Houston, We Have a Problem

What can I or anyone else say? The events unfolding in the Gulf of Mexico are sad not only for the presumed loss of life of 11 workers on the deepwater drilling rig that exploded in a ball of flames on April 20th and subsequently sunk to the ocean floor a mile below, but also for the environmental disaster that is slowly unfolding before our collective eyes. In today’s edition of the New York Times, author Henry Fountain notes the similarity with “Apollo-program engineers who 40 years ago (and also in Houston) cobbled together a long-distance fix” and the experts working around the clock today to cap the well spewing oil into the Gulf at an estimated rate of some 5,000 barrels a day. The prognosis for the wildlife along the coast of Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and Florida is not good.

From my perspective as an engineer, I understand that all mechanical systems can and will fail at some point. History is flush with examples: the Titanic, the Hindenburg, the Tacoma Narrows Bridge, the list goes on. To address this reality, there is an entire discipline, engineering failure analysis, dedicated to understanding the causes of mechanical breakdowns large and small. Although machines continue to evolve and be safer and more reliable than every before; a zero failure rate for any system is a worthy goal, not a guarantee.  The question we have to answer as a society is: to what extent are we willing to risk our environment for the ever more technical pursuit of fossil-based fuels? Only time will tell.

So dear reader, please join me in thoughts of sympathy for the families of the missing.