BP and Basic Research

Of the countless number of lessons one might learn from the BP blowout in the Gulf, the lack of basic research is one lesson I have not heard anyone mention.

Industry, whether it is oil, food, forestry, or finance has been completely focused in the past few decades upon increasing production and revenue flow. I'm not sure if there is either an assumption that science has already done the basic research to support extending current technologies, or that there is just a belief that engineering and product design can circumvent any complication encountered. Well, it hasn't and it can't.

The BP blowout is a classic example of extending technology beyond what is known about the environment in which that technology is being applied. The fact that no one understood that gas hydrates would form within their first effort at containment was a certain indicator that this crisis was not going to be resolved quickly.

I'm guessing, that if the oil industry is like any other, they have been approached by scientists interested in establishing that basic understanding. I'm also guessing that industry wasn't interested in supporting that research because it did not directly translate into production and revenue flow. Government, heavily influenced by industry in directing their research funding, probably didn't see a need, or more specifically, an 'application,' either.

BP is just one example and I am left to wonder how many other examples we will see over the next few years. Funding for basic research is down everywhere.

In British Columbia, the provincial government has drastically reduced forestry research in the Ministry of Forests and Range. I'm thinking that they do not understand how basic research was aiding 'growth and yield.' As just one example, an entirely new bioenergy industry is emerging in British Columbia, but we know almost nothing about the ecology of the woody debris that they wish to remove for burning. The failures in these areas won't be as acutely dramatic as what is currently unfolding in the Gulf, but they could be just as damaging and even longer lasting.

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