A Sea in Flames - Carl Safina [0]
The View from Lazy Point
Nina Delmar: The Great Whale Rescue
Voyage of the Turtle
Eye of the Albatross
Song for a Blue Ocean
Copyright © 2011 by Carl Safina
All rights reserved.
Published in the United States by Crown Publishers,
an imprint of the Crown Publishing Group,
a division of Random House, Inc., New York.
www.crownpublishing.com
CROWN and the Crown colophon are registered trademarks of Random House, Inc.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Safina, Carl, 1955–
A sea in flames : the Deepwater Horizon oil blowout / Carl Safina.
p. cm.
1. BP Deepwater Horizon Explosion and Oil Spill, 2010—Environmental aspects. 2. BP Deepwater Horizon Explosion and Oil Spill, 2010—Social aspects. 3. Oil spills—Mexico, Gulf of. I. Title.
GC1221.S24 2011
363.738′20916364—dc22 2010051455
eISBN: 978-0-307-88737-5
Jacket design by David Tran
Jacket photograph by U.S. Coast Guard/Getty Images
v3.1
To the memories of the people who died.
To their families.
To those who survived.
To the creatures that suffered.
To those who anguished.
To those who did their best.
And to those who continue asking what will come out of this well.
CONTENTS
Cover
Other Books by This Author
Title Page
Copyright
Dedication
Preface: Know Before You Go
PART ONE
DISASTER CHAIN
Blowout!
April
Déjà Vu, to Name but a Few
PART TWO
A SEASON OF ANGUISH
Mayday
Late May
Early June
High June
Late June
Photo Insert
Like a Thousand Julys
Late July
PART THREE
AFTERMATH
Dog Days
Late August
Early September
The New Light of Autumn
References
Acknowledgments
About the Author
Preface
Know Before You Go
Crucial mistakes, disastrous consequences, the weakness of power, unpreparedness and overreaction, the quiet dignity of everyday heroes. The 2010 Gulf of Mexico blowout brought more than oil to the surface.
This is not just a record of a technological event. It’s also a chronicle of a season of anguish and panic, deep uncertainties, and the emotional topography of the blowout. It is the record of an event unfolding, a synthesis of personal experience, news, rumors, and the rapidly shifting perspectives about how bad things were—and how bad they were not.
There are roughly three parts to this event, and to this book: what caused this particular well to blow out; the varied technological, biological, and emotional responses during the months the oil was flowing; and a little more calmness, clarity, and insight after the flow of oil was stopped.
I’ve chosen to convey my impressions as they occurred over a season that was intense, chaotic, and seemingly interminable. In the turmoil, it was easy to form the wrong impressions and follow blind alleys. And I did.
Over the months, information and understanding improved significantly. Later, after the flow of oil was stopped, we calmed down, and those with cooler heads began to see more clearly.
This book is not a definitive treatise; it’s a portrait. The story will continue unfurling. Some aspects, we’ll never fully understand.
In trying my best to get it right, I am sure that nearly all of what I’ve written is reasonable, most of it is true, and some of it is wrong. It’s not less than that, and not more.
It’s easy to criticize people in charge. It’s much harder to be the person in charge. I was angry at the Coast Guard for weeks, until I began to realize that its ability to respond was largely dictated by the laws that confined it. If officials such as Admiral Thad Allen rankled me at times, it may say more about me than about them. But it remains part of the portrait of this whole event.
In truth, such people deserve not just our admiration but also a little slack. During the blowout, perfection wasn’t an available option. I’ve left my first impressions in place to show how my perceptions changed as my initial rage—and I felt plenty of rage—subsided. Admiral Allen, as the most visible federal official and the man in charge, gets the brunt of my exasperation. But he never fully deserved it. I could not