Gulf Coast disaster: Seabirds surrounded by oil booms © Sean Gardner/Greenpeace
America woke up to what could be one of the biggest environmental disasters in its history this morning as crude oil from the wrecked BP rig Deepwater Horizon started to wash ashore along Louisiana's Gulf coast.
The 5,000 square kilometre slick threatens to devastate fisheries, wildlife refuges and bird sanctuaries. Louisiana is most at risk, but Mississippi, Alabama and Florida are also in danger.
The timing could hardly be worse for wildlife in the Gulf. It's currently peak spawning and nesting season for many species of fish, birds, turtles and marine mammals. During this time many remain in defined breeding grounds, and show less instinct to move away from danger than they normally would.
The 400 miles of shoreline nearest to the spill area is largely wetlands. It includes a national park, over 20 national wildlife refuges, and acts as a vital wintering or resting spot for waterfowl and migratory songbirds. Researchers estimate that 90% of all marine species in the Gulf of Mexico depend on coastal estuaries at some point in their lives, and most of those estuaries are in Louisiana - and are endangered by the slick.
200,000 gallons of crude oil is still gushing out from the seabed every day, a situation which could last for months. It's a disaster for everyone involved, including BP. Faced with multi-million dollar clean-up costs (currently £3m a day) and legal bills, the company's share price has plummeted 11% since the accident, wiping £8bn off its value.
Although chief executive Tony Hayward has tried to put a brave face on the spill and focus only on BP's "unprecedented response" to tackling it, the disaster has his fingerprints all over it. It's Hayward who has led BP away from investment in renewable technologies and back to drilling for oil and gas in increasingly inaccessible locations "to create value for our shareholders".
How happy those shareholders must be now, counting up the costs of just this one oil spill. It's impossible to guess what the final figure will be, but early estimates include $100m to drill the relief well and $1.6bn in insurance losses, just for starters. Factor in the $8bn share price loss, plus all that wasted crude oil, the massive environmental costs, and the severe damage to BP's reputation, and I bet many of them are beginning to question his strategy.
Right now President Obama probably feels the same way. Having given the go-ahead to expand offshore drilling in the Gulf only two months ago, in the face of strong opposition from Greenpeace, amongst others, he will now be under pressure to reconsider. Many Gulf drilling platforms are, like the ill-fated Deepwater Horizon, sited relatively close to the Coast, so that if a spill does occur the chances of it reaching land are high. Cleaning up the oil from the fragile marshland at the edge of the Mississippi Delta is going to be a huge, unpleasant and time-consuming task, and the impact is likely to affect the region for years to come, and to linger long in the memories of the American public.
The only good which might come from this catastrophe it is that it will force the US government to think again about plans to expand offshore oil drilling. If the richest country in the world cannot deal with a spill of this magnitude in it's own backyard, which is perhaps better prepared than anywhere else on earth, imagine what would happen if there was a similar accident in the Arctic?
