On April 20th, 2010, BP’s Deepwater Horizon oil rig exploded, killing 11 men and starting the largest offshore oil spill in American history. In the early days of the Gulf oil spill, a colleague warned Chris Reddy that this would be the oil spill of his life and he wouldn’t see his wife much for a while. Both predictions turned out to be accurate.
Chris Reddy is a senior scientist at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. He was part of the team that discovered an underwater oil plume coming from the ruptured well. His research – and now his personal emails – have been subpoenaed in the government’s lawsuit against BP. Reddy has also spent time at Unified Command acting as a liaison between academic researchers and government officials and industry interests.
Along the way, Reddy has made his thoughts on Gulf oil spill research – particularly media coverage of it – known publicly through a handful of op-ed pieces. Those essays, as well as a couple of other commentaries, are this week’s extra credit reading list.
How reporters mangle science on Gulf oil (CNN.com - August 25, 2010)
Mangled Science: a reply
(Heather Goldstone, WCAI)Science is Messy (Boyce Reynsberger, Knight Science Journalism Tracker)
The Oil Plume Paradox (Curtis Brainard, Columbia Journalism Review)
On the first anniversary of the Gulf oil spill:
Humility in the Face of Scientific Mysteries (Providence Journal - April 20, 2011)
On improving research and communications efforts:
How Science Failed During the Gulf Oil Spill (WIRED.com - April 20, 2012)
What Scientists Under Pressure Can Learn From Spock (WIRED.com - January 19, 2012)
Science out of context: BP’s demand for e-mail will erode the scientific deliberative process (Boston Globe - June 03, 2012)
