It is terrible enough that lives have been lost, great damage has been done and millions of gallons of oil have been pouring unchecked into the waters — and shores — of the Gulf of Mexico as a result of the recent BP oil well disaster. But worse, no end is in sight.
Many efforts to curb the spewing of oil into water and onto land have been made, with no quick success. The damage, already extensive, spreads. And even when the undesired flow is stopped, the ill effects on nature, people and businesses will continue in many ways.
We live in a world that runs on oil. Thousands of land and sea oil wells serve us constructively. But we are sadly seeing how the malfunctioning of just one oil well has far-reaching detrimental effects.