Posted on 31 August 2010. Angry or depressed about the Gulf oil
disaster? You’re not alone. Deborah Du Nann Winter, PhD,
Professor of Psychology at Whitman College, says the emotional
impacts of this massive environmental disaster are widespread.
Dr. Du Nann Winter witnessed a wide variety of emotional
reactions to the Deepwater Horizon crisis, the most striking in
her opinion being anger - toward BP’s failure to adhere to
regulations and cutting corners on safety precautions, and
toward President Obama for his apparent lack of anger. “But I
think all that anger projected toward the oil companies and
toward the President is a way of masking the really unfathomable
and profound despair that is just under the surface as we watch
this catastrophe unfold,” she said. Also, “It really isn’t
appropriate to blame BP or the President for the fact that we
are rapidly approaching the end of cheap oil, and these kinds of
disasters are accumulating all over the world. Blaming
individuals by demonizing them is simply not a