In a VanityFair.com piece, I detail Cameron’s involvement in the BP oil spill cleanup.
An aquatic gearhead with more than 2,500 hours logged underwater, Cameron owns his own fleet of submersibles and ocean-ready robots. This week, drawing on his contacts in the deep-sea science world, the director convened a meeting of more than 20 scientists and engineers in Washington to brainstorm fixes for the leak.
“I know a lot of smart people who regularly work a whole lot deeper than that well,” Cameron told me, referring to BP’s 5,000-foot gusher. “I figured this group of top sub guys and deep-ocean scientists and engineers could maybe come up with something constructive.” The director did not, as many news outlets reported, respond to a call from the Environmental Protection Agency, but rather organized the meeting himself, and invited government bodies including the E.P.A., the Department of Energy, the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration and the Coast Guard to participate.
Cameron says he first contacted BP a month ago, but was told they had the crisis handled. “I didn’t want to be another well-meaning idiot with a bunch of suggestions,” Cameron says. “But when the situation went on without a resolution, I figured the guys I knew had to be as smart as the engineers at BP, so it was time to sound the horn.”
Cameron got back to me while on his way to the Wall Street Journal’s D8 conference, where he also fielded questions from Walt Mossberg and Kara Swisher about his BP role, shown in this video from the event.