When Barack Obama promised that "change is coming to America" back in 2008, did British Petroleum interpret that as meaning an oil change?

BP announced two major moves today after President Obama visited the Gulf of Mexico and addressed the United States last night. First, that the company would have a $20 billion fund to pay for oil disaster claims. Second, BP chairman Carl-Henric Svanberg announced that the company would not pay any more stock dividends to its shareholders.

What happened to all the support for Obama that got him elected in the first place? Even some liberal media outlets are turning against him. Obama is just about halfway into his presidency, but two years must feel like four to him.

I have heard whispers of boycotting BP gas/petrol stations, but nothing major yet. Let's be honest: if you were running low on fuel and BP was your only choice, would you fill up there or walk the distance to the nearest gas station with a can in tow?

The oil spill is being made out to be one of, if not the biggest, environmental disasters of all time. This hype is somewhat because of the Internet age. Other major disasters, like the Iraqi destruction of Kuwait oil fields from 1991, and the Exxon Valdez spill in 1989, are certainly as important. However, no one with a dot-com address was covering them at the time.

We are seeing the effects the oil spill has on Gulf of Mexico wildlife and sea life. For those who may see the oil spill as just "an American problem," consider that the Gulf is one of the major trade routes to and from the U.S., Mexico and the Caribbean. The effect on trade has yet to be fully determined.

Not to mention that other countries will rethink their approaches to offshore oil drilling after this.

We are just about two months into the oil spill and it is showing no signs of going away. What is the most sobering thought for me is that, unlike natural disasters like Hurricane Katrina, we can't just give out water bottles and first-aid kits to make things better.