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A Look at BP 60 years ago... |
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Posted 6/16/2010 at 3:49 PM by Chanti C |
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BP is getting a lot of attention as of late for their massive oil spill in the Gulf, one which, to date, has leaked a horrific quantity of spilled oil -- as I type this, it is estimated that 76,282,429 gallons have leaked into the Gulf -- but that number will be even higher by the time I end this post. This is absolutely outrageous and The White House says the spill is probably the greatest environmental disaster the US has ever faced, with the true impact on surrounding ecosystems still remaining unknown. Experts say it could take months or even years to fully comprehend the gravity of the situation -- the depth of the spill, the use of chemicals, the impact on the environment and human populations.
As I was reading more about this horrific disaster, I came across a Democracy Now! article which caught my attention -- an article about BP's history, an organization which used to be known as the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company. I read a little more...
Essentially, the organization that we now know as British Petroleum (BP) used to be the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company. Back in the early 1900s, a bunch of Geologists discovered that Iran was literally sitting on an ocean of oil. A deal was quickly struck with the corrupt Iranian monarchy -- they were all paid off by the company -- and won the rights to all of oil in the country. The deal mandated that only the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company could drill, extract, ship and sell the oil found in the country. This oil was used to power the British empire in the 20s, 30s and 40s. Britain itself has no natural oil, nor did any of their colonies, so all of the oil from Iran powered British factories, cars, and the British Royal Navy...
After WWII, as nationalist and anti-colonialist sentiment swept through the world, Iranians decided that they wanted to (rightfully!) nationalize their oil supply and elected Mohammad Mosaddegh to power, a man who had a strong interest in reinvesting the profits from oil back into Iran for development purposes. The Iranian parliament voted unanimously to nationalize the oil industry.
This, of course, scared and angered the British, who had been relying on this oil in countless ways. Steven Kinzer, former New York Times Reporter, speaks to this in this Democracy Now! clip about how the overthrow of the Mosaddegh government in 1953 (the first CIA overthrow, may I add) ultimately led to great instability in Iran and how BP played a key role in bringing the Shah to power for the next 25 years in Iran, which in turn produced the explosion of the late '70s that produced the Islamic regime. And who woulda ever thunk that the same corporation that helped to overthrow a government, destabilize a country and put an oppressive ruler into power... would leak an absurd amount of oil into the Gulf 60 years later and cause untold damage to human, animal, and aquatic populations? And actually, I shouldn't find it too surprising. Somehow I find that dirty hands in the past tend to lead to dirty hands in the present.
BP: I'm watching you! Just thought I'd share a little BP history with you all - interesting to research corporations and seeing where they've previously left their footprint, huh?
P.S. Now, at the end of my post, 76,279,754 gallons have been leaked into the Gulf... so in the time it took me to write this, 2675 more gallons have flooded into the water. Sigh. |
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