Originally Posted By Schmitty Good Vibes This is horrible. I guess ther were a dozen 'fail safe' systems that failed. I don't like to discuss politics much in WE, but it's nuts that Obama is already being blamed. Primarily for not acting fast enough, but some wacko's blame him for the spill directly. I don't want to discuss the absolute left/right politics of this tragedy in this thread, so start your own for that. I'd rather discuss what went wrong and what can be done. One thing that will probably be partisan is the idea of more drilling. Holy cow, if these 'fail safe' systems aren't the latest, we must not drill more. I lived through the Santa Barbara spill and remember picking up balls of oil on my beach flip flops DECADES after the spill. This is an unbelievable horror for those who din't experience this on a small scale in California or Alaska. My first interest in this is that the people of Louisiana have already been through hell, and here it comes again, but this time it isn't "an act of God". My second and very selfish interest in this is I LOVE shrimp, crawfish,and just about every other bug you could pull from the mud of the Delta, and the are going to be gone, raising prices for all that I LOVE. Oh boy, Avery Island (Tabasco) in trouble? I hope to join a lawsuit against BP, bringing me millions for denying me my favorite foods, or war against (B)ritain (P)etrolium (BP) if Avery Island is in trouble.
Originally Posted By A Happy Haunt news reports 1/5 of US seafood/shell fish come from this area This is an environmental disgrace! <<but it's nuts that Obama is already being blamed>> gotta point the finger at someone...sad
Originally Posted By skinnerbox No one knows when the oil will stop pouring out of the well, or if it can ever be plugged and stopped completely. The Gulf Coast habitat and ecosystem are now permanently destroyed. The muddy bottom marshlands will soak up the oil like a sponge and die. D-I-E. This area will never recover in my lifetime. Drilling off the coast for only 30% of our oil supply. We can achieve that number through conservation. Alternative energy sources reduces oil consumption even further. And before anyone uses the argument about creating jobs with offshoring drilling, think about the tens of thousands of workers in the shrimp and oyster industry, the fishing industry, and the tourism industry along the Gulf Coast that will now have to find new careers where none really exist. For every individual working in the US offshore drilling industry, at least 20 or more in those other industries will lose their jobs because of this catastrophe. Stick that in your catalytic converter and smoke it.
Originally Posted By WilliamK99 but it's nuts that Obama is already being blamed. Primarily for not acting fast enough,<< It took longer for those to attack Obama than it took for those to blame President Bush for the Katrina response....
Originally Posted By skinnerbox If it actually took longer, which I have reservations about, it's only because everyone was hyperfocused on the AZ immigration law three-ring media circus that was already underway. The airwaves were overflowing with non-stop coverage of the AZ mess. The Gulf oil disaster flew pretty much under the radar for the first few days. And FWIW... I refuse to call it an "oil spill" because it's not really a spill. This is an uncapped oil well pouring its guts out. Spill implies an end to the mess, a finite supply of crude. This unfortunately has no foreseeable end in sight.
Originally Posted By gadzuux It's the "drill baby drill" crowd that's fingerpointing at Obama. Who's going to listen to them? And skinner's right about the marshlands being much more sensitive than the rocky shores of Prince William Sound after the Exxon Valdez spill. This is an environmental calamity.
Originally Posted By leobloom And Fox News can still find people to defend drilling in the Gulf. Anyone, at this point, who can defend that practice is either clueless, unethical, or willfully ignorant. I go to the Gulf in the Florida Panhandle quite often, and it makes me sick to think about the prospect for the beaches and tidal marshes in that area. I'm surprised this story hasn't gotten more coverage, but perhaps I shouldn't be. This country, for all its B.S. greenwashing, is committed to destroying the environment.
Originally Posted By fkurucz >This country, for all its B.S. greenwashing, is committed to destroying the environment." Now, now. We all know that what's good for big biz is good for America. Anyone who says that ain't necessarily so is just a pinko-commie.
Originally Posted By Dabob2 I heard on the news today that the spill is now the size of Puerto Rico. (!) That's mind-boggling.
Originally Posted By WilliamK99 Drilling always has it risks, but it will have to happen until America drops it's dependance on oil... Until then, we have a price to pay for our reluctance to switch to alternative power means...
Originally Posted By Kar2oonMan >>It's the "drill baby drill" crowd that's fingerpointing at Obama. << Maybe they'll update the chant to "Spill, baby, spill."
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Originally Posted By FaMulan It could very well be karma, X. But what is most angering is what SGV said about supposed 'fail-safe' mechanisms not working. Hasn't Big Oil learned anything from prior spills? Exxon Valdez, Santa Barbara, etc.? The Oceans are such a varied and delicate habitat and humans are the most adept at harming them.
Originally Posted By mousermerf Thought: The 1979 spill from the Ixtoc 1 off the coast of Texas was a larger spill and continued to spill from the broken well (same situation) for 295 days. The total spill was about 140 million gallons of crude, or more than 3 million barrels. At the current rate of the discharge from the Deepwater Horizon well it would take 9 years to have the same output. This, quite simply, is not the worst. The Gulf survived before and it'll survive again. I'm not saying we shouldn't work to fix it, but we don't need to be overly dramatic either.
Originally Posted By WilliamK99 I'm not saying we shouldn't work to fix it, but we don't need to be overly dramatic either. << Overly Dramatic is the call sign of the Internet Age...
Originally Posted By mousermerf They way people are talking you'd expect there to be beached whales covered in oil showing up in New Orleans in droves and crying out for help before gasping their final breath to squeak out "Obama - how dare you drill!" then die.
Originally Posted By leobloom >> The 1979 spill from the Ixtoc 1 off the coast of Texas was a larger spill and continued to spill from the broken well (same situation) for 295 days. The total spill was about 140 million gallons of crude, or more than 3 million barrels. << Serious question: Did that spill enter the Gulf Stream as this one is expected to do?
Originally Posted By ecdc >>This, quite simply, is not the worst. The Gulf survived before and it'll survive again. I'm not saying we shouldn't work to fix it, but we don't need to be overly dramatic either.<< Except the size of the output is not necessarily proportional to the impact on the environment. As this article details (and several others, if one only looks), this has the potential to be far more devastating given it's proximity to the coastline, the oil-type, which mixes easily with the water and is extremely difficult to clean up or burn off, etc. Experts seem to agree that this is a perfect storm of disaster. <a href="http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/business/deepwaterhorizon/6976966.html" target="_blank">http://www.chron.com/disp/stor...966.html</a>
Originally Posted By plpeters70 <<Overly Dramatic is the call sign of the Internet Age...>> I doubt you would be saying that if YOUR living was based on being able to fish those waters. You might be getting pretty "dramatic" if the oil was keeping YOU from feeding your family. <<Experts seem to agree that this is a perfect storm of disaster.>> Experts? Meh - who ever wants to listen to those. Why let facts get in the way of BP making more money!
Originally Posted By mousermerf It's depends on the experts - so far the experts the papers are citing say the slick will majorly impact dolphins. On the contrary, the Area Contingency Plan(s) for West Florida make a point of saying those species are excluded from environmental impact determinations along with alligators due to the minimal negative impact from the oil on them.
