not more, as the oil that reached its shores, and from what we have heard, has essentially dispersed over the last six months. Which brings me back to my original point. The oil has come and gone for the most part (or so it would appear, even though we were not able to see for ourselves). What is still there though is a combination of the destruction from Hurricane Katrina, the media stigma on the gulf industries of fishing and tourism, and the land loss in the marshes that was occurring prior to any of the other events. To wrap this up, the most important thing out of all of this is that if one is to study any of these events, they have to study all of them. There is no studying just the Oil Spill or just land loss or just Hurricane Katrina. The combination of forces has done a lot to damage this region. The pieces of the class on Hurricane Katrina and the land loss were in valuable in understanding the importance of the BP Oil Spill and how this is just one (albeit smaller) piece of a puzzle in a very troubled region that offers ethical question after ethical question, whether it be about rebuilding a city, the role the media plays and how they portray an event and whether it should be to earn ratings or inform us of what is actually happening in an event, is BP being an ethical company in its cleanup, is the oil industry as a whole safe and focused on the right things, and so much more. I originally intended this to be a list of the top things I learned on this trip, but after writing this, I feel that everything we learned in Louisiana was interconnected, and separating them out in to distinct pieces would be a disservice to this learned process, since the biggest lesson here is how things compound upon each other, and the BP Oil Spill is just the latest bad thing in a series of unfortunate events for Southern Louisiana and the Gulf Coast.
It is amazing that only one week ago I was down in New Orleans, Louisiana. While the entire Earth297H class was eye opening and intriguing, the 4 day field trip had a much greater impact on me than any amount of time in the classroom could ever have. Speaking with experts in many of the fields associated with the spill and life in post-Katrina New Orleans, I have a much deeper appreciation for the magnitude of the situation facing the entire state of Louisiana.
Although the focus of the trip was on the Gulf Oil Spill, I found the most intriguing and appalling aspect to be our time learning about the impacts of Hurricane Katrina. In listening to Dr. Steve Nelson, I was fascinated by the lack of regulation that led to the Katrina disaster. As he said, a congressional grant was used to build floodwalls, but these calls were knowingly constructed inadequately. Instead of constructing them to the protocol of 14 feet above sea level, the walls protecting the Lower Ninth Ward were only built to 12 feet above sea level. The Army Corp of Engineers knew that the walls were not build to standard levels, but failed to act on the problem.
I was sitting at my grandparents Thanksgiving table in Lake George, and I began to press my Grandpa for this understanding of the Katrina disaster. His explanation: the city is below sea level, there was nothing that could be done. Several other people in my family concurred with his statement. As I explained the flood-wall situation to them, I noticed a change in my grandfather’s attitude. He was clearly taken aback by my comments. In the conversation that followed, he suggested that “Katrina may have been an ethical disaster too.”
Beyond the science Katrina and the Gulf Spill, this trip also provided me with an entirely new dimension of thought: how we are impacting the world. I have never given any thought to sustainability, and I myself am not living a sustainable life. I take 30 minute showers, go through three or four disposable water bottles each day, and I am notorious for leaving my television on while I am not home. While these small actions are not going to single-handedly end the world, when entire populations live like that, we will see changes. Perhaps the best example of ‘unsustainability’ I have ever seen is the current situation with the Mississippi River delta. For years, the river has been forcibly re-routed and directed away from its natural path for the continuity of shipping. By changing the river path, we have changed the way sediments are deposited and have virtually stopped the process of land restoration. Every 20 minutes, 40000 square feet of wetlands are permanently lost in the delta. Over time, that is an unfathomable amount of habitat, ecosystem, and storm-surge protection that is never going to be restored.
With this same idea of sustainability and carbon-footprints, when we look at sea-level rise, the permanent submersion of New Orleans is not in the distant future. Our use of oil is the ultimate paradox. It is essential to our way of life, but with global warming and ice-cap deterioration, it will eventually end our way of life.
The last notable realization I had on this trip was one of corporate arrogance. I wanted to believe what Shell had to say about caring; about being there to do ‘good’ for the community. But I simply cannot accept what they had to say. The video regarding their efforts after Hurricane Katrina was 20 minutes of self-serving propaganda that did nothing but convey Shell’s ‘Holier than Thou’ self-opinion. If they really cared about just doing the right thing, they wouldn’t feel the need to flaunt their charity in such an in-your-face way. As I left that meeting, however, I didn’t immediately adopt this attitude. It was a conversation I had on Bourbon Street that set it firm. Several of us were walking when we bumped into a large group of Shell executives, including the gentlemen who led our tour of the Robert’s Training facility. I had a fifteen minute conversation with two gentlemen, including the Director of North American Operations. As we ended, he looked at me and said: “My friend, when you return to Pennsylvania, the land of the happy valley, the land of JoePa, I want you to tell all your friends something: Us oil people, were good people, just like you.” He tapped me on the shoulder, and walked away. I could not believe the arrogance he had. His words had exactly the opposite impact on me. He proved my suspicions correct: the oil industry doesn’t care about anything but themselves. They are self-serving, and will do anything to try and warp that reality in the eyes of the public.
The four days I spent in New Orleans gave me an entirely new respect for the complexities of the issues facing the city. It opened my eyes to some of the realities of a nation controlled by oil, and the consequences of unethical decisions. I only hope that our society will be able to recognize these problems before it is beyond our ability to remedy.
After having a week to reflect on this trip, I have noticed a few trends that came about with what we learned, although most of it turned out to be not on the oil spill. The first trend I found was human vs. environmental resistance. We have heard a lot from scientists saying that it would have been better for BP to let nature take care of itself; many species will recover from the spill, etc. However, the way that the spill impacted people will take a longer time to recover. We saw this with Not One Drop: although the ecosystem has been hit hard there, over the years, communities have shifted from one ecological state to another (from kelp forests to urchin barrens). However, human lives in Cordova, Alaska have been very hardly hit, forcing many people to move out of the town, become politically active to change things, and live on less money since the fishing industry was basically destroyed.
Another trend I found was the bad effects from trying to control nature. Whether humans are blocking floodwater with levees or cutting through wetlands to make canals, more trouble always seems to be caused for humans when they try to control nature for their benefit. A flood is a natural occurrence. With the construction of levees, having them built seems to lure people into a false sense of security living near the river. As we saw in the lower ninth ward, the flood-walls held back a large amount of water but then released it as a wall of water that tore through the houses there. Also, oil companies have cut through wetlands to navigate and build pipelines. This has not only caused the initial damage but has also makes wetlands more susceptible to further erosion. Wetlands are not only important to many organisms as their ecosystems but they are also important to humans for storm protection and for protection of those pipelines. The more wetlands eroded away, the less there is out there to slow down storms for those pipelines and humans on the coast.
Now moving away from these trends, there are two other significant overall things that I learned from this trip. First of all, it really helps to put a face to an identity. After all, is it ethical to judge an identity, such as an oil company, without ever speaking to a person involved? As somewhat of an environmentalist, I’ve listened to a lot of scientists and environmentalists talk about the problems that oil companies are causing with fighting against cutting emissions, not putting much investment into renewable energies, etc. I have taken classes with professors who have also put down oil companies and with all of these opinions and people I’ve gotten to know on one side of the deal, I’ve gotten a really bad picture of all people working for oil companies. However, going to New Orleans and meeting with Shell employees and spending the day with them, I got to listen to the other side and put some faces to “oil companies”. I think this will help me have a more reasonable outlook on oil companies although I still believe they should be more interested in regenerating wetlands and investing more in renewable energy for their own sake.
One last significant thing I gained from this trip was experiencing New Orleans! We have talked in class about all the threats that face it and all of the trouble it has been through. Before the trip, it puzzled me why anybody would want to live there. Even after hearing two speakers come into our class and speak about the town, it still did not seem worth it to me to rebuild the town. However, while visiting New Orleans, I was amazed by how unique of a place it was from what I saw/learned on our day trips to a swamp, Shell, etc. to our night trips around the French Quarter. It definitely has its own unique flair and culture that I see could be very difficult to give up for people that live/visit there. While I still see the threats and reasons why the city should not be rebuilt, I definitely understand now why it would be such a difficult thing to do.
This trip, to me, was an invaluable experience. Learning in the field has unparalleled benefits that range from being exposed honest emotional testimony to getting hands on experience. Hearing from the residents of the Gulf totally changed my perspective on the oil spill; I was suddenly given access to a gold mine or true, priceless information. After traveling to the Gulf, I realized how it is important to consider how the victims view this situation before we try to construct a solution. The people of the Gulf seem to accept the oil industry as part of their life, it’s dangers to employees simply a fact of life. 29 miners just perished in a New Zealand mine, the first park ranger was just shot and killed in Pennsylvania; many jobs have inevitable hazards and I no longer believe the people of Louisiana view the oil industry as a threatening presence that draws people into their dangerous industry only to later destroy the community’s environment. After traveling to Louisiana, I got a strong sense the people of the Gulf accept the good and bad of the oil industry.
Therefore when we pass judgment, or pledge to prevent another spill, we need to thoroughly examine the structure of the system in the Gulf. It was enormously beneficial to hear about the interworkings of levees from a professor living in New Orleans, or to hear an assessment of Gulf coastal damage from a coastal geologist who worked for BP as an examiner of the coast after the spill. It is just as important to listen to the fisherman whose business is failing and the ex-stripper who now works as a clerk selling FUBP shirts as a local Bourbon Street souvenir shop. These people have experiences or scientific information that are priceless and true; especially since they have an emotional investment in the future of the Gulf as residents.
While there definitely was outrage over the spill amongst people in the Gulf, the oil industry has become such an ingrained part of Gulf structure that people seem to accept the flaws, the spills, and the fragility of retribution. This is an ethical relationship that should not, could not, be ignored. It is unethical for legislators in Washington, or the media, or the rest of the nation to assume we understand the economic and culture balance between the people of the Gulf and the oil industry.
One more additional thing that I realized I didn’t necessarily get into with my previously posted comment: the issue of how the oil spill was portrayed in the media, versus what is really happening down there on the ground. Through our weekly media readings, I had an inclination to automatically assume the spill was a huge catastrophe and that large oil and gas companies shouldn’t have the right to operate in the manner they do. But once we heard from scientists closely following the incident, and once we traveled around the marshland down there, this inclination changed. I came across SO many articles that put an extremely pessimistic, devastating tone on the spill, but it was extremely rare to find one with a message of “it’s not as bad as people make it out to be”. Does the media want us to think the world is going end? Why was there such a negative, pessimistic tone to this incident in the media, when we have a MUCH greater problem like Louisiana land loss going on that the media never mentions? That is why it is important to be educated in as many areas as possible, so we can fully understand in unbiased terms what is going on in our country, and world as whole.
“Love people, not things; use things, not people.”
— Spencer W. Kimball
Friday afternoon, I returned home following our trip to New Orleans. At dinner with my parents, I recounted Steve’s story about his son losing the Civil war, not himself. Saturday afternoon while eating during a break from shopping, I told my mom all about Vernon – how we’d cheer when he got our bus out of a tight spot, how he taught us how to get meat out of a crab claw, how we slow clapped for him as we pulled into the airport. Sunday in the car, I told my dad about Tim using the corer to break our stuck-in-the-mud pontoon free. On Monday, I told my folks about Doug who gave me a newspaper article relating to my thesis. Looking back over our trip, it wasn’t the things I did or the places I went that made it memorable. It was the people – the things we did and the places we went and the experiences we shared.
I’ll always remember Lora and Megan singing happy birthday to me in my hotel room. I’ll always picture Zach with his camera. I watched for dolphins with Christen, looked to Megan and Bridgette for reassurance when the plane ride got bumpy, and wore Matt’s sweatshirt keep me warm on the airboat. We laughed about my high-pitched voice (and Lora’s not-so-high-voice); and everyone had a great time, especially Brian, trying to get me to laugh while eating beignets so that a plume of powdered sugar would rise from my plate. The memories just wouldn’t be the same without the people. It is the people who turn looking for a restaurant into an adventure. It is the people who push you do try new things. It is the people who make your quirks a running joke.
And this makes me think about the people of New Orleans. Those that stayed, or perhaps I should say returned, didn’t really stay because they love the city. They stayed because they love the people. And, because this reflection needs to include ethics, this makes me think about the question to rebuild. Hurricane Katrina nearly destroyed the city. Another hurricane can do the same. Millions and millions of dollars are being spent to “protect” the people of New Orleans from another storm. Is it worth it? Should the government be paying for the new storm protection system that will maybe, hopefully, help a little when a hundred year storm comes along? As we well know, “engineering miracles” are hardly such; and previous engineering did little to stop flooding in a city which is mostly below sea level. Should a city, that science proves is a disaster waiting to happen, be occupied? At some point, should we just let nature be nature, and accept the fact that New Orleans will be hit by a storm that will devastate it? No matter how you look at it, it appears we are fighting a losing battle. It is easy to say that people shouldn’t live there, but there is more to it. Should we just let it up to the people to decide whether to live there, or should the government intervene to move people out? People have attempted to live in much worse areas. People have adapted. The thought of moving people out of New Orleans to essentially close the city reminds me of the Native Americans. Remember the Trail of Tears? People are connected to the place they live through its culture, its characteristics, and its people. The hilly, pothole-ridden roads through now-barren trees feel like home to me. The flat, smooth roads of Texas aren’t the same. I’m connected to western Pennsylvania in more ways than “that’s where I live.” It is home. Imagine New Orleanians moving somewhere else. Nothing else will feel like home. No city has even close to the character of New Orleans. Can you take their culture away from them? Maybe, after another disastrous storm, a new plan for the city will be devised that will better balance returning people to their homes and protecting them with letting nature run its course.
Until then, does New Orleans at least deserve us trying to save it?
Keeping with my people theme – a final ethical issue: separating people from the company. This issue hit me more personally than the last. The class doesn’t seem to be able to separate the energy industry from the firm from the people. Although, I believe, spending time at Shell helped separate the people from the firm, many of our discussions come back to the oil company itself. Although people make a company bad or great, the people are still people. Everyone has a price, decided upon based on cost/benefit and ethical analysis, to work for a company. Some people will be so against the company that they will refuse to work for it (even choose to work against it). Others are able to separate their personal beliefs from the firm. As a business student, I had the opportunity to hear a presentation from Altria, a major firm in the tobacco industry. A large number of their employees don’t smoke. In fact, most believe that smoking is bad; but people work for Altria anyway. For some, the paycheck and the opportunity outweigh the moral conscience about selling tobacco. Employees have an ethical dilemma; they must decide whether they consider it ethical to work for a company in a controversial industry. Consumers have a choice at the end of the day to support the company, no matter what the industry. Consumers, therefore, have an ethical dilemma. They must decide whether to support an industry or company. For example, if you don’t want to support the major oil companies, don’t drive home for Thanksgiving. However, everyone faces the problem of separating the firm from the people. Employees rarely agree with everything their company does. If they can go home at the end of the day and live with themselves, then good for them. If not, they need to look for a new job.
That’s all for me. “We didn’t start the fire.”
Well firstly, the trip was amazing. When you’re staying right in the French quarter and taking trips on the bayou and through swamps, it’s pretty much impossible not to fall in love with that city. And all semester we talk about how important tourism is to the well-being of the city as a whole, so it was great to really get the chance to experience that for ourselves.
When I returned from the trip I had to explain to a number of friends and family members that I recently went to New Orleans for a class on the recent BP oil spill. And they always responded with questions like, “Well did you see any oil?” or “How is it now?” And my answer surprised me, because it wasn’t what I would have expected saying 3 months earlier. I told them that we met with a number of scientists and professionals in the region (who were clearly not biased in favor of BP because they were not BP employees), and the general consensus was that ‘it’s really not as bad as we had originally expected’…or more in my opinion, it’s really not as bad as the media blew it up to be.
Not to say that we got “lucky” with the spill, but there were a number of factors that made the spill less damaging than it could have been. It was the warmest time of the year, so the microbial processes that break down the oil worked quicker and harder. The tide ranges of the Louisiana gulf coast are very large, so it didn’t settle all in one concentrated spot, like we saw with the low-spanned tides in Alaska. In addition, the type of crude was light, so it was even easier to be broken down by natural processes and contained less toxins. Scientists in the area have been tracking the recovery of the oiled marshes and they are seeing little harm to the roots of the spartina grasses that create the marsh, with new grasses sprouting up successfully through the previously damaged vegetation.
Now there is certainly a lot we don’t know for sure: will the toxins from the oil bio-accumulate through the food webs? Will we see fish and shrimp populations crash at some point in the near future, and will we be able to determine the spill was at fault? There are a number of probing questions that will only be able to be answered years, if not decades, from now…and in that case, all we can do is wait.
What was most interesting about the trip was how the problem of focus shifted throughout our time there from the BP oil spill to the Louisiana gulf coast’s even greater problem of land loss…a dilemma they have been struggling to solve for decades now. So maybe next semester, instead of a class focusing on the BP oil spill, it can also place a lot of emphasis on that issue of land loss, because it really is one of America’s ‘greatest problems that no one has ever heard of’.
It’s strange to think that just a week ago we were cruising up and down the bayou looking at alligators and nutria. This field trip was truly a once in a lifetime opportunity, and I am so thankful that I was able to go. It is one thing to learn about a topic in the classroom, but completely different to actually experience it first hand. I was able to see the levees that breached in Hurricane Katrina, taste the graininess of the mud under the marshes, and speak to people directly affected by the BP oil spill.
One of the things that I found most interesting was that the locals were not really concerned about the ecological effects of the oil spill. They trusted Mother Nature to get rid of the oil and if anything, had a wait and see mentality about detrimental effects. What worried them the most was the Americans’ perception of the fish industry, and the fear of eating Gulf Coast catch. The man who guided our airboat ride told us that he does nightly fishing tours for groups. Usually around this time of the year he gets at least 5 groups a week. This year, he is getting only 1 or 2 groups.
I was very moved by our trip through the lower ninth ward. I was able to finally see the ruined properties that I had heard so much about. I was able to see the empty lots that outnumbered the full ones. This really made me want to come back to New Orleans, and help rebuild the city. It is heartbreaking that 5 years later, there are still so many empty lots. If I wasn’t going to be studying abroad in Spain this Spring semester, I would likely come back during Spring Break to help rebuild houses with an organization like Habitat for Humanity. Next year, maybe.
Going to Shell and seeing their facilities, I felt as if I was able to get a better grasp on the company as a whole. I respect their core values and feel that safety really is instilled in employees. I think they do try very hard to be as safe as they can be. But at the end of the day, they are trying to make their shareholders happy by making as much profit as possible. At the end of the day, they are still an oil company and the stereotypes are not incredibly far-fetched.
I was puzzled by the problems with the coast land and it seems like the band-aid efforts to fix the coastlines are simply not going to gain enough support by politicians to truly renourish the coast. It almost seemed as if it was a lost cause, because there was so much educating that would have to occur before there would be a realization of the need to help the coast. As negative as it may sound, I just really don’t think the wetlands stand a chance.
On a happier note, many parts of New Orleans seem to have recovered from Katrina and the oil spill. Fresh seafood was still on the menu. Preservation Hall was still playing the most incredible jazz music I’ve ever heard. And Bourbon Street was popping, even on a Sunday night before our 10:30 curfew.
First, I’m sorry if this is in the wrong place, but I figure that it’ll eventually be read by the people who need to be reading it.
Well, we got back from New Orleans more than a week ago and I wrote my last blog exactly a week ago on the course website. Since getting back, I talked to my friends at the Sea Turtle Hospital and I’ve told my family all about what we saw and experienced in New Orleans. I told them that it was a very interesting trip and that I learned a lot, which is true. However, I did mention that the trip wasn’t really about the oil spill so much as it was about New Orleans in general. It was great to get to LUMCON and see the salt marshes and learn about the physical impact of the spill, but it seems like the majority of the trip was dedicated to Katrina and the city as a whole. And why not, Katrina and Rita had the biggest impact on New Orleans in recent memory, much more than a cubic football field of oil. The trip was certainly interesting, but I would have liked to hear more about the oil spill, or at least more about the socio-political environment of Katrina/Rita, not the geological. The trip was totally worth it as I learned a lot, but I would have liked to learn more.