• Question: What would you do about the oil spill in Mexico?

    Asked by tbonesteak to Alexandra, Dean, Jess, Luisa, Sian on 17 Jun 2010 in Categories: .
    • Photo: Sian Foch-Gatrell

      Sian Foch-Gatrell answered on 16 Jun 2010:

      I am really not sure what I would do, except volunteer and help with the clean up

    • Photo: Dean Whittaker

      Dean Whittaker answered on 16 Jun 2010:

      Plan my drilling better so it doesn’t happen. Now there isn’t really much you can do!

    • Photo: Jessica Housden

      Jessica Housden answered on 16 Jun 2010:

      I think this is a terrible environmental disaster and am absolutely astonished that there was no contingency plan and they don’t have a good solution to the problem. Most big engineering projects would be required to prove that they can survive every situation, and have an answer to failures. This cleary isn’t the case for these big oli rigs and that is very very scary.

      I think that they need to pool together the best engineers from around the world to develop a solution. These should include NASA who are able to use robots in space, aeroplane designers who have to ensure that the plane is safe etc.

    • Photo: Alexandra Kamins

      Alexandra Kamins answered on 16 Jun 2010:

      I wish I knew… it’s such a bad situation! It’s not just in Mexico, either. First we need to stop the leak completely.

      Then, we really need to figure out how best to clean up the horrible mess in our oceans and on our shores.

      We also need to figure out what went wrong, what mistakes were made and who made them, and how we can prevent this from ever happening again.

    • Photo: Luisa Ostertag

      Luisa Ostertag answered on 17 Jun 2010:

      Prevent it in the first place. But that’s not the answer, I know.

      I think it’s very hard to know what to do as even the experts from BP and the US government don’t really seem to have a clue. On the one hand it is very difficult to close the leak as it’s so deep don underwater that it’s not possible for a human diver to go down quickly and fix it. It has to be done with roboters controlled from the surface and that’s very hard I guess.
      Also there is all the oil in the water and on the coast. That has to be cleaned up somehow and I imagine that will take a lot of time.

      But altogether I don’t know what I would do specifically as it is not something I am an expert in.

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