The Breakdown: What Is the True Cost of BP’s Oil Spill?

The Breakdown: What Is the True Cost of BP’s Oil Spill?

The Breakdown: What Is the True Cost of BP’s Oil Spill?

As images of oil-drenched coastlines and stories of devastated industries and families flood the airwaves, how can we begin to reckon the real magnitude of the damage?

Facebook
Twitter
Email
Flipboard
Pocket

It has been over a month since the Deepwater Horizon offshore oil rig crashed into the Gulf of Mexico, creating an oil spill of historic proportions. Each day since, thousands or even tens of thousands of barrels of oil have poured into the ocean. As images of oil-drenched coastlines and stories of devastated industries and families flood the airwaves, how can we begin to reckon the true cost of the spill—not just in oil but in terms of human value? The Nation’s Washington, D.C. Editor Christopher Hayes and Boston College Law School Professor Zygmunt J. B. Plater try to answer that question on this week’s edition of The Breakdown.

The Breakdown It has been over a month since the Deepwater Horizon offshore oil rig crashed into the Gulf of Mexico, creating an oil spill of historic proportions. Each day since, thousands or even tens of thousands of barrels of oil have poured into the ocean. As images of oil-drenched coastlines and stories of devastated industries and families flood the airwaves, how can we begin to reckon the true cost of the spill—not just in oil but in terms of human value? The Nation‘s Washington, D.C. Editor Christopher Hayes and Boston College Law School Professor Zygmunt J. B. Plater try to answer that question on this week’s edition of The Breakdown.

Related Links

More about our guest, Zygmunt J. B. Plater.

You may have noticed that we recently relaunched TheNation.com. If for any reason you have not received this week’s Breakdown, please subscribe here.

We cannot back down

We now confront a second Trump presidency.

There’s not a moment to lose. We must harness our fears, our grief, and yes, our anger, to resist the dangerous policies Donald Trump will unleash on our country. We rededicate ourselves to our role as journalists and writers of principle and conscience.

Today, we also steel ourselves for the fight ahead. It will demand a fearless spirit, an informed mind, wise analysis, and humane resistance. We face the enactment of Project 2025, a far-right supreme court, political authoritarianism, increasing inequality and record homelessness, a looming climate crisis, and conflicts abroad. The Nation will expose and propose, nurture investigative reporting, and stand together as a community to keep hope and possibility alive. The Nation’s work will continue—as it has in good and not-so-good times—to develop alternative ideas and visions, to deepen our mission of truth-telling and deep reporting, and to further solidarity in a nation divided.

Armed with a remarkable 160 years of bold, independent journalism, our mandate today remains the same as when abolitionists first founded The Nation—to uphold the principles of democracy and freedom, serve as a beacon through the darkest days of resistance, and to envision and struggle for a brighter future.

The day is dark, the forces arrayed are tenacious, but as the late Nation editorial board member Toni Morrison wrote “No! This is precisely the time when artists go to work. There is no time for despair, no place for self-pity, no need for silence, no room for fear. We speak, we write, we do language. That is how civilizations heal.”

I urge you to stand with The Nation and donate today.

Onwards,

Katrina vanden Heuvel
Editorial Director and Publisher, The Nation

Ad Policy
x