Let’s put the Gulf-spill crisis into perspective

This article was published in Spiked Online 1 June 2010

To stop using fossil fuels because of one accident would make millions of people’s lives a lot harder.

‘This is probably the biggest environmental disaster we’ve ever faced in this country. It’s certainly the biggest oil spill and we’re responding with the biggest environmental response.’ Carol Browner, director of the White House Office of Energy and Climate Change Policy, was speaking on NBC’s Meet the Press about the situation in the Gulf of Mexico following the accident on a drilling rig, Deepwater Horizon, that was being used by oil giant BP.

Browner’s assessment is melodramatic. The total quantity of oil spilled may now have surpassed that of the Exxon Valdez in Prince William Sound, Alaska, in 1989.