Introduction

As I write this introduction in the summer of 2010, environmental issues are at the very top of the global news agenda. On 20 April the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig exploded in the Gulf of Mexico, killing 11 workers and starting a huge oil slick. BP, the company who sponsored the drilling, catastrophically failed to deal with the physical leak, the ecological damage it caused and the resulting storm of public anger. BP Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Tony Hayward made a textbook example of how not to handle such a crisis: trying to shift blame onto the contractors operating the rig, downplaying the size of the disaster and complaining about the effect it was having on his own life. In July Hayward stepped down from his position, stating ‘life isn’t fair’. ¹