This Oil Spill Is Now A Tragedy Of Epic Proportions

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BlazerWookee said:
Look at the bright side. Al Gore says the oceans will dry up, then we won't have to drill through all that water.
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And having an SUV will be awesome for driving over the new rough terrain.
 
Regardless of whether or not we should be drilling offshore (I think we should be maximizing our drilling efforts), the efforts to clean it up are going to be a textbook on what not to do. From here on out, the answer should be that all hands are on deck when it comes to the cleanup--BP, the Federal Government, the Coast Guard, the state National Guards, fishing vessels, etc. Also, every single option should be executed--dropping hay to absorb the oil, dropping dispersants, skimming oil and seawater into tankers, capping the well, pumping excess oil into tankers, building seawall barriers, etc. Rather than one big fix, execute a number of small ones and see which ones work. Don't worry about where the ideas came from or whose in charge.
 
Denny Crane said:
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.
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That's cause you haven't been paying attention.

Browner said they have conducted more than 80 burns, which she says have been "highly successful" in corralling and burning off the oil. The controlled burning is dependent on weather conditions, Browner said.
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link

barfo
 
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/storie...ME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2010-05-31-17-11-56

At least 20 million gallons of oil and possibly 43 million gallons have spilled since the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig exploded and sank in April.

That has far eclipsed the 11 million gallons released during the Exxon Valdez spill off Alaska's coast in 1989.
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The Gulf's largest spill was in 1979, when the Ixtoc I platform off Mexico's Yucatan peninsula blew up and released 140 million gallons of oil. But that was in relatively shallow waters - about 160 feet deep - and much of the oil stayed on the surface where it broke down and became less toxic by the time it reached the Texas coast
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Perhaps this has been played by the media to hype.

and an interesting, for what it's worth point

Significant amounts of crude oil seep naturally from thousands of small rifts in the Gulf's floor - as much as two Exxon Valdez spills every year, according to a 2000 report from government and academic researchers. Microbes that live in the water break down the oil.

The number of microbes that grow in response to the more concentrated BP spill could tip that system out of balance, LSU oceanographer Mark Benfield said.
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I see a trend.

ce7t-djbl0-64otr-jfaqa.gif
 
I don't like a ton of things the Prez has done, but I don't really fault him much for this one. That said, why did he do in mid-April to get a 4% spike?!?
 
BrianFromWA said:
I don't like a ton of things the Prez has done, but I don't really fault him much for this one. That said, why did he do in mid-April to get a 4% spike?!?
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Threatened a government takeover of yet another humongous chunk of the US Economy?
 
Denny Crane said:
I see a trend.

ce7t-djbl0-64otr-jfaqa.gif
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It's really tough when Obama's losing his base. Who's next... barfo?

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5ghGthxqnYMWcICCnEkjH5ayqPamQD9G38G8O0

Fidel Castro claims Obama lives in fantasy world
By WILL WEISSERT (AP) – 2 days ago

HAVANA — Fidel Castro speculated Wednesday that a nuclear strike on Iran might help President Barack Obama win a second term in the White House and also suggested the United States could attack North Korea.

The former leader of Cuba, who has not been seen in public for nearly four years, also portrayed the U.S. president as a victim of fantasies planted in his mind by sinister advisers.

The column published by Cuban state media floated the idea that a nuclear attack on Iran — perhaps even without U.S. authorization — might help Obama win re-election in 2012.

"Could Obama enjoy the emotions of a second presidential election without having the Pentagon or the State of Israel, whose conduct does not in the least obey the decisions of the United States, use nuclear weapons against Iran?" he asked. "How would life on our planet be after that?"

It's a question he did not answer, nor did he elaborate.

Castro also referred to "the current danger North Korea could be attacked by the United States" because of "the recent incident that happened in that country's waters" — apparently a reference to allegations that North Korea attacked and sank a South Korean warship, killing 46 sailors.

Castro, 83, said China might be able to block such an attack by using its veto in the U.N. Security Council, implying that Washington was likely to seek that body's authorization before a move against North Korea.

The government of North Korea has denied involvement in the torpedo attack near the countries' sea border in March. During a visit to Seoul last month, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said the North should face international consequences for the sinking.

Castro often has praised Obama in recent years, but painted him as a pawn of the global capitalist machine on Wednesday.

"President Obama can give hundreds of speeches, trying to reconcile contradictions that are irreconcilable ... dreaming of the magic of his well-articulated phrases," he wrote.

But Castro said Obama "makes concessions to personalities and groups totally lacking in ethics and draws fantasy worlds that only fit in his head and that unscrupulous advisers, knowing his tendencies, plant in his mind."
 
Obama won't get Castro's vote? That's gratitude for you, after Obama opened up voting in US elections to citizens of all other nations.
 
I'm still trying to think of a single thing Obama could say or do that would make this situation better. Not because he's inept, ineffectual, etc., but because it's not in any government agency's wheelhouse to stop the flow of an underwater oil gusher. It's kind of outside even the 99% coverage of corner cases. It's not like he's holding back hundreds of Governmental Oil Spill Experts from helping.

I don't know why some blame Obama for trusting big business to take care of its own troubles without interference from the big bad government. Now, imagine that the oil spill is a financial crisis, and BP is a bank... :D
 
BTW, I love Castro's statement there. Boiled down, I read it as: "Sorry you're so idealistic, son, but in AMERICA it takes a war monger to win an election. Better find a new country to declare war on to get the jingoistic masses in a froth of enthusiam."
 
I was going to ask why no one's brought up the news yet that a cap it significantly decreasing the amount of oil escaping from the source when I saw that BP can't seem to do anything right, if you believe some media sources.

Fox News article says
A containment cap placed on the gusher near the sea floor trapped about 441,000 gallons of oil Saturday, BP spokesman Mark Proegler said, up from around 250,000 gallons of oil Friday. It's not clear how much is still escaping; an estimated 500,000 to 1 million gallons of crude is believed to be leaking daily.

BP chief executive Tony Hayward told the BBC on Sunday that he believed the cap was likely to capture "the majority, probably the vast majority" of the oil gushing from the well. The gradual increase in the amount being captured is deliberate, in an effort to prevent water from getting inside and forming a frozen slush that foiled a previous containment attempt.
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Then I read this report that says it failed to work, because it only got 42000 gallons on Thursday
When the BP oil cap was applied on Thursday, coast guards and representatives from BP were stating that it was preventing roughly 42,000 gallons of oil from spilling each day, which was said to be approximately 10% of the bp oil spill. These figures were far better than those of the bp top kill method.
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So on Thursday, BP was collecting 40k gallons (out of an estimated 420,000 gallons per day leaking). Today they report that they got 250,000 gallons Saturday (using the same estimates, thats around 65%) and 441,000 gallons yesterday (Hayward's "Vast Majority") and append the title "Cap fails to prevent oil spill". Kind of sad, actually.
 
During Carter's presidency, they counted the days of the hostage crisis in Iran. These days, they count the days of the oil spill uncontrolled.

Meanwhile Obama hangs with Sir Paul and attends lavish parties a couple of times a week.

Tone deaf.
 
You know, the "busy schedule" that has room for 879 days down on the ranch - which, if you're into arithmetic, works out to around 30 percent of eight years.

Maybe Bush's legacy will be "the 70 percent solution."
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Put Obama in some diver gear and get to work!
 
BlazerWookee said:
I wonder how long that photographer spent framing and focusing that picture while that poor bird flopped around in agony. Ten bucks says he left the bird to die.
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That's no bird, that is a baby wookee . . . thought you would have known that. :D
 
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