How do we transition our government from being a puppet dog to becoming a watch dog! How do we get Big Corporate executives to walk the walk instead of constantly talking the talk about Safety being their first priority. We have BP passing the fault of this gulf oil spill to Halliburton and Halliburton passing the buck to Deep Horizon and we the victims of their gross negligence left rolling our eyes watching the spin!

When we explore the outer space of the heavens or the inner space of the seas, there are many unknowns and risks associated with such discovery expeditions.  We humans use intuition and science to go beyond our known worlds. Our intuition, combined with science is used to produce beneficial discoveries along with safety practices. We endure accidents as a part of the risk of exploration. We understand acceptable risk instinctively. 

Yet there are no words in the English language that can accurately convey the utter devastation which the BP Gulf oil spill is having upon humans, animals, and the entire ecosystems of our planet! It has been well over a month since this preventable nightmare occurred. We still do not know when this gushing atrocity will be capped successfully so that we can begin to assess the necessary planning to begin the recovery process. Right now we are still fumbling with containment of the smothering, toxic oil, and the highly dangerous methane gases spewing from the core of our Earth. 

This catastrophe is more than the result of an accident from “vigorous” risk management. It is more than just a series of errors of omission. It epitomizes the short sighted greed of management concerned more with meeting hypothetical production schedules and timely returns on investment rather than placing primary emphasis on insuring the safety of the men who ran the drilling rig, the protection of the immediate  marine environment, and the larger picture of protecting the entire interacting  ecosystems in the Gulf of Mexico and the entire planet.

A corporation provides a legal governmental charter which gives the newly created business entity the right to make as much profit as possible in the shortest amount of time for those people able to invest to become shareholders. 

Yet who is accountable within this corporation for this global catastrophe? Corporations are often chartered with the express purpose of creating multiple layers of accountability with no clear-cut decision making processes and lines of authority so that blame for bad judgment can often be difficult to ascertain.

Many corporations are born and bred upon a foundation of greed with no consideration for humanity or the planet. Throughout history, greed has been the basis for bribes, kickbacks and  payoffs to eliminate inherent checks or balances which mature judgment and good business practice would render necessary and desirable. 

Greed for profits, and greed to “save time” to increase profits, has led to purposeful neglect, deceit, malice and clouded judgment calls. I have for years advocated that SAFETY must become a part of our culture, not just an added cost to our business and living expenses. SAFETY should be like a religion. Religion meaning Philosophy with rituals. The rituals not only created to remind us of the philosophy but to make safe habits a part of our culture, a part of knowing who we are and who and what we are dealing with, and who and what we can trust. 

To place our trust in what is safe, or at least to reduce risk to an acceptable level, is a basic human need for both individuals and society to advance. Envisioning safety and creating safe procedures and processes can be seen as the creation of a ritual of trust.  Greed destroys this ritual of trust. 

To help understand the totality of consequences from  the continuing Gulf Oil eruption, I began viewing different video clips concerning the BP Corporation and its public response, proposed and current government regulations; oversight and the lax enforcement of safety standards by the Bureau of Minerals Management, and the human factor of  the crew of the Deep Water Horizon and the impact of this catastrophe upon our environment.

To produce the greatest operational avenue of safety as a student of “Best Practices” I break processes and procedures down into four categories of assessment. They are: Prevention, Preparedness, Response and Recovery. I have provided videos in this blog from the various news services to address each of these categories. These news clips related videos are in the following order. 

The first is about the propaganda BP issued regarding their position on Prevention, helping affected people cope with the disaster they created, and how they hope to somehow show that “they care” about the “small people.”

The 1990 Oil spill Pollution Act was signed by President George Bush because of the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill. Yet why were the permits for BP drilling at this unprecedented depth of not first secured (as required by law) thru the Bureau of Minerals and Management?  Why were the required permits not applied for nor issued?

Current state of preparedness for the beaches in Florida and the preparedness plans there for this summer tourists.

BP’s Response:

Probably the most important video here:  Understanding the sequences of events that culminated in catastrophe as they were happening with an explanation by Mike Williams, Chief Electronics Technician, one of the few survivors of the Deep Water Horizon explosion, on “60 Minutes.” 

The Methane gas release is a subject which is being intensively researched – BP, The Deep Water Horizon oil rig and the dangers of a methane bubble.

Clip shows the methane disaster which happened in Africa in 1996, killing people and livestock as far as 16 miles away from the methane gas eruption.

And here is a video to remember and pay tribute to those men and their families who lost their lives on the day of the explosion on the Deep Water Horizon oil rig.  The consequences of ignoring safety always have a human face, and a human cost with ripples that continue for multiple generations.

Remembering that Life has no reset button, Think Safety!

~ Safety Grace

http://www.safetyissues.com/

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