RAPID Proposal to Conduct a Comparative Study of Community Impacts of the 2010 BP Oil Spill

2010年4月20日，由Transocean有限公司拥有并与英国石油公司（BP）签订合同的深水地平线钻井平台在墨西哥湾北部爆炸并开始燃烧。位于离岸50英里处的钻井平台沉没，导致井口破裂，每天涌出约2万桶石油。阻止漏油的初步尝试没有成功，专家估计可能需要三个月或更长时间才能阻止原油的流动。这次泄漏威胁到北海湾沿岸的几个“危险”行业，包括商业和休闲渔业、旅游业和其他与自然资源有关的企业。最初的社会影响已经开始显现，并可能随着时间的推移而继续和演变。这个RAPID研究项目将重点关注BP石油泄漏对可再生资源社区和群体的影响。从生态、文化、社会和经济方面的破坏和破坏，以及潜在的长期影响来看，这场正在展开的灾难与1989年的埃克森瓦尔迪兹号石油泄漏（EVOS）相提并论。在过去的21年里，该研究团队记录了EVOS对人类的影响，重点是Cordova， AK社区，该项目建立在该研究的基础上，并将其扩展到当前的BP泄漏事件。这项研究的首要目标是获取关于墨西哥湾北部可再生资源社区的利益相关者对这次石油泄漏灾难的反应方式的高度易腐、时间敏感的数据。具体来说，研究小组将把他们的数据收集活动集中在阿拉巴马州的Bayou La Batre社区，以便与Cordova进行社会科学比较。研究小组将收集定性和定量数据，了解灾难如何影响该地区的生态，以及居民的社会和文化系统。他们将借鉴之前EVOS研究中使用的研究设计和工具，对主要利益相关者群体的有目的样本进行结构化面对面访谈，并对社区家庭的随机样本进行自我管理调查。主要数据将在两个时间点收集，首先进行访谈，然后进行调查。他们将首先发起一项关于拉巴特河的社区案例研究。这项研究不仅将帮助研究团队评估他们在过去20年研究EVOS的社会、文化和心理影响所开发的理论和方法的更广泛应用，而且有可能向政策制定者通报环境和经济以外的影响，这些影响可能对当地社区的可持续性产生重大影响。

On April 20, 2010 the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig owned by Transocean Ltd. and contracted to British Petroleum (BP) exploded and started burning in the Northern Gulf of Mexico. Located 50 miles off-shore, the rig sank leaving a breached wellhead gushing an estimated 20,000 barrels of oil per day. Initial attempts to stop the spill have been unsuccessful and experts estimate it could take up to three months or more to stop the flow of crude oil. The spill threatens several "at-risk" industries along the Northern Gulf including commercial and recreational fishing, tourism, and other enterprises tied to natural resources. Initial social impacts are already unfolding and are likely to continue and evolve over time. This RAPID research project will focus on how the BP oil spill affects renewable resource communities and groups. This unfolding disaster draws comparisons to the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill (EVOS) in terms of ecological, cultural, social, and economic damage and disruption, as well as potential long-term impacts. Over the past 21 years, this research team has documented human impacts of the EVOS with a focus on the community of Cordova, AK and this project builds upon and extends this research to the current BP spill. The overarching goal of the study is to capture highly perishable, time sensitive data regarding ways in which stakeholders in renewable resource communities along the northern Gulf of Mexico are reacting to this oil spill disaster. Specifically, the research team will focus thier data gathering activities on the community of Bayou La Batre, Alabama in order to make social scientific comparisons to Cordova. The research team will collect qualitative and quantitative data on how the disaster impacts not only the ecology of the region but the social and cultural systems of the residents. They will draw on research designs and instruments used in their previous EVOS studies to develop and conduct structured face-to-face interviews with purposive sample of individuals from key stakeholder groups and self-administered surveys to a random sample of community households. Primary data will be collected at two points in time with interviews occurring first, followed by the survey. They will begin by initiating a community case study of Bayou La Batre. This research will not only assist the research team in assessing the wider application of the theories and methodologies they have developed over the last 20 years researching the social, cultural, and psychological impacts of the EVOS, but has the potential to inform policy makers about effects outside of environmental and economic that can have a major impact on local community sustainability.