The April 20th Deepwater Horizon oil spill triggered one of the worst environmental tragedies in recent memory, put hundreds of thousands of jobs at risk, and damaged Anglo-American relations. But the events of that night were preventable and they offer key lessons about the necessity for better regulation of the oil industry and provide yet another awful example of the havoc unbridled corporate greed can wreak.

On April 20, 2010, an explosion on the Deepwater Horizon oil rig in which 11 workers were killed marked the beginnings of the worst environmental disasters in American history. The magnitude of this tragedy cannot be emphasized enough as hundreds of thousands of people's livelihoods are in doubt and a vibrant ecosystem may be destroyed. And it was preventable. The evidence of problems was there, but between a culture of corporate cutting corners and lax regulation, they were not addressed. The blind shear ram, the last line of defence, the device that according to an industry expert would have prevented the rig from burning up and sinking, failed and catastrophe ensued. Yet there were signs of trouble with the shear ram from maintenance records dating back to 2005. The government agency in charge of deepwater drilling, the Minerals Management Service, never enforced a rule requiring companies to prove that the ram and the blowout preventer of which it is a part works nor did it accept a recommendation to require rigs to have two blowout preventers in case of one failing. BP also cut corners in order to save time and money including not properly reinforcing the concrete casing around the pipe. These are a just a few examples of grievous misjudgment by all those involved.

The past three years should have illustrated the dangers of hands-off capitalism, of more and more deregulation, of looking the other way when the writing is on the wall. From Lehman Brothers to AIG, from Northern Rock to BP, the evidence proves companies will try to maximize their profits no matter the risks, no matter whether they end up bringing the world's financial system to its knees and devastating the pristine waters of the Gulf of Mexico.

Action must be taken; the status quo simply does not work. We must learn from the mistakes of these disasters and address the problems at their root, that shareholder value and bonuses trump all other considerations. We must push our politicians to make effective policies that reward those companies who have better business practices and punish those who do not. Businesses have to realize their inherent social responsibility not to only their consumers but to all those affected by their business. Without a fundamental change in how business operates, disasters like these will happen again.

James Paul