Results of the BP Oil Spill in the Cultural Consciousness - Research Paper Example

The results of the BP oil spill are felt in our cultural consciousness at the level of the social responsibility of the masses. As billions of barrels of petroleum spill into the ocean, we are nearly powerless to even bring it to a level of acceptable loss. As a response, many communities along the coast have organized benefits to attempt to ease the stressors the catastrophe has caused. One particularly successful event included a show by Jimmy Buffett (Reeves). Daily reports obviate one stark fact, however. If all of the engineers and scientists cannot fix the problem, what help can anything I do be?

The results of the BP oil spill are felt in our cultural consciousness at the level of our political dialogue. During the Bush administration we became so used to the fact that government and the petroleum industry were inextricably linked, we have had to make a conscious effort to remind ourselves that the current administration does not have such strong ties. It is literally not Obama’s oil spill (Varadarajan). This is one way in which the political dialogue has felt the impact of the BP oil spill on our cultural consciousness.
The results of the BP oil spill are felt in our cultural consciousness at the level of environmental concern. Protests around the globe attest to the fervor of our renewed sense of environmental concern. Recently, it has been strikingly noted as a cultural conscious during a protest at the British Museum (“Oil slick protest at British Museum”). It seems that on some level people are making the connection between the man-made disaster and the cultural imperatives that drive us to them.

The results of the BP oil spill are felt at the level of social responsibility of the masses, at the level of our political dialogue, and at the level of environmental concern.