Capping a visible spill also caps the perceived time frame of its aftermath.

Evidence

Yes, the spillcam had allowed us collectively to witness the irruptive trauma and mobilize around what we could see. But with the wellhead sealed I knew that attention spans—unanchored by visible evidence of catastrophe—would drift elsewhere. Meanwhile the incalculable, incremental damage spread through biomagnification of the toxins was only beginning. BP had not just capped the wellhead but, with the spillcam’s assistance, had capped the disaster’s perceived time frame as well. Powerful forces—including the Obama administration and the New York Times, which wanted to put the disaster behind them ahead of the midterms—were highly motivated to declare that the worst was over and move on. — Rob Nixon, Slow Violence and the Environmentalism…, 842

Categorization

• XREF: Reinforces the 2001-era ‘success is the absence of alarm’ framing; also echoes the ‘perceived time framing’ discussion in earlier chapters. — connects to: A foreshortened temporal perspective blinds people to accumulating catastrophe; Fiction can reframe a disaster’s aftermath itself as the true event — Rob Nixon, Slow Violence and the Environmentalism…, 117

Broader Connections

• A foreshortened temporal perspective blinds people to accumulating catastrophe #corroborates (0.88)
• Fiction can reframe a disaster’s aftermath itself as the true event #expands (0.78) — Rob Nixon, Slow Violence and the Environmentalism…, 117