This Oil Spill Is Now A Tragedy Of Epic Proportions

[ABM]

Who's gonna save us from this monster?!?

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100530/ap_on_bi_ge/us_gulf_oil_spill

 

[SlyPokerDog]

Is now?

 

[ABM]

Is now?

Prior to this point, I had a reasonable amount of internal assurance that they would get the hole plugged without "too" much damage. Now, I'm left wondering if this will end up being one of the greatest catastrophes man has ever known.

 

[SlyPokerDog]

I'm doing my part, I've decided to only eat tuna packed in oil.

 

[Minstrel]

I'm doing my part, I've decided to only eat tuna packed in oil.

Soon all tuna will come pre-packed with oil, straight out of the sea. What an age we live in!

 

[theprunetang]

Drill Baby Drill! Drill Baby Drill!

How is that chant ringing now?

 

[BLAZER PROPHET]

It's a very sad time as this will have an effect on the eco system of a major part of the earth for decades.

BTW, anyone holding stock in BP oil should sell while the selling's good.

Lastly, notice that when anything happens worldwide, like a poor apricot season in Uruguay..., they raise the price of gas as it somehow effects oil? Well, I note that those SOB oil companies aren't singing that tune right now- and they had better not start.

 

[Blazerfan22]

Yea now there saying till august we "may" be able to stop it! WTF!!! Im surprised there is not more public outcry over this because this is huge. Its killing jobs, animals, our water, they will raise oil prices because of this, and all the ceo of BP can say is "We could have been more prepared"...Ya Think!

I love the other oil CEO's already getting worried this may cut into there profits by them getting cut off from drilling. Spill shouldn't halt drilling, Chevron CEO says

 

[Eastoff]

Yea now there saying till august we "may" be able to stop it! WTF!!! Im surprised there is not more public outcry over this because this is huge. Its killing jobs, animals, our water, they will raise oil prices because of this, and all the ceo of BP can say is "We could have been more prepared"...Ya Think!

I love the other oil CEO's already getting worried this may cut into there profits by them getting cut off from drilling. Spill shouldn't halt drilling, Chevron CEO says

Sadly, the administration is still handing out new permits for off shore drilling despite their apparent lie about a moratorium on it.

I think it was kind of clear to start that all these ideas would be good if they work, but you'll note they always prefaced them with "never been tried at this depth before". If there is some kind of hope, it would be from maybe the navy. And no offense, but I doubt they are that much more skilled/knowledgeable than private industry on this subject.

 

[¹²³]

[video=youtube;vpXM9bj-WPU]

 

[TradeNurkicNow]

There are other places to get shrimp.

 

[SlyPokerDog]

There are other places to get shrimp.

Not if you want shrimp packed in oil.

 

[Master Shake]

Oil Shrimp is the shit. Seafood is gonna be fucked for a while Damn, it's so good though

 

[EL PRESIDENTE]

anyone else not really give a shit about this oil spill?

????

i mean, it sucked it happens...just seems not that major..even though people are saying it is. who knows...maybe because there's no tanker, its just a hole in the ocean floor....seems kind of wack.

 

[BrianFromWA]

it's not that I don't give a shit, but I find it odd that people are making this sound like the worst thing that's ever happened. Some are reporting that the amount of oil spilled is reaching Exxon Valdez proportions--which sucks. But the Valdez was the 35th-worst spill since 1967 worldwide...about 1/10th the size of the top few. So it's not like Earth has been trashed like this only once before and we need to regulate and shut down an energy industry b/c of this. (Haven't we learned our lessons from the nuclear industry?!?)
http://www.itopf.com/information-services/data-and-statistics/statistics/
Please, let's get this cleaned up as soon as possible. Please, let's levy fines/penalties against people and companies who neglect their jobs and cause damage to the environment. Don't knee-jerk this and say that "drilling is bad" or that "we have to stop using oil...for the Earth's Sake!" b/c much, much worse spills have happened and the earth's survived so far.

 

[Minstrel]

it's not that I don't give a shit, but I find it odd that people are making this sound like the worst thing that's ever happened. Some are reporting that the amount of oil spilled is reaching Exxon Valdez proportions--which sucks. But the Valdez was the 35th-worst spill since 1967 worldwide...about 1/10th the size of the top few.

The Exxon Valdez was carrying a fixed amount of oil. This is approaching the scope of the Valdez....and is still growing. When a disaster has already attained Valdez status and still has a ton of upside, it's a contender for the Hall of Fame of disasters, even if it likely won't reach GOAT status.

 

[barfo]

it's not that I don't give a shit, but I find it odd that people are making this sound like the worst thing that's ever happened. Some are reporting that the amount of oil spilled is reaching Exxon Valdez proportions--which sucks. But the Valdez was the 35th-worst spill since 1967 worldwide...about 1/10th the size of the top few. So it's not like Earth has been trashed like this only once before and we need to regulate and shut down an energy industry b/c of this. (Haven't we learned our lessons from the nuclear industry?!?)
http://www.itopf.com/information-services/data-and-statistics/statistics/
Please, let's get this cleaned up as soon as possible. Please, let's levy fines/penalties against people and companies who neglect their jobs and cause damage to the environment. Don't knee-jerk this and say that "drilling is bad" or that "we have to stop using oil...for the Earth's Sake!" b/c much, much worse spills have happened and the earth's survived so far.

Current estimates are 2-3 times larger than Valdez, to date. And projected to go on flowing for another couple of months.

The preliminary best estimate that was released on May 27 by the semi-official Flow Rate Technical Group put the volume of oil flowing from the blown-out well at 12,000 to 19,000 barrels (500,000 to 800,000 US gallons; 1,900,000 to 3,000,000 litres) per day, which had amounted to between 440,000 and 700,000 barrels (18,000,000 and 29,000,000 US gallons; 70,000,000 and 111,000,000 litres) as of that date.

The Exxon Valdez oil spill occurred in Prince William Sound, Alaska, on March 24, 1989, when the Exxon Valdez, an oil tanker bound for Long Beach, California, hit Prince William Sound's Bligh Reef and spilled an estimated minimum 10.8 million US gallons (40.9 million litres, or 250,000 barrels) of crude oil.

From your link:

A number of these incidents, despite their large size, caused little or no environmental damage as the oil was spilt some distance offshore and did not impact coastlines.

I'm not sure I buy the 'no evironmental damage' angle - even the deep ocean has critters living in it - but it is certainly true that dumping oil in shallow water near the coast is a lot more harmful than dumping it in deep water. It matters a lot where you spill it - it isn't just the amount.

And of course, it is perfectly natural for Americans to care more about what happens off their coast than what happens off the coast of Angola.

So let's not minimize it, or pretend like this isn't an industry that just proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that it needs more regulation.

barfo

 

[BrianFromWA]

If it looks like I'm minimizing it, it's only b/c it seems as if those talking about this in the government, media and on here ARE (in Minstrel's terms) assigning GOAT status to this. ONCE AGAIN, I'm not saying this isn't bad, and I'm not saying that there doesn't need to be regulation. What I'm saying is that it doesn't need the type of knee-jerk regulation that the nuclear industry went through after 3-Mile Island, which crippled an energy sector that didn't have to be crippled and led in a small way to our reliance on oil today, fueled by hyperbole (GOAT! ) Dead Shrimp!
It's perfectly hypocritical for Americans to not care about this until the oil hits their beaches, cuz Fuck Angola, right?

 

[SlyPokerDog]

If it looks like I'm minimizing it, it's only b/c it seems as if those talking about this in the government, media and on here ARE (in Minstrel's terms) assigning GOAT status to this. ONCE AGAIN, I'm not saying this isn't bad, and I'm not saying that there doesn't need to be regulation. What I'm saying is that it doesn't need the type of knee-jerk regulation that the nuclear industry went through after 3-Mile Island, which crippled an energy sector that didn't have to be crippled and led in a small way to our reliance on oil today, fueled by hyperbole (GOAT! ) Dead Shrimp!
It's perfectly hypocritical for Americans to not care about this until the oil hits their beaches, cuz Fuck Angola, right?

Sorry but your nuke stuff is BS. No nuke plant in the USA has ever made a profit. The designs of those plants were not good, not efficient and not safe. Hell we still don't know what to do with the waste. Nuke power is very different today. The pellet design of plant is far superior. Combining a modern design nuclear plant with a coal liquefaction plant would be better yet. While building nuke plants today makes a lot of sense the nuke industry of yesteryear didn't crap out because of too much regulation. It just sucked ass.

 

[BrianFromWA]

We have plenty of options for the waste. Unfortunately, due to the nature of the same government you want to regulate oil drilling and the like, the best options have all been disregarded not b/c of engineering trade studies or ground effects or anything technical, but b/c of stupidity of politicians and their constituents. So forgive me if I don't think.

And I hate to tell you this, but the Navy has somewhere on the order of 80 nuclear plants running pretty damn safely today. And has had them for 50 years. Tell me why we haven't built a modern nuclear design plant (combined with coal liquefication or not) in 30 years, if not for regulation at the local, state and federal levels barring plants being built since 1977 and canceling the ones on order?

If the nuke plants of yesteryear sucked ass so badly, how come we're still using the same 104 authorized before 1977 to fuel 20% of the nation's power? Answer...the designs were ok, but the maintenance wasn't keeping them running. Improved maintenance standards changed that in the 80's. Did they switch from operating at a loss to all of a sudden being profitable? Well, yes...amazingly enough after deregulation (again with that government intervention stuff!) nuclear power companies starting purchasing plants left and right from utilities, and reducing operational cost to the point that nuclear power is 32% cheaper than coal and 75% cheaper than gas. All on 40-year-old "suck ass" reactors. But maybe that's just BS.

 

[barfo]

If it looks like I'm minimizing it, it's only b/c it seems as if those talking about this in the government, media and on here ARE (in Minstrel's terms) assigning GOAT status to this.

Well, of course. Hell, every time it snows here it is THE STORM OF THE CENTURY.

ONCE AGAIN, I'm not saying this isn't bad, and I'm not saying that there doesn't need to be regulation. What I'm saying is that it doesn't need the type of knee-jerk regulation that the nuclear industry went through after 3-Mile Island, which crippled an energy sector that didn't have to be crippled and led in a small way to our reliance on oil today, fueled by hyperbole (GOAT! ) Dead Shrimp!

Well, if industry doesn't want to be regulated, there's a real simple solution: stop fucking up!

It's perfectly hypocritical for Americans to not care about this until the oil hits their beaches, cuz Fuck Angola, right?

not sure exactly what you were meaning to say there, but it isn't realistic to expect most people to care more about what happens on the other side of the globe as compared to what happens at home. The impact on American lives, and our economy, from this spill is going to be much larger than the impact from a similar spill in Angola.

barfo

 

[BrianFromWA]

But it's not being couched (as much) in terms of "impact on lives and economy"--I wish it would. Instead it's being held up as "GLOBAL ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT", when in reality it's localized, and nowhere near as large or deadly as some other spills around the world. But now it's being held up as the poster child for why the government needs to crack down on Big Bad Oil.

Want to enforce stringent testing and maintenance requirements for drills? No Problem.
Want to make sure that heavy penalties are levied for even minor infractions? I'm all for that.
Want to set up Federal Park areas in our most fragile ecological areas? Let's do it.
Want to let the Government use this to show that oil = environmental disaster if not stopped? Not so much on board with that one.

 

[Blazerfan22]

Beyond Louisiana

* Short term: The spill has hit Louisiana the hardest. But that could change very soon. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s 72-hour trajectory forecast has the spill moving oil towards the Mississippi Delta. Oil also may move north to the barrier islands off Mississippi and Alabama beyond the forecast period.
* Long-term: Consider another two months of up to 19,000 barrels of oil gushing into the Gulf every day. The Gulf coast would no longer be the only victim. The worst-case scenario would mean oil dragged into the Loop Current, which would deliver the crude to the Florida Keys. From there, oil can move south and enter the Gulf Stream, a powerful ocean superhighway that carries warm water up the eastern seaboard. Florida’s east coast, the coral reefs in the Keys, northern Cuba, the Carolinas and Virginia would be at risk.

http://industry.bnet.com/energy/10004661/the-gulf-oil-spill-worst-case-scenario/

Obama did stop drilling for now in some spots...

The oil spill has already caused President Obama to extend a moratorium on deepwater exploratory drilling in the Gulf, cancel a lease sale in Virginia and delay exploration offshore Alaska. But there are other ways to hurt the offshore oil and gas industry.

Read the whole article! Give you some perception on how big this really can become and is heading that way.

 

[Minstrel]

But it's not being couched (as much) in terms of "impact on lives and economy"--I wish it would. Instead it's being held up as "GLOBAL ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT", when in reality it's localized

I haven't really seen it being mostly discussed as "global environmental impact" (though there is some impact to the globe, as the Angola spill had). I see more of the consternation being about the effects on people. Even your sarcastic "Dead shrimp!" points to that. That "dead shrimp" thing is about Louisiana shrimpers' livelihood being destroyed for the foreseeable future. So if your problem with the coverage is that not enough attention is being paid to local effect on lives and economy, it's odd that you would mock that particular thing.

 

[TradeNurkicNow]

anyone else not really give a shit about this oil spill?

I'm guessing you could find 100 people before lunchtime in L.A. that don't give a shit.

 

[Colonel Ronan]

I still can't believe people are just letting this happen.

 

[Blazerfan22]

U.S. launches criminal probe of BP spill
Oil found along Miss., Ala. shorelines; fishing ban widened
Attorney General Eric Holder said Tuesday that federal authorities have opened criminal and civil investigations into the Deepwater Horizon explosion and oil spill.

The Coast Guard, for its part, said Tuesday that oil was reported reaching Mississippi and Alabama shorelines. That came after officials widened the region under surveillance to include those states and expanded the no-fishing area to include parts of Florida and Alabama.

Federal officials on Tuesday also expanded the no-fishing area to 75,920 square miles, or 31 percent of all federal waters in the Gulf. That was a five percentage point increase over Monday.

Link

Looks like its moving faster than anticipated. This is some serious stuff going on.

 

[Denny Crane]

When it starts affecting the polar bears, people will care more. When it hits the glaciers in the arctic, it'll surely cause them to melt and all the coastal cities will be under 100 ft of water.

But seriously, I'm really starting to think this is another case of "let's not let a good crisis go to waste." For decades, they've had technology like soap or burning the oil to deal with spills. I don't see any of that going on here.

https://ceprofs.civil.tamu.edu/rhann/links/tools.asp

 

[ABM]

For decades, they've had technology like soap or burning the oil to deal with spills.

No way. Those would have detrimental environmental ramifications.

 

[BlazerWookee]

Sorry but your nuke stuff is BS. No nuke plant in the USA has ever made a profit. The designs of those plants were not good, not efficient and not safe. Hell we still don't know what to do with the waste. Nuke power is very different today. The pellet design of plant is far superior. Combining a modern design nuclear plant with a coal liquefaction plant would be better yet. While building nuke plants today makes a lot of sense the nuke industry of yesteryear didn't crap out because of too much regulation. It just sucked ass.

It sucked ass because Nate is a one-dimensional coach with an unhealthy ISO(tope) fixation...