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Black storm rising黑色风暴正猖獗The Deepwater Horizon disaster will affect everyone from pelicans to politicians深水地平线号灾难将影响动物界和政界的每一份子May 6th 2010 | From The Economist print editionDRILLING for oil is a balancing act. If the pressure of the working fluids in the well, or the strength of concrete holding the piping in place, cannot balance the immense pressure of the oil down below, then things get very bad, very quickly. On April 20th, for some reason as yet unknown, the pressure in a well that had been drilled by the Deepwater Horizon, a rig that BP, one of the world’s largest oil companies, was using to explore a new field in the Gulf of Mexico, got out of balance. The well blew its top, causing an explosion and subsequent fire which claimed the lives of 11 of the rig’s crew of 126 and eventually sent the rig itself to the bottom of the ocean, a mile below the surface and some 40 miles (64km) off the Louisiana coast.石油钻井是一项压力平衡才能进行的作业。假如漏油井的受压流体的压力，或者说是固定输油管道的混凝土的强度不能承受喷涌而上的原油压力，那么情况将迅速变得更糟。4月20日，因为一些不知情的原因，世界上规模最大之一的英国石油公司所租用的用于开采墨西哥湾沿岸一片新油田的深水地平线号钻井平台，在钻一口油井时，突然井内的压力增大，失去了平衡。原油沿管道上涌，最终导致钻井平台发生爆炸，熊熊烈火致使126名工作人员中11名丧命，平台也随后沉陷1英里深的海底。出事地点距离路易斯安纳海岸线40（64公里）英里。In the aftermath, oil started to seep to the surface. Since then the slick has grown inexorably, despite attempts to contain and disperse it. On the distant shore they watch with concern and a certain fatalism. “This is just like waiting for a hurricane,” says LeRoy Meaux, a Louisiana welder, as he works on fixing a winch to a barge. “Been there, done that.” What no one yet knows is whether the Gulf spill will, like some hurricanes, soon fade in the memories of all but those most directly affected, or whether, like Katrina, it will cause havoc that has repercussions much farther afield. Such an outcome is certainly possible. BP has its bottom line and reputation at risk. The technology of deepwater drilling, rightly celebrated for its ingenuity, faces the prospect of more critical assessment than it has