Krugman on Louisiana and the History of Environmental Politics

Certain things seem obvious but still rarely get pointed out. Fortunately there's Krugman (and a few others) to do some of the pointing.

It took futuristic technology to achieve one of the worst ecological disasters on record. Without such technology, after all, BP couldn’t have drilled the Deepwater Horizon well in the first place. Yet for those who remember their environmental history, the catastrophe in the gulf has a strangely old-fashioned feel, reminiscent of the events that led to the first Earth Day, four decades ago.