There has been coverage in the news about the huge oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico and the allocation of blame procedure* has already started. As I understand it at the moment up to 5,000 barrels of oil a day are flowing into the sea with no immediate way of stopping the flow. It's location, in open water, means it has great potential to spread. This has come at a very bad time for the oil industry, shortly after the US had given the go ahead for off-shore drilling in certain areas, although President Obama has said this will not stand in the way of further development. Predictions were that oil would be pushed into the shoreline and barrier marshes of Louisiana threatening the diverse wildlife in the area. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has stated that the spill is of national significance which means, "A spill that, due to its severity, size, location, actual or potential impact on the public health and welfare or the environment, or the necessary response effort, is so complex that it requires extraordinary co-ordination of federal, state, local, and responsible party resources to contain and clean up the discharge."
My favourite quote so far is from Poppy757 commenting on a story in the Guardian:
'Oil is a finite resource, it seems to me to be rather careless to decorate shorelines with it.'
*I've always thought that the there was a secret quality procedure in every Quality Management System called 'Allocation of Blame'.
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