Willful Negligence

Natural disasters are long term events, people sometimes anticipate a natural disaster like a hurricane, but the after effects of a natural disaster are what make people never forget. Throughout the years there have been many natural disasters and many man-caused “natural” disasters, the difference between a natural disaster and a man-caused natural disaster is the negligence of thick conditions. One example of a natural disaster is Hurricane Katrina which was a category 5 hurricane that hit Louisiana in 2005, although this was ultimately a natural disaster it was also a man-caused disaster, millions of people suffered when there was no need to. If the state had taken the proper precautions needed in order to better protect the homes, people, and city of Louisiana then Hurricane Katrina would have not been such a devastating storm, but the negligence of the proper care of the levees which guarded the city from high waters thousands of people might have recuperated from Katrina, however because of the negligence of those in power natural disasters become long term and more dangerous to the citizens of the state. A natural disaster usually lasts a couple of days, like a hurricane could last up to 3–5 days however it is the mess that is left behind that people cannot clean up on their own. Although Hurricane Katrina hit over a decade ago, it is still fresh in the people’s mind, many still remember the fear they had to lose everything in a storm, other natural disasters such as the bombing of Vietnam in 1961 with agent orange, the Bhopal gas leak of 1984, the Exxon Valdez spill of 1989, and the BP oil spill of 2010 were all disasters that were equally as harming to the environment to the future generations of people who must live in the environment that is unrepairable. One of the most recent natural disasters that was caused by negligence of a company was the BP oil spill of 2010 that rang along the Gulf of Mexico and affected many southern states like Louisiana, Alabama, Mississippi, and Florida. During the spring of 2010 a pipe was due for repair, however due to the cost and time it would take to fix a leaking pipe would have cost the BP Company thousands to repair and would have shut down production until the pipe was repaired, because of the willingness to neglect a harmful liability the ocean and its wildlife were permanently damaged, the ecosystem deeply, killed thousands of fish and put wildlife in endangerment, and even putting some wildlife at risk for extinction. In the 87 days that it took the oil company to repair the broken pipe that released thousands of gallons of oil into the Gulf of Mexico these long term effects were inflicted on the environment, the negligence of the company willfully surrendered the well-being of ocean life and the environment http://ocean.si.edu/gulf-oil-spill. Aside from much of the marine life’s endangerment, this oil spill also gravely affected the economy in the southern states, although it was not the larger businesses who took such a devastating hit from the spill the smaller business and stores which contributed largely to the economy suffered immensely. Small family owned fish businesses, local stores, authentic restaurants, and tourism suffered greatly in the days that it took to fix the leakage of the pipe, however the economy cannot be fixed as easily as a pipe. After the spill, it took months for the economy to ascend into normal balance, many people went hungry, lost their jobs and their businesses, but were never compensated for any of their losses https://www.thebalance.com/bp-gulf-oil-spill-facts-economic-impact-3306212. Many victims of natural disasters are not compensated for their losses even when the disaster was at the hands of an established company. Another natural disaster that had negative after effects was the Bhopal Gas leak of 1984 which was caused by pipes that were in too poor of condition to function properly leading to the death of over 2,000 people over night. The gas leak released a deadly amount of toxic odorless gas into the city causing thousands to lose their lives. The book Animal’s People, by Indra Sinha follows a young man Animal who was born around the time of the gas leak. The book explores the town of Khaufpur and the effects on the people that the gas leak caused. Although the story goes on years after the initial disaster, the presence of the gas leak is still alive and well in every character, whether it be in biological deformities, poverty, or physical pain every character is still suffering from the gas leak even after the issue was repaired. When natural disasters occur there are immediate responses to the damage people can die, lose their homes, and the environment can become irreparable in a matter of seconds, yet all companies and businesses see as a loss in their profit. Big corporations waive the interest of people in order to increase their profits, although many people suffer at the hands of their negligence their profit is the only driving force to their tactics. Many companies account for the liabilities that come with manual labor, but not the liabilities that can come with working with dangerous substances or mechanics, and above all these companies do not hold themselves liable for the suffering of the people they affect and will never provide compensation for those victims of natural disasters until they learn to see people as more than profit or a loss of profit.