Environment: Joe's Bad Tripon the Exxon Valdez

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Can Hazelwood endure all this attention and ridicule? Some friends fear the worst. "Private people are not prepared to be torn apart like this under the public microscope," warns Colorado physician Eugene O'Neill, an old friend of Hazelwood's. "I've seen patients on the verge of suicide over things like this. How much longer are we going to prey on this human being?"

Hazelwood has had no public comment on the accident except for a terse statement that was released by his lawyers. "I feel terrible about the effects of the spill," it reads, "but I'm just an ordinary fellow caught up in an extraordinary situation -- a situation which I had little control over." In fact, Hazelwood is no ordinary fellow, and one could argue that he should have exercised much more control over many aspects of his life. But those are not reasons to rush to judgment about the events that led to the fiasco in Prince William Sound.

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CREDIT: TIME Diagram by Joe Lertola

CAPTION: CAPTAIN'S LOG