dedicated to the promotion of urban environmentalism

From a business sense I understand weighing the potential losses versus the cost to prevent an event from happening. I get that we each accept a certain amount of risk in exchange for other benefits all the time. Picking a neighbourhood to live in, mode of transportation, school to go to and job to work at. But there comes a time when the bigger picture needs to be thought of -- like in the oil disaster.

BP found that it was cheaper to pay fines than to prepare for this type of accident. There are just some places where this isn't or shouldn't be acceptable any more. We have alternatives; we can develop more; we can adjust our lives. We need to stop this mess and ensure that the next accident will be handled in a much better way.

Any ideas how to do this? Will public outcry last long enough and have a big enough impact? What else? How can we finally learn the lessons we need to be learning as a human race?