Bensley+Annotations+10

David Bensley Annotations #10 15 Nov 2011 //Frontline: The Spill // Word Count: 961

//The Spill // is a 2010 special from PBS’s //Frontline// program, directed by Martin Smith and Marcela Gaviria.
 * 1. Title, director and release year? **

The central narrative of the film is a review of British Petroleum’s history of safety failures, and an evaluation of their ability to prevent such failures. In particular, the film aims to find whether the Deepwater Horizon spill could have been prevented, and if so, why it was not prevented. The film argues that BP was more concerned with its bottom line than with safety issues, and that this was a result of the culture expounded by the company leadership in London.
 * 2. What is the central argument or narrative of the film? **

The creators of the film interview many people who have associations with BP and its history, including contractors, people in government, and relatives of victims of BP’s safety failures. They have also tied together many news reports and third-party interviews.
 * 3. How is the argument or narrative made and sustained? How much scientific information is provided, for example? Does the film have emotional appeal? **

The film’s emotional impact is obvious; it is derived from the stories of the many people who have died or been severely injured in industrial accidents at BP sites.

The documentary is lacking somewhat in scientific information, mainly because it is intentionally exploring specific events rather than macroscopic trends. It was attempting to examine internal cultural problems that cause events instead of the environmental or human impacts of them.

 **4. What sustainability problems does the film draw out?** The film discusses mainly legal, technological, and cultural sustainability problems. The legal problems include the lack of regulation in ensuring that the Texas City plant had a flare system in place, or in ensuring that the pipelines in Alaska were being inspected properly, or that the Deepwater Horizon rig was engineered and monitored to industry standards.

I was particularly interested in the part of the film about the Thunder Horse platform, partially because it was an engineering mistake and I am studying to be an engineer, but mostly because my current employment includes being responsible for monitoring equipment on that specific platform, and writing reports assessing alarm events to be sent to BP engineers for evaluation.
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">5. What parts of the film did you find most persuasive and compelling? Why? **

<span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Additionally, I was amazed to learn of how limited the accident liability for BP was before the Deepwater Horizon catastrophe occurred. It seems foolish that the government would allow such limited liability when such large problems might result, especially when the only reasoning is to attract the business of a company with such a bad safety record.

<span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"> **6. What parts of the film were you not compelled or convinced by? Why?** <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"> One thing that I was not convinced about was that BP was doing anything worse than other companies, such as ExxonMobil or Chevron, with regard to safety precautions. The documentary did not address any similar problems that may exist or have existed at other companies, other than that other companies testified that BP was not following industry standards.

<span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">I was not convinced entirely that Tony Hayward was the source of many problems at BP. It seems that while he may not have done enough to push for strong safety reforms within the company, but he also seemed to be under immense pressure not to spend more money on such reforms. The film also seemed to criticize Hayward for not doing anything to prevent the particular blowout valve design on the Deepwater Horizon rig from being used, but it is difficult to imagine that the CEO of such a large company would ever be aware of the details of such a thing.

//<span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">The Spill //<span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"> targets an adult audience, generally one with at least a basic knowledge of the history of BP’s safety failures and some idea of how the various oil extraction and handling processes work. The topics discussed are certainly not targeted at children, but are rather meant to inform a wide audience of adults.
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">7. What audiences does the film best address? Why? **

The film discussed at great length the human impacts of BP’s failures, but did little to discuss environmental impacts. The producers likely assumed that a viewer would be familiar with how the Deepwater Horizon spill affected marine life, but could have done more to talk about the environmental impacts of its other failures.
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">8. What could have been added to this film to enhance its environmental educational value? **

<span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">The film does not explore corrective actions in any detail. However, it is clear that a new leadership with a renewed focus on safety is an important step for BP. One might also imagine that the U.S. government is (or should be) revising its decision to cap a company’s liability for such failures as what happened in the Spring of 2010.
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">9. What kinds of action and points of intervention are suggested by the film? If the film itself does not suggest corrective action, describe actions that you can imagine being effective. **

<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">After watching this special, I was interested in knowing more about the history of other oil companies’ safety records, and how the industry has performed in general. I found an interesting article from //The Guardian// that opened my eyes to the amazing number of oil spills and amount of damage that I had never heard about before ( <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">[] <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">). I was also surprised to find that the Deepwater Horizon oil spill was not the largest in terms of tonnage in history—not even in the top three ( <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">[|http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oil_spill#Largest_oil_spills] <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">).
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">10. What additional information has this film compelled you to seek out? (Provide at least two supporting references.) **