<p>"Current events will quickly become history as a new college course studies the impact of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill on the Gulf of Mexico region. "Oil and Water: The Gulf Oil Spill of 2010" is a three-credit course at University of Minnesota's Institute for Advanced Studies."</p>
<p>Should we make a class on Katrina too? It’s pretty self explanatory. Oil company CEOs get in a revolving door with Washington, companies like BP give millions to guys like Bush and Obama, politicians look the other way with risky developments because they are essentially bribed by big oil, and BAM! Crisis. We knew the risks of this procedure, we chose to approve it in an attempt to keep oil prices down, because most americans whined about oil prices, which put pressure on politicians to find ways to find domestic oil, and washington okay’s risky procedures. I don’t think it’s really an exceptional event. Yes, it’s bad, but we got over the Exxon spill as well. Probably because there weren’t many human casualties. People tend to remember the 9/11s and Pearl Harbors, not enviromental disasters.</p>
<p>There have actually been classes on Katrina, just so you know.
It’s not “self explanatory” and I’m actually trying my best not to have a rude retort. There are several different ways to look at Katrina, from the actual act to the public life issue…
I’ve personally been on the look out for a class to take myself. Makes for an interesting anthro lecture.</p>
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Tell that to the millions affected in the gulf coast right now. There is no way that everyone will ever be paid what they are due by BP. I’d certainly call this an economic crisis.</p>
<p>Either way, the BP spill will affect FAR more people than Exxon ever did, since the gulf if much more a tourist area. And oil on a beach where tourists go is going to destroy the economy in the gulf. There are several towns that rely on tourism just to survive economically. And of course the fishermen who literally cannot do their job right now. There are towns in southern louisiana that essentially run off of the fishing business.</p>
<p>My point is focusing on one event as exceptional means we are saying some tragedies are worse than others. I don’t think it’s right to say one accident was especially bad so we should devote a class to it, but let’s not make a class on 9/11 or Pearl Harbor or the psunami a couple of years ago or the Haitian earthquake. Who has the right to say “well, this event is particularly bad…” Unlike other tragedies humans have escaped relatively unscathed with economic harm. Medical staffs in Haiti were performing amputations with saws. A bunch enviromental problems happened in the gulf of mexico. Does one matter more than another? They should just have a class on man made disasters or oil spills, not just one.</p>
<p>We knew the risks going in, people ignored them because are gov and the obama administration are filled with a bunch of cronies, and now after the fact we act like noone knew the potential risks. It’s not a unique story. But hey, if that makes UM feel cutting edge or whatever, good for them. Yeah, the GOM is bad right now, but something worse is eventually going to happen and we’ll forget about it. Just like we have moved on from the Exxon spill when the BP one occurred. Oil spills are not a phenomena, and all of them have tragic consequences, but focusing on one is just stupid. That sounds cynical, but that’s the way the world works. It matters now, but a year after it’s fixed only the people in the disaster area will really remember the damage. Other than litigation, it won’t matter to most americans, so why waste a class on something that just happens to be trendy?</p>
<p>I think the difference here is that this oil spill is forcing engineering into new limits and provides a remarkable case study for related topics like safety management, robotics and geology.</p>
<p>I think engineers could really benefit from seeing some of the methods that were used to control the leak, especially why they didn’t work and why those outcomes weren’t anticipated.</p>
<p>Engineering itself is going to learn a great deal from this incident.</p>
<p>Sometimes case studies are the best tools to learn.</p>
<p>I don’t really see why whether or not there is a class about it defines how bad an event is. Someone wanted to teach a class, they thought it would be interesting to offer, so they did. So?</p>
<p>Exactly- that’s what the class is: a Case Study.</p>
<p>Tiff, no one was suggesting making it a class in the same sense calculus II is a class.</p>
<p>And I’m sure there have been classes on both 9/11 and the asian tsunami.</p>
<p>As johnson said there probably have been classes on things like 9/11, Pearl Harbor and specific natural disasters. But the Oil spill is something that could have and should have been easily avoidable. 9/11 and Pearl harbor perhaps could have been avoided diplomatically. But the BP oil spill is something that was absolutely under our control but this country (as well as several companies) messed up big time. I would say that this is much more worthy of being made into a class than the aforementioned topics.</p>
<p>I apologize if this has been said already…</p>
<p>But it’s about time SOMETHING covered the BP oil spill.</p>
<p>I look at it like a Prof is saying x crisis is worse than any other crisis. Yes, it’s bad, but how is a class like that prepare you for your major or for the real world? It’s not a big secret what happened and why it happened. It’s just another example of how the revolving door corrupts gov whatnot.</p>
<p>Am I the only one who thinks calling it a spill is the wrong word? It’s like day 84 and it’s oil is STILL shooting out.</p>
<h2>look at it like a Prof is saying x crisis is worse than any other crisis. Yes, it’s bad, but how is a class like that prepare you for your major or for the real world? It’s not a big secret what happened and why it happened. It’s just another example of how the revolving door corrupts gov whatnot. ~ TIff90</h2>
<p>It’s an excellent case study.</p>
<p>It combines government inefficiency, outside forces influencing private sector methods, disaster response, ect.</p>
<p>It’s an awesome example to study. </p>
<p>Also, it’s great for engineers, because this was the first real time scenario that applies out-of the-box thinking under major crisis.</p>
<p>And so what if the professor says this is a worse crisis than others - it is. It’s the worst environmental disaster in US History.</p>
<p>Lots of things lead up to it, not just the explosion - lot’s of learning can come from this.</p>
<p>As far it being in your major and preparing you for the real world, well - not to many classes really do that.</p>
<p>I’ve taken a ton of classes that don’t relate to my major and have no real application to the real world.</p>
<p>Who cares?</p>