Issue link: https://read.dmtmag.com/i/27856
represent, map and model oil spills below the surface. The presidential report presented a fairly accurate estimate of the spill area and thickness on the gulf’s surface, but current technology can’t detect underwater oil plumes and oil on the seafloor, much less map them using GIS. According to NOAA, 464 sea turtles and 60 dolphins were found dead within the spill area, but there are more than 400 different species of animals living in the area affected by the spill. The long-term impacts on the ecosystem and the food web are unknown at this point. Second, there are vast social, legal and political barriers to the public’s full access to sensitive data, which often leads to asymmetric knowledge about what’s really going on. In the case of the BP oil spill, neither BP nor the U.S. government has been forthcoming about releasing information about the disaster’s extent during the initial stage. In fact, a security zone was created around the explosion site to prevent journalists and scientists from collecting data. The Federal Aviation Administration, for example, set a no-fly zone over the Gulf of Mexico. We also learned from diplomatic cables posted on Wikileaks that the U.S. government knew BP had a similar inci- dent in December 2008 in the Caspian Sea waters of Azerbaijan. In the Caspian leak, the gas didn’t ignite, and all the workers made it safely off the rig. Had BP’s 2008 incident been made public, calls may have been made to pressure BP to beef up their cement procedures, and the 2010 spill may have been prevented. Sadly, we didn’t know of BP’s Caspian incident until Wikileaks revealed what had happened. Follow the Money Besides environmental impacts, the BP oil spill sent a shockwave through the global economic chain that still reverberates from local to global levels. The declining number of tourists to the gulf region in fall 2010 made its economic recovery more difficult. Besides the fishermen and restaurant owners around the gulf states who immediately felt the spill’s impacts, seafood vendors on the streets of Chicago also were affected. BP agreed to give $20 billion to help the victims, and initially the U.S. government promised to go after BP as aggressively as possible to seek more com- pensation funds for those affected by the disaster. At one point, some economists worried that BP may file bankruptcy if the U.S. government aggressively pursued BP along the legal front. But later, U.S. government officials had to tone down their rhetoric, because BP accounts for 1/7th of the UK economy, and economic giants such as BP are intricately connected to the global economy. A model made in June 2010 of the BP oil spill described how the oil might spread across the Atlantic Ocean. In fact, as stock-ownership data posted at BP’s Web site revealed, the percentage of BP stocks owned by Americans is almost twice that of Brits. In addition, BP’s two subcontractors, Transocean and Halliburton, are American companies. In the case of Transocean, it was initially incorporated in Delaware and then moved to Cayman Island (1999- 2008). According to its Web site, Transocean now is headquartered in Zug, Switzerland. This move alone reduces Transocean corporate taxes from 35 percent to 16 percent, although it’s public knowledge that Transocean’s major operations are all based in Texas. The complex, hidden, interconnected economic geography network in the global economy must be taken into consideration when trying to understand the spill’s impacts. There likely are vast terra incognitae awaiting us to further explore along scientific as well as political fronts. Author’s Note: The following sites illustrate the geospatial community’s mapping efforts on the BP oil spill: www. ifitweremyhome.com/disasters/bp, www.sierraclub.org/ oilspill/map, www.eoearth.org/topics/view/50359; and using data from Wikileaks: www.theglobeandmail.com/ news/world/help-us-plot-wikileaks-cables/article1820264/ ?from=1827018, zerogeography.blogspot.com/2010/12/ visualisation-of-wikileaks-vital.html, www.floatingsheep. org/2010/12/map-of-wikileaks-list-of-facilities.html, www. guardian.co.uk/world/datablog/interactive/2010/oct/23/ wikileaks-iraq-deaths-map, www.colorado.edu/ibs/pec/johno/ afpak/docs/OLoughlin_Wiki.pdf. M A R C H 2 O 1 1 / W W W . G E O P L A C E . C O M 13 NCAR/UCAR