With oil spewing for many weeks from an out-of-control oil well nearly a mile deep in the Gulf of Mexico off Louisiana, it has become the "largest" oil spill in U.S. history -- and there is yet no prospect of solution.
Varied frantic efforts to stop the huge oil leak have been, and are being, made, but without encouraging results. Damage to sea and land from millions of gallons of oil will have terrible effects for years to come.
Many thousands of oil wells at sea operate safely and without problems. But just one catastrophe has taken the lives of 11 people, and is threatening inestimable damage to businesses, jobs, sea and shore life over an expanse of many miles.
Our nation and our world run on oil, usually without great problems. But we are shocked by the immeasurable damage when just one well has "gone wrong."