I am the Walrus

There is a growing concern, no there is an exploding concern that BP, who used to be know as British Petroleum, was not prepared to tackle their massive oil leak that looks now like it will flow until we’ve long moved past the need for fossil fuels and run our cars, homes, and our very cities on the energy from our minds themselves. Of course we will also be using our minds to fly ourselves from place to place, so the only cars left will be fine art in museums, and yard art in front of trailer parks.

But before we put all of our energies into developing that incredible brain power, let us set a bit aside for this concern as to whether or not the artist formally know as British Petroleum poked a hole in a pool of crude under more pressure than the thousands of pounds per square inch the ocean was exerting at that 5,000 foot depth, allowing it to spew out into the sea, and in the process banishing shrimp from my dinner plate for the foreseeable future.

Were they prepared? Did they understand the possible consequences should that money tree of a genie get out of the bottle and attack pelicans, dolphins, tourists, and those aforementioned shrimp? Or did they stick their heads in the (at that time unsoiled) sand, cross their fingers, and count their gold?

I don’t know. I don’t know how to tell. But something has come to light that might provide a hint as to the obliviousness under which they may have been operating, a clue to their cluelessness if you will. Before the spill, BP published a document entitled, “Regional Oil Spill Response Plan, Gulf of Mexico.” Listed in that memo under "Sensitive Biological Resources" along with those creatures mentioned above and others are walrus. Yes, walrus. You know, long tusks, lots of blubber, found in the arctic. They might as well have added hobbits.

Don’t believe me? Here is the URL to that document which is pretty large so let it load and then look on page 249:

http://info.publicintelligence.net/BPGoMspillresponseplan.pdf

The mighty walrus’ inclusion in any document pertaining to the Gulf of Mexico screams copy and paste. So if nothing else, the mega-corporation known as British Petroleum, BP, and possible someday The Great Oil Satan, rubber-stamped what animals might be affected by an oil spill in the Gulf, suggesting they also rubber-stamped the response to that spill. Their performance since seems to shore up that theory, if you’ll pardon my pun.