The genesis of the contemporary movement was reactive, says White, and came in the wake of the Exxon Valdez oil spill in Alaska and the Bhopal toxic gas leak at a Union Carbide pesticide plant in India that led to thousands of deaths.

I have to point out that the Valdez spill remediation was too little, and slow to roll out - but it was 1000x better than the previous tanker disaster of note. Do you remember which one that was? I do. Amoco Cadiz. Before that, Torrey Canyon. As a kid, I wondered that any nation would allow Liberian-registered vessels anywhere near their international water boundaries.

Too many of these disasters involve pocketchange thrown willy-nilly. Mother Nature ends up taking the beating, and doing what cleanup she can.