Oil Leak

[whateverman42]

I didn't see a thread, sorry if this is already being discussed somewhere. What do you make of this? Who's to blame, do you think it'll get stopped? I don't get why it looks like nothings being done. Why don't they have skimmers accumulating the stuff that's already gushed? They have this Dutch technology to do just that, but it'll take time to implement, and if it goes in it would be over 60 days since it started. I tell you, this is a big big deal, very scary. It could result in an extremely toxic environment, mass evacuation by southerners northward, and possibly martial law and the abuse of powers Obama was given by Bush, which he conveniently decided to keep.

[glennjridge]

well, we wanted oil.....

[Pani]

It's a terrible desaster which makes me really angry and sad. It makes you helpless.
Who to blame for it? No punishment would make it unhappened. All the nature and
animals ...

[Hillbilly]

"Midnight Oil makes you dance.
Exxon Oil makes us sick."

Midnight Oil (1990)

[VeryMary]

Greetings from Louisiana. We're f*cked. In the long term, the BP Spoil will be worse for us than Hurricane Katrina.

[whateverman42]

There's video of the oil seeping from the sea floor. If that is really happening, wow. Could we be more screwed? A couple more months and it'll be getting into the Atlantic.

[Patrick Bateman]

Obama has looked pretty crap. What does Oprah think?

[Deschanel]

Greetings from Louisiana. We're f*cked. In the long term, the BP Spoil will be worse for us than Hurricane Katrina.

Hello dear Very Mary. As if Lousiana hasn't had enough, right? Hope you, all of you there, are trying to keep it together. In the face of such awfulness.

Who's to blame? We could start with Dick Cheney and his super-secret energy conference as soon as W took the White House. He basically told oil and energy executives, "Do whatever the f*** you want, we won't stop you."

BP took him up on this, this is far from the first catastrophe BP's shoddy safety record has caused death and environmental fouling. But it was the W that gave them the wink to not bother about safety or niceties.

To Britons: There's an awful lot of irresponsible blather and hubbub in the UK media lately , that Obama's being too punitive towards BP and there's some sort of anti-British feeling afoot in the US because of this. There is absolutely no such thing happening- Americans are quite aware that BP is a multinational, etc., but some of the British tabloids behave as if Yanks are burning Union jacks in the streets, just because Obama said "British Petroleum". This is a vicious, sensationalist lie, it's absolutely untrue. But reading some comments at even the liberal Guardian UK- wow. Unbelievably vicious anti-US hatred over this. Because they think Yanks are mad at Britain. No , no one is, it's in no way a nationalistic thing here. And if any of your pundits try to tell you differently, they are lying.

Meanwhile, the Gulf of Mexico is turning into a filthy death zone that shall remain so probably for the rest of our lives.

[glennjridge]

so...its george Bushes fault.

we are so expectant to blame ourselves for everything just to appear non judgemental ,so people might not think we dare blame them and hurt their fragile oversea's egos.the british public according to you are rushing to judge us without knowing the facts.so why is the burden on us to pooh pooh them?


like OJ not guilty for fear of inciting african american anger. you deschanel are the poster boy for a very odd almost S/M leftwing mentality.eager to take the blame rather than place guilt on the guilty party.

the blame belongs where it belongs. this british company.broke rules,lax inspections, porbably bribes, polluted and destroyed beaches and wildlife,sealife and its floating to a galaxy near you soon and its Bush and Cheney again.

not that I really blame "britain". but I dont blame george Bush either.

[VeryMary]

Hi, deschanel. You always remember me. You're right on in you analysis about the blame. The immediate blame goes to the BP engineers who cut corners to save money and let this happen. Yesterday some of their emails were made public, revealing that that is exactly what happened. These emails should feature prominently in the hearings to take place this week on the spill. But glennridge, additional blame also goes to the US federal government agencies (MMS) that looked the other way and let oil companies have their way for decades. But you know what? the powers that be can play the blame game all they want. I'm more interested in stopping the bleeding. We are dying down here.

I also find the British press reaction to this worrying. Today I heard of one story in the Daily Mail paper that seeks to downplay the economic damages to the people in the region who make their living off the Gulf waters. The writer uses the fact that she witnessed some fishermen drinking in a local bar to claim that they can't be that hurt for money if they can buy beer. Give me a break.

This kind of reaction is not warranted. I am here in New Orleans. I have the TV/radio/internet tuned to news coverage and commentary on this disaster all freakin day. I can say with 100% certainty that there is little or no anti-British sentiment in this, at least not locally. I've heard a few playful reference--beating back the Brits at the mouth of the Mississippi river in the Battle of New Orleans in 1812, wanting the US to beat Britain at the World Cup to avenge the spill--but believe me, we understand where the blame lies. All we want is for BP to pay for what it is doing to the Gulf Coast. The fact is, paying for this will affect BP's stock and that in turn affects BP's shareholders and the British pensioners and so on down the line. We get it. We hope BP has enough assets and resources to meet all of its responsibilities to everyone it owes, here and in the UK. I don't want to see BP go bust. I do want them to pay for the damage to and restoration of the Gulf coast and the people affected. hat could take a decade. And I want the people directly responsible for the explosion charged with crimes. If the emails are any indication, the engineers who signed off on the cost-cutting knew they were risking the well.

When I got up this morning and went outside for the newspaper, I could smell the oil again. You don't smell it all the time here in New Orleans, because we are about 80 miles or so from the Gulf, but there are days when you smell it and it's sickening. This whole area is in a funk. lots of people were just getting back on their feet after the hurricanes of 2005, believe it or not. And now they are wiped out by a different kind of catastrophe. WE are just beat down and tired and angry as hell, but we're not angry at the British, just at British Petroleum.

ETA: Found this just after I posted:
http://www.nola.com/news/gulf-oil-spill ... and_i.html

[Dipso]

The Daily Mail is a right-wing tabloid that twists the truth. I wouldn't worry too much about its reports, Mary - no one would accuse it of being unbiased! As it understand it, there may be financial ramifications for many British pensioners because of this BP mess, hence the somewhat anti-American feeling in papers like the Mail. As BP is the UK's largest company, many pension funds are heavily reliant on BP's share price.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/pers ... ected.html

The press always looks for someone to blame. Obviously, they should be blaming BP. Some segments of the UK press reacted badly to President Obama referring to the company by its old name, British Petroleum. In reality, it is a multinational. Additionally, 39% of its shares are held by Americans, apparently.

[whateverman42]

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/37589237/ns ... _the_gulf/

Jesus H. Christ, I can't help look at the big picture, this could be worse than a dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico for a lifetime. They can't stop it. When it gets into the Atlantic, and with hurricanes and evaporation, eastern North America will become toxic. Am I being overdramatic by saying that if this continues then hundreds of millions will die? I'm not sure, its a hard thing to predict, but my god this is scary.

[whateverman42]

http://www.theoildrum.com/node/6593/648967

This is the best source I've found so far explaining what is happening, and explains why they cannot stop it.

[VeryMary]

Well, some of the oil is being caught up in the loop current in the Gulf, which will take it around Florida and feed it into the Gulf stream. That will take it up the east coast of the US and quite possibly across the Atlantic to the UK. If so, it will be weathered and diluted so much that it shouldn't be a big deal. Still I can fantasize about a billion tar balls riding the gulf stream straight to Tony Hayward's swimming pool. And maybe the editors of the Daily Mail.

Seriously, this is massive. I don't think people in other parts of the US, let alone in other parts of the world, fully appreciate the seriousness of this. Besides the obvious economic and environmental impacts on the LA and other Gulf Coast states, if you're in the US, you're going to be affected if you use any petroleum-based products whose prices go up because of the moratorium on drilling in the Gulf (gasoline, shampoo, nylon fabric, iPods, cell phones, you name it) or if you eat seafood (many species of sea life that wind up in the waters off the east coast start their life cycles in the marshes of Louisiana, like the blue fin tuna caught off of Massachusetts).

[Your Funny Uncle]

Is it too much to hope that this will kick people into understanding that the priority should be looking for alternative energy sources, not looking for oil in ever harder to reach places?