The oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico is over. The well has been capped.
There is no way to quantify the full extent of the environmental or economic damage—now, or possibly ever. But already we know that the response to this catastrophic event has not delivered the kind of radical shift in how we deal with disasters and respond to crises that was needed.
Why not? Simply put, the organizations and people who shared ideas, proposed solutions, and took action were doing so in their own self-interest. For example:
• Nonprofit organizations raised millions of dollars for people hurt by the oil spill (and in the process expanded their own e-mail lists). But their efforts aren’t really helping to rebuild the economy of the Gulf.
• Cause-marketing campaigns helped to brand corporations as philanthropic and committed to serious issues. But the money they have contributed pales in comparison with other issues. And their commitments have come with strings attached.
• Thought leaders and innovators have given speeches and penned editorials proclaiming the ways the Internet and technology can be used to organize and mobilize resources in response to the spill, but the ideas have not been backed up by meaningful, measurable actions.
Much has been made of the our connected society’s potential power—the availability of social platforms, the speed of information, and the increased commitment of people to promote social good.
But, as the oil spill showed, we aren’t doing much to tap that potential. We are doing more and more of the same old things.
Responding to crises in the digital age demands different ideas and new voices—not applications of the same old concepts with a new wrapper, or the same kinds of limited thinking that has set our society up for even greater challenges in the future.
On Thursday I’ll discuss some possible new approaches. But in the meantime, I’d love to hear your thoughts.
What are some ways that we can use new tools to break the patterns that have limited our ability to respond to crises and disasters? Post a comment to share your thoughts.
6 Responses to Lessons From the Gulf Oil Spill
chroniclececp - August 11, 2010 at 2:35 pm
One example of using crowd-sourcing to address this particular issue in the Gulf is the XPrize’s Oil Cleanup X Challenge – http://iprizecleanoceans.org/Page/Home. Granted this comes with a financial reward for the winning team, but it’s an example of how to search for the best ideas using a more democratic approach. I can only imagine that social media sites such as Twitter, etc., will expand the pool of talented applicants for competitions such as this one. Looking forward to the discussion on Thursday! -Courtney King, Committee Encouraging Corporate Philanthropy (CECP)
kking1 - August 11, 2010 at 2:50 pm
Mennonite Disaster Service, like many other agencies continue to be in the Gulf responding to the housing needs brought on by the destruction of Katrina/Rita/Gustav/Ike. What we heard from the residents when asked what we should be doing was “stay here with us” “keep hammering the nails” “walk with us” “tell our story back home”. Our presence is powerful. We cannot underestimate that value. That is tough to raise money for – but the theology of the hammer is real.Kevin KingExecutive DirectorMennonite Disaster Service
ekhawkins - August 11, 2010 at 6:57 pm
I’m not sure the Gulf Oil spill tells us anything useful about the lessons nonprofits have or have not learned about disaster response. The vast majority of people view BP as financially and practically responsible for remediating the catastropic damage the spill has caused to the environment, the local economy, and individual people’s lives — not nonprofits and their funders. It may be that the sector is still doing the same old things in the same old ways, failing to take advantage of new opportunities that technology offers. But this crisis should not be the measure. It was not an act of God; we can assign blame to a specific known entity and I don’t know of many people who are interested in making contributions to help BP out of the mess they have created. Kim HawkinsPartnerRaybin Associates, Inc.
brianreich - August 11, 2010 at 10:19 pm
Thanks for your comment, Courtney. I agree, the XPrize is a wonderful way to identify new ideas — and social platforms and channels, like Twitter and all the others, expand the conversation. The problem, at least from my perspective, is that something like the XPrize rewards the success of the new idea — not necessarily the process of challenging the existing, embedded ways of doing things which are preventing even the best ideas of having the dramatic impact that might be possible otherwise. The idea that we have to shift and reset what we are doing doesn’t always mean creating new things — in fact, find ways to enhance something that is close to working, or break down something that clearly isn’t having an impact, would be far more effective. There is no shortage of good ideas, but there is a serious lack of impact.
brianreich - August 11, 2010 at 10:26 pm
Kevin – thank you for your comment, and for your work in the gulf. Please don’t take my column as a suggestion that the work being done by many organizations, yours included, is not needed, or important. But there is a difference, in my mind, between serving the cause and solving the cause. Just because you are there to help support the local residents in the short term doesn’t mean that the need for long-term shifts in how we address the needs of local residents isn’t also needed. We focus on one, or the other, but rarely both. And for sure, we need both.
brianreich - August 11, 2010 at 10:37 pm
Kim – thanks for your comment. I don’t agree that, just because this was a BP-caused situation, the nonprofit community, or any other sector for that matter, should not do everything it can to find the appropriate solutions and push the boundaries of how we think about responding to addressing causes more generally. Beyond the specific need that the oil spill created — to rebuild the economy in the gulf for example, or to find new energy options to reduce the dependency on deep water drilling — there is also the reality that the oil spills are not isolated events, nor are other disasters. In a connected society we are all impacted by everything that happens, everywhere, at all times. The oil spill is just the latest opportunity to test our abilities to innovative and change behavior heading into the future. Who knows what the next disaster will be – it could be a genuine accident, or the fault of a company that works in an industry that we all love and admire. BP is an easy group to blame, and they are definitely at fault. But we are just as complicit if we don’t take the opportunity to use a situation like this to do something even better in the future.