Fr Lombardi Editorial: The oil slick

For over two months now a river of oil has been spilling into the Gulf of Mexico from a well in the seabed, ruptured in the aftermath of an explosion at a BP drilling platform. The dimensions of the disaster are difficult to calculate. What is certain is that it is of enormous proportions, and getting worse.

Other serious environmental disasters related to human activities come to mind, such as the one at the chemical factory in Bhopal, India in 1984, or that of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in Ukraine in 1986, which caused casualties and even greater damage to people.

What is striking in this case is the sense of powerlessness and delay in finding a solution to this disaster faced by one of the largest and most technologically advanced oil multinationals in the world, but also by the most powerful country on earth. It seems incredible, but it is a fact. This is not the eruption of a volcano, but a relatively small man-made hole in the seabed. Yet, in two months, expert scientists and technicians, leaders in their field, have failed to plug it.

Will we draw a lesson of prudence and care in the use of the earth’s resources and natural balances of the planet from this?

Of course, from now on much will change in oil extraction to make it safer. But perhaps we can also draw a lesson in humility. Technology will advance. But if a relatively simple production process leaves us so helpless, what will we do if much more complex processes get out of hand, such as those affecting the energy hidden in the heart of matter or moreover in the processes of the formation of life? Benedict XVI had good reason to conclude his last encyclical on the great problems of humanity today with a chapter on responsible use of the power of technology.