Deepwater Horizon: classifying the effects

The world's worst accidental ocean rig oil release occurred in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010 as the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig, operating under contract to BP, suffered a catastrophic explosion. For weeks afterwards crude oil poured from the sea bed into the waters of the Gulf. Now a major feature film on general release, the event not only killed 11 oil rig workers but had a huge impact on the natural and human environment of the Gulf of Mexico and beyond.

This detailed Study Note in the Tutor2u Geography reference library entitled: 'The 2010 Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill: causes and consequences' examines the impact of the disaster and considers the wider implications of the event. Written by Ryan Bate - a former oil industry executive, but now a head of geography department - the article considers a range of impacts that students can use to explore different ways of classifying geographical phenomena. You could ask different individuals/groups to analyse the disaster on a range of classification types to see if the criteria-choice influences the degree of insight generated. Possible classification charts could be based on:

Economic / Social / Environmental / Political / Technological impacts

Immediate / short-term / medium-term / long-term impacts

Local / regional / national / international / global impacts

Minor / serious / high concern / disastrous impacts

Repairable / recoverable / compensatory / irreparable impacts

There are other classification criteria you could select to see how differently they help examine the issue. By cross-referencing two or more criteria you could ask students to examine impacts using a matrix format: 'local social, local economic, local environmental, regional social, regional economic .... etc.'