BP spill is already far larger than the 1989 Exxon Valdez (Anchorage: safe neighborhood, to buy)
Please register to participate in our discussions with 1.5 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
don't you worry. they have a solution. not only farmed salmon but genetically engineered ones to boot. why are we not happy, gosh darn these corporations are our friends! (sarcasm button off but ready)
From that cite: "10 miles long, 3 miles wide and 300 feet thick" is the largest underwater oil plume, of many, that they have found so far.
Apparently, for those who don't grasp it, that isn't sarcasm and in effect the sky is indeed falling. Even if that is only 25% oil, it's still more oil than the Exxon Valdez had on board, never mind what it spilled.
A little oil here, a little oil there... next thing you know Starlite9 will end up with oil on his Chef Salad, and then it suddenly will be a big deal.
Wow, spoken on May 15, and now it is 6 weeks later. I wonder what it is now?
"They" don't get it. It's dangerous to fix a leaking ship. "They don't get that anything other than corporate sponsorship of daily life is to hazardous. Perhaps they are correct. Without oil I would not be typing on the computer keyboard. The culture global and local is linked (hooked) into a dying dependence on a non renewable resource. Oil will disappear. It will not be reproduced. End of game. However now, to change the direction e.g. prosecute BP would be counter to the interests of the way the "system" works is greased and is glued. Nothing to smirk at, as there are real bad people in the world (dying) to get us and others of free will. So we are stuck with this horrendous disaster and the possibility that it may occur in BP's next project here in the Arctic. Permits are signed, promises are made and gifts have been exchanged. Until it runs out, we IMO are stuck with these tragic events and compromises. That said, a real protest against BP here could slow down or stop the risky drilling here. The way WE win that is to make it so costly for them that the return is not worth it.........=)
That said, a real protest against BP here could slow down or stop the risky drilling here. The way WE win that is to make it so costly for them that the return is not worth it.........=)
BP, meanwhile, remains a heavy supplier of military fuel under contracts worth at least $980 million in the current fiscal year, according to the Defense Logistics Agency. In fiscal 2009, BP was the Pentagon's largest single supplier of fuel, providing 11.7 percent of the total purchased, and in 2010, its contracts amount to roughly the same percentage, according to DLA spokeswoman Mimi Schirmacher.
The news media and President Obama is now doing more damage than BP at this point. The oil is showing up on "some" beaches not "all", and it is just as I described earlier, the solvents are gone and all that is left rolling in the surf is tarballs which are the last stages of deterioration (wax paraffins and asphalt), which when dry out, are like rocks. The stuff under the beach sand is from the stuff just washing up on the beach and then the tide and waves roll sand over the top of it where it is inert and harms nothing until it is gone.
The oil "Plumes" are now being eaten by bacteria that naturally eats it, but now the screams are that the Oxygen is being depleted... Well Duh, that is what the Plankton and other sea vegetation uses to breath, Carbon Dioxide which they turn back into Oxygen and then the bacteria will grow faster, eating more oil and so forth. The fact that oil is 100% biodegradable is totally ignored by many here, but when in fact it starts to biodegrade by the bacteria that eats it in the water table, it is now causing another disaster, using up the "Oxygen", which is normal. Oil has been coming up from the ocean floors for thousands of years and will do so long after we have come up with another energy source or are gone.
The fact that the oil stoppage by Obama and the false news reporting of the extent of the spill is killing jobs of those that work in or live off of the oil industry, some 40,000 jobs in LA alone. Then the "Sky is Falling" news has scared off the tourist that were going to go and enjoy the area, not even the beaches, but are now going elsewhere. Most of the oil will never see landfall, it will stay at sea and decompose though a number of process, evaporation, wave action and bacteria that eats it.
The news media is now trying to backtrack and get people to come down because it is now "Not all that bad", well it never was that bad.
Our skimmer is stationed on the Mississippi Delta and has nothing to do but sit, there is no oil anywhere, no tarballs or sheens. The only oil around is in the Skimmer's fuel tanks. There is oiled birds, but they number in the dozens, not the tens of thousands that were affected in the EXXON Valdez spill, but still the cameras focus on one bird and it's tragedy with of course is sad and that is why they do it on the evening news...ratings.
The oil leak needs to be stopped ASAP, but this constant blather about the end of the world crap is just that, by the banter of people that are clueless. BP will be here long after this spill, just as EXXON was after it's spill and yet the same folks are running in circles still screaming that BP should be shut down... Then they go and fill up their car/truck/boat and drive off, totally clueless where their gas comes from.
Ha, you should see some of the forums in the Florida area. Its called Florida is doomed. You wanna talk about some kooky propaganda.... Everything from a ginormous methane explosion from under the seabed is going to cause a huge tsunami on all the gulf states shores and the methane gas will kill millions by depleting them of oxygen. Stories that all Exxon Valdez Spill responders are dead, we're going to be swimming in oil forever.... it goes on and on. Crazy people..... and I am moving there to be surrounded by them. HAHA
Some clarification of the extent of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill and the extent of the potential damage that can still be inflicted is in order. Using the Gulf of Mexico as the area that can still be sullied by the present spill, as it exists today, shows the following: Presently at least 700 miles of shore line (which includes both beaches and marshlands) from Texas to the Panhandle of Florida has already been oiled to some extent. The total length of US coast line that could be oiled using only the oil that is already in the Gulf including both sides of the Florida Keys is in excess of 1900 miles. That means approximately one third of the potential damage is already done. The Gulf has a partial circular current which can circulate water around in a circle and a portion of that current can reach the so called Loop Current which can carry the oil to the eastern Seaboard past the North Carolina Coastline. In addition to the US Coastline there is about 1200 miles of Mexico and 350 miles of Northern Cuba bordering the Gulf which means there is a total of about 3500 miles of Gulf of Mexico Coastline that has the potential to be oiled by the present amount of oil in the Gulf. As BP has frequently said “It has never been done at this depth before” so not being a betting man I’d suggest the odds of failure are greater than two to one that we’ll see another BP failure or maybe only a partial success in capping the DWH.
Then there is the future to contend with. There are more than 27,000 closed or abandoned oil wells in the waters of the Gulf of Mexico. Some of these wells date back to the 1940s and many were closed due to the oil being depleted below what was profitable to be pumped out economically. I know a woman who made a fortune buying old wells in the Eastern United States and applying technology to bring them back to a low production rate. She told me years ago a greedy person pumped as much as possible as quick as possible and when the rate of production fell off they went elsewhere. She bought these wells on the cheap and made a good living off the low production rate she was able to maintain by pumping at lower capacity. In the Gulf some of these wells were closed for that reason, some were shut down because there was’t very much oil available or possibly there was no oil, and some were shut down with hopes someday the price would permit oil to be pumped from them. Now one thing all of this Drill Baby Drill has taught us is Oil Companies are less than good stewards of OUR Environment so how many of these were closed using the best available technology? Are any of these 30,000 active and closed wells leaking? How are we going to know since no one is inspecting them to see if they are? Put yourself in BP’s shoes. Ask how much would you spend closing off a well that was’t going to make you billions of Dollars? Ask if it could be done on the cheap and would BP, or others, use a cheap way of doing it if it could save millions?
And when one speaks to the biodegradability of oil it comes down to what remains at various points in that process and when is that process complete? Is it when you don’t see it on the surface? Or perhaps it’s when the population of organisms has recovered from the ill effects of being bathed in oil? We already know the Herring catch in PWS hasn’t recovered after 20+ years but what else don’t we know about that hasn’t recovered? How much of the population of organisms can we afford to lose over time before we become the next candidate in that line to start the cycle toward our eventual demise? In the Spring I asked if they had any old pictures of the La Brea Tar Pits showing the environment around the area when photography was first developed? They didn’t have any but even the earliest accounts mention the overwhelming odor that always permeated the nearby area and how many miles downwind the odor was discernable? How much degradation is necessary before an area is restored to pristine? Can it ever be considered pristine again? Maybe it is just in our lifetimes? Or is it in geologic time that things become pristine after such an insult? How much damage to your environment are you willing to accept? What about the environment you’re leaving to your children? Is there a limit for all of us? Think about it what did your grandparents leave to you? And when was it the first oil wells were drilled?
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $53,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 1.5 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
