> The gulf oil spill is a canonical example of a "low-probability, high-impact event."
I think that what's going on is awareness.
There was a much larger deep-water spill in Mexico in 1979. There have been huge on-shore spills, some that ran into the sea. There have been huge tanker spills. And so on.
The difference is that this one is off the US coast, we have on-scene video, and folks who claimed to be uber-competent have, arguably, dropped the ball.
Yes, they've probably gotten more blame than they deserved, but they've also tried to exploit this incident for political gain, so ....
I think that what's going on is awareness.
There was a much larger deep-water spill in Mexico in 1979. There have been huge on-shore spills, some that ran into the sea. There have been huge tanker spills. And so on.
The difference is that this one is off the US coast, we have on-scene video, and folks who claimed to be uber-competent have, arguably, dropped the ball.
Yes, they've probably gotten more blame than they deserved, but they've also tried to exploit this incident for political gain, so ....