Complex Systems Create Complex Failures

Imagine if the oil well spewing liquid poison into the ocean was a broken nuclear reactor spewing radioactive materials into the air, contaminating everyone and everything around it for many miles.  Don't think it can't happen - you know it can.  Fortunately for us, most reactors are more than just a blowout protector away from a meltdown, although there are nuclear "incidents" recorded on a regular basis in this country by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, the nuclear counterpart to the MMS.

Ironically, it's human nature to avoid thinking about the catastrophic, yet, when it does happen, we can't imagine why we didn't think about it, see it coming and plan for it.  We seem to be able to imagine, and ignore, all kinds of possible disasters but not so the mechanisms to fix or contain them.  The failure of highly complex systems, sometimes deemed failsafe, is part of our human history.  We have only to reflect on the many recorded disasters - from ships sinking at sea, the Titanic being the most famous (but, certainly, only one of thousands), train wrecks, horrific airplane crashes, skyscraper and other building fires, mining explosions and collapses, two nuclear power plant partial or full meltdowns and numerous other nuclear accidents, chemical plant explosions and, of course, space disasters including, not one but two, shuttle catastrophes - to know that complex systems, no matter how well designed and tested, do, routinely fail in the most spectacularly deadly ways.

The latest ongoing, sickening failure in the Gulf is a daily reminder that if man can build it, man or forces at work in the natural world, can break it, and that rigorous oversight and regulation are the only thing standing between us and terrible economic, environmental and health impacts.

As we witness the current attempts to make tough budget cuts here in our state and across our country, one of the areas hardest hit will likely be regulatory agencies like our own DHEC, which is facing its own spate of deep cuts.  Cuts to agencies charged with oversight of environmental and health impacts mean less regulatory enforcement in a state where DHEC is already underpowered in its authority and lax in its political will to bear down on polluters and industries that produce toxic waste or engage in risky business.  Couple that with a legislature that just recently entertained a bill that would call for DHEC to expedite offshore drilling within three miles of our coast and, well, you get the picture.

As Tea Partiers call for less government interference, we can only wonder how much more free rein will be given to businesses to "regulate" themselves under an Ayn Rand kind of regime.  As they, on one hand, call for government to get out of the way and, on the other, chastise Obama for not bringing the Federal government in quicker to clean up the disaster created by private business, we are left scratching our heads about how they intend to reconcile this very obvious cognitive dissonance.  Perhaps someone will ask this question of gubernatorial candidates Haley and Barrett, both outspoken advocates for more offshore drilling and nuclear reactors.