Birds and Marine Wildlife / 65efforts that had been sparked by the 1962 publication of Rachel Car-
son’s Silent Spring. In the year following the spill, President Rich-
ard Nixon signed the National Environmental Policy Act, requiring
federal agencies to assess the impact of major projects, such as oil
exploration on public lands, and established the Environmental
Protection Agency.^15 On April 22, 1970, Americans across the coun-
try participated in the fi rst Earth Day.^16
Oil spills have always generated questions of responsibility and
appropriate response. Hartley’s remark, depicting disasters only in
human terms, epitomizes one position. This view stands against the
position that no event affects only the other beings on this planet,
leaving humans unscathed and untroubled. In this view, as we
humans strove to bring ever-increasing parts of the environment
under our control, we subjected animals to increased vulnerability.
For example, successful agriculture involves eliminating animals
labeled “pests” and “vermin.” Our efforts to control insect popula-
tions with the pesticide DDT nearly produced the “silent spring”
Carson predicted because the chemical thinned the shells of birds’
eggs, resulting in high mortality among some species. In another
instance, the expansion of suburbs into wildlands has eliminated
habitat and increased the number of confl icts between humans and
wildlife, creating a game that animals always lose, usually at the
end of a gun. The examples abound. Because we have extended
our reach into wilderness, polar regions, rainforests, and oceans, as
expressed by Adrian Franklin, “no animals are safe and their only
hope of survival lies with the willingness of humans to take moral
responsibility for their protection.”^17 In taking responsibility for
animals and birds, we have raised new moral and practical ques-
tions about the consequences of our efforts to repair the damage.
Our Long Love Affair with Oil
With the exception of natural seeps, humans are responsible for
all the oil in the marine environment. We have a long relationship
with petroleum, and it has rather quickly become indispensable in
nearly every aspect of daily life in industrial societies.