Media people love anniversaries. Six months after the blowout of the Macondo well and the explosions aboard the Deepwater Horizon, the recovery continues, and questions remain.
+ Rep. Edward Markey, D-Mass., used the anniversary to highlight BP CEO Bob Dudley’s failure to testify before his congressional subcommittee on energy and the environment.
+ Attention has shifted to compensating the victims, Andrew Restuccia notes, but despite promises for improvement from claims administrator Kenneth Feinberg, many problems persist in what is still a relatively new process.
+ The Orlando Sentinel recalls six lessons learned in the wake of the disaster.
+ Another lesson learned? The importance of caution in scientific communication. More after the jump.
+ By one measure, the oil spill “was good for America,” according to a headline on Andrew Revkin’s blog at The New York Times. By that, he means it may have actually boosted the country’s gross domestic product — which raises questions about relying on GDP as a measure of economic prosperity, an issue he goes on to discuss in an interview with economics reporter David Brancaccio.
+ A new study shows that environmental hazards could cost the region’s economy $350 billion over 20 years, according to the Associated Press.
+ In the wake of “the summer that wasn’t,” gulf tourism may be on the mend, according to USA Today.
+ Remember how the oil spill was supposed to enter the loop current and spread north along the Atlantic Coast? That possibility was illustrated by this ominous animation released by the National Center for Atmospheric Research, although it does bear a disclaimer that it isn’t “a forecast of where the oil will go”:
The Houston Chronicle‘s SciGuy blog calls the animation and its accompanying press release “a classic case of hyping science in the heat of the moment to garner attention”:
“There is no quicker route to losing credibility than hyping science for a quick impact in the press on a highly contentious issue,” Roger Pielke Jr., author of The Climate Fix, told me.
“Do that often enough and for better or worse all research findings from that organization or community will be looked at with a jaundiced eye, including the very best research, regrettably.”
