by M. L. Kiser

Created on: June 18, 2010   Last Updated: June 21, 2010

The Deepwater Horizon, a rig drilling for BP oil’s explosion on April 20th, 2010, caused perhaps the worst and most tragic oil spill in our nation’s History.  Killing 11 workers and spewing more than 84 million gallons a day into the waters of the Gulf of Mexico. 

While a number of precautions were ignored or deliberately eliminated by BP employees and management is under investigation, the fact remains that it should never have happened and would not have happened if people had done their jobs and adhered to the strict regulations put into place for these companies to follow when drilling for oil.  This poses a number of moral questions and implications for which may land many BP executives in prison.

With America and much of the world in an economic crisis that some believe to be more of a depression than a recession, the Gulf States that have yet to completely recover from Katrina and other disasters, the BP shame is an American Disgrace.  Not only have 11 rig employees been carelessly and needlessly killed by BP’s neglect and irresponsibility, but their families are also suffering the loss.

Add to that the devastation to the fishing industry which employees many of the affected states and the nation’s unemployment numbers skyrocket even higher.  Tally again, the tourism industry in these states, more unemployment, financial struggles, potential homelessness and the devastation to marine life and the wetlands along with the fact that BP won’t be able to even get a handle on this mess until sometime in August and the fact that there is no guarantee that their plan will even work and you have an ecological, financial, moral, ethical, life-changing, planet-changing nightmare that will continue for years to come.

What are some of the moral implications of this oil spill?  Well, for starters, it’s potential proof that the oil companies are so greedy and determined to make their fortune at the cost of both human and marine life that they are willing to bypass any safeguards to get their dough.  They even demand special exemptions from financial responsibility for any damage that they may cause leaving taxpayers to foot the bill for their haphazard carelessness and irresponsibility. 

The BP executives blatant disregard for all life, as well as, the planet from which it gets its oil is an obvious snapshot of the typical corporation and its self-serving, greed.   Clearly the

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