As the first images of the now-infamous BP Gulf Coast oil spill disaster seeped into the general public consciousness, I felt indignant and outraged, but realized I was largely unaffected. That was, at least, until I discovered www.ifitwasmyhome.com, a website that uses Google Maps to project the size of the oil spill over any corner of the globe. As I dragged the massive black monstrosity around the world — over the Middle East, Africa and my hometown along Lake Erie — it dawned on me how this catastrophe could have had the potential to affect us all.

While there may be little chance of oil drilling on Lake Erie, the website nonetheless encouraged a less localized view of the spill. It also revealed the international scope of the problems of irresponsible oil rig practices and the lack of preparedness for environmental disasters.

History shows that there is a real danger of unsafe drilling practices that impacts not only Americans on U.S. sands and waters, but countries across the world. As a recent New York Times articles describes, the Niger Delta in Nigeria has, by some estimates, “endured the equivalent of the Exxon Valdez spill every year for 50 years.” As a result, many of the swamps there are “long since lifeless.” While some estimates put the Gulf Coast spill at 2.5 million gallons a day, 546 million gallons of oil have spilled in the Niger Delta over the past 50 years.

It is right of President Barack Obama to use this crisis to move toward greater accountability and safer practices for drilling off of American shores. However, it is more important that the United States encourages and facilitates regulation of unsafe corporate practices on an international level. Profits from oil may reside within one border or another, but the health and biodiversity of the world’s oceans is a concern without borders.

The problem of environmental pollution and disruption of local life should neither be considered a new problem nor a uniquely American one ­— it is an international problem of corporate corner-cutting, lax or corrupt regulation and general unpreparedness of most industrialized nations. It is from this perspective, not a strictly nationalist one, that President Obama and other world leaders should seize upon this opportunity to make strides in international cooperation and regulation of potentially devastating practices of global industries.

An example of such international cooperation was detailed in a June 26 Financial Post article titled “Avertable Catastrophe.” According to the piece, soon after news of the BP spill hit the Netherlands, the Dutch offered the U.S. government use of their specialized oil clean-up ships. Each one of these Dutch ships had more “cleanup capacity than all the ships that the United States was then employing in the Gulf to combat the spill.” In addition, the Dutch offered to prepare a contingency plan of building sand barriers to protect the Louisiana marshlands. Despite the generous offer — and the offers of at least 12 other governments — the United States declined all assistance.

Imagine if the media’s focus was not on party bickering, but rather the international coalition helping to clean up the mess. Imagine if the United States accepted the assistance of the Dutch and the 12 other countries a few weeks ago. And imagine if, in addition to discussing regulations in the United States, we were talking about international regulations that covered industry worldwide. We would then be setting the precedent that problems with international industry and environmental disasters are to be dealt with by the world as a whole, not just the country in which they occur. Additionally, the creation of an international United Nations task force to set and enforce regulations in all nations would protect the world’s resources to a much greater extent.

Oil spills may not be happening in your backyard or mine, but they affect us all. Rather than solely using this opportunity to improve the United States, world leaders should push for international cooperation to begin preventing against and preparing for future environmental disasters.