[poko]

A recent letter to the editor:

Quote

In 1968 a drilling platform struck a leak off the shores of California. For 10 days it gushed oil into our oceans and in the end it leaked 100,000 barrels of crude into the Pacific. Out of the ooze of that fiasco, and others of the late 60's, we got the EPA and the Clean Air Act. Today, we face a leak 90 times larger. For 3 months close to 100,000 barrels a day have leaked into the Gulf of Mexico and America has discovered a Federal Government more ineffectual than we've ever seen. We see evasions, cover ups, and half measures. Congress failed to raise the liability limits owed on a spill even in the wake of this disaster. Obama gives up a broken moratorium that block new platforms but doesn't stop those where drilling has already begun. This isn't the larges or deepest BP platform in the Gulf... that honor belongs to the Atlantis platform and work on that platform continues despite equally lax environmental review by the MMS. Meanwhile, BP refuses to let its clean up crews use respirators and has denied thorough testing of air quality along the shoreline, fearing bad PR and not wanting to acknowledge the dangers in the air.

Our government fears the backlash of $5 gasoline and the loss of a rich lobby suddenly funding their competitors. They often forget the strength of the largest lobby out there. You. The American people. When faced with the destruction of endless miles of marine habitat and rich fisheries you have every right to stand up. Take the words of a past president to heart, "The nation behaves well if it treats the natural resources as assets which it must turn over to the next generation increased, and not impaired in value." That's a true conservative. It is the value of our lands and the ethics of our people that have made America a world leader. It is those values which we should stand by today. We are a lobby 300 million strong. We can make our government stand up and take notice.

Write a letter. Flood their phone lines. Make a sign. Tweet. vblog. Rage.

I welcome the cold bite of reality that will come with $5 gasoline and a collapse of this unsustainable bubble of endless consumerism. Obama has said, "Make me do the right thing." Well now, make him, make us all.

U.S. exempted BP's Gulf of Mexico drilling from environmental impact study

Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill Response

'Top Kill' Fails

This post has been edited by poko: 29 May 2010 - 11:05 PM

[poko]

[ensign edwards]

Funny, I was just posting a Facebook status about this to the effect that I regretted that the BP executives will likely not face a public lynching.

More seriously, that may be a bit of an oversimplification. The blame for this cannot be placed on any one source. BP screwed up, the government screwed up, but most importantly, humanity screwed up. This is not a fluke. This is the inevitable result of the flaws of our society and our species. This is the fault of you, me, everyone. That oil in the Gulf is the embodiment of everything that is wrong with the human race. If we were not so horrifically greedy, selfish, and intransigent, we wouldn't even have to rely on oil.

That's what's most distressing about this. Not that it happened, but why it happened.

This will change nothing. We will learn nothing from this. If we were capable of exercising such sense, it would never have happened in the first place.

[poko]

ensign edwards, on 30 May 2010 - 12:09 AM, said:

Funny, I was just posting a Facebook status about this to the effect that I regretted that the BP executives will likely not face a public lynching.

More seriously, that may be a bit of an oversimplification. The blame for this cannot be placed on any one source. BP screwed up, the government screwed up, but most importantly, humanity screwed up. This is not a fluke. This is the inevitable result of the flaws of our society and our species. This is the fault of you, me, everyone. That oil in the Gulf is the embodiment of everything that is wrong with the human race. If we were not so horrifically greedy, selfish, and intransigent, we wouldn't even have to rely on oil.

That's what's most distressing about this. Not that it happened, but why it happened.

This will change nothing. We will learn nothing from this. If we were capable of exercising such sense, it would never have happened in the first place.

If you're talking about the letter to the editor it kinda does call for people to take responsibility, take action, and pay the piper.

[Shlomi of Vulcan]

Not all of this can be laid at the doorstep of BP or any other oil company, nor does it all fall into the government's aisle or those citizens around the world who insist on continuing to drive their fossil fuel cars. Those ultra-crazy left-winged uber-liberal rabid environmental groups must also take some of the blame as well. It was their radical agenda of demanding that government force oil companies to go out farther from shore where the drilling was required in deeper and more dangerous waters that made it near impossible to fix deep-drilling problems that were bound to occur one day. If this same event had taken place on land or in shallower waters nearer the shore this baby would have been capped-off within hours of the explosion with very little environmental impact.

Call me naive' but the demand for oil in this world of 6 billion people isn't about to slow down anytime soon so wouldn't it make more environmental sense to drill in areas where these kinds of accidents can be contained and fixed quicker with as little environmental destruction as possible? The oil can still be found in safer locations in vast quantities, so why the need for dangerous drilling in such deep (miles in some cases) locations within our oceans?

Yes, yes, in a perfect world we would all be living in a wind tunnel and harvesting the natural solar rays or some other just as exotic sources of energy, but for those even more naive' than myself, to think this will happen, even in the lifetimes of those now in their twenties, it is time to wake up, smell the petro and suck up the fact that the world will remain dependent on crude for a long time to come, so instead of fighting about whether or not we should drill for it, perhaps it is time to begin harvesting it from safer locations than miles deep mining shafts in our ocean floors.

That leads me to another thing that occurred since the rig exploded and the leak started gushing out that viscous poison in our gulf waters -- the government called in the Coast Guard with its booms and looked to burn-off much of the top sitting oil while it was still out far enough from the shoreline. What prevented the government from taking action that may have at least diminished some of this tragic situation? Those same environmental groups demanded a study be done first on what kind of environmental impact using the booms and burning off the oil would do. Environmental Impact? Please, a study? And who did the government listen to? Those officials in the Coast Guard, and the elected Governor of Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas, as well as those who make their livelihood from the Gulf waters? No, the government backed down because of pressure from environmentalist who wanted the study done first - which, by the way would take months. Hmmmm, I wonder what kind of environmental impact the millions of gallons of oil that has already made its way to America's pristine wetlands and Gulf beaches has and will make? Don't think we are going to need a lengthy bureaucratic study to give us that answer - we are living it.

If I may close by quoting famed liberal and Democratic pundit James Carvill - "We are dying down here!"

[poko]

Yes, this would have been infinity simpler in shallower waters. The depth, pressure, and cold make most solutions impossible but a major spill happens somewhere in the world about every 7 years and BP has a history of saying, "Oh we've learned from our mistakes, our bad, mulligan," and then changing nothing. The fact that BP sent workers from well head testing company home 11 hours before the explosion without having them to perform final (rather expensive) tests on the well walls is particularly telling. Sure hind sight is 20/20 and its easy for us to say, "Oh they should have done full testing," but with these kind of risks involved, no corners should have been cut. Not by the EPA and MMS, not by Haliburton, and not by BP. The American public didn't cut any corners, they just pay taxes and buy gas.

Oh and the reason I quoted that letter to the editor is because it quotes Teddy Roosevelt. Teddy would have no problem throwing his weight around at these companies or even at the American public if he thought it was for their own good.

This post has been edited by poko: 31 May 2010 - 02:37 AM

[poko]

And I think its a little, uh, extreme to lump all these environmental groups under a label of "ultra-crazy" considering their very fear was something like this occurring. As they say, you aren't paranoid if they're really after you.


Which isn't to say there isn't any "ultra-crazy" environmentalists, I just don't think- in wake of the reality- that being against off-shore drilling makes them so.

[Barbara]

So, has anyone volunteered to help? Anyone gone to the Greenpeace website and asked if they could get involved? Anyone taking their vacation time and using it to save a few, a very few, but a few animals, birds, fish? Anyone?

[poko]

Barbara, on 31 May 2010 - 02:51 AM, said:

So, has anyone volunteered to help? Anyone gone to the Greenpeace website and asked if they could get involved? Anyone taking their vacation time and using it to save a few, a very few, but a few animals, birds, fish? Anyone?

I made sure my hair salon was donating all hair trimmings to the clean up before I scheduled my next hair appointment but now it turns out they're not using the hair booms. Oh well.

I don't have tons of vacation time and what I have currently is already set aside for my parent's visit. I did ask them if they wanted to go scrub birds on their vacation but my mom laughed and said no.

As far as I can tell all clean up volunteers must go through BP. I hate to sound selfish but there are long term dangers associated with exposures to these chemicals and fumes, including kidney damage and liver failure. If BP is going to deny their workers basic safety measures I want no part of it. I'll stick to the Red Cross and leave this to the professionals.

[poko]

[ensign edwards]

Quote

If you're talking about the letter to the editor it kinda does call for people to take responsibility, take action, and pay the piper.

I was mostly ranting about the situation in general. And yes, I do realize that it was a call to take responsibility, but I don't think such talk will amount to much in the long run.

Quote

So, has anyone volunteered to help? Anyone gone to the Greenpeace website and asked if they could get involved? Anyone taking their vacation time and using it to save a few, a very few, but a few animals, birds, fish? Anyone?

It would be financially and physically impossible for me to get down there, so it's a moot point.

[sevnson_71]

Shlomi of Vulcan, on 31 May 2010 - 01:40 AM, said:

Not all of this can be laid at the doorstep of BP or any other oil company, nor does it all fall into the government's aisle or those citizens around the world who insist on continuing to drive their fossil fuel cars. Those ultra-crazy left-winged uber-liberal rabid environmental groups must also take some of the blame as well. It was their radical agenda of demanding that government force oil companies to go out farther from shore where the drilling was required in deeper and more dangerous waters that made it near impossible to fix deep-drilling problems that were bound to occur one day. If this same event had taken place on land or in shallower waters nearer the shore this baby would have been capped-off within hours of the explosion with very little environmental impact.

. You had me until the second sentence. The "lefty loonies" and "right wing nut jobs" share equal blame; NONE. This was a simple case of a blowout valve malfunctioning. A mechanical failure. We have been deep water drilling in the Gulf for over a half century. That is pre EPA for those playing at home. Finger pointing does s***-all for good in fixing the problem. BP's drill site, BP's cleanup. If they want to drag their subs in to join the fun of cleaning it up, and accept responsibility for volunteers wanting to lend a hand that's cool. But politicizing it is merely a partisan BS tactic in an election year. Don't be naive enough to see it as otherwise.

Shlomi of Vulcan, on 31 May 2010 - 01:40 AM, said:

Call me naive' but the demand for oil in this world of 6 billion people isn't about to slow down anytime soon so wouldn't it make more environmental sense to drill in areas where these kinds of accidents can be contained and fixed quicker with as little environmental destruction as possible? The oil can still be found in safer locations in vast quantities, so why the need for dangerous drilling in such deep (miles in some cases) locations within our oceans?

Yes, yes, in a perfect world we would all be living in a wind tunnel and harvesting the natural solar rays or some other just as exotic sources of energy, but for those even more naive' than myself, to think this will happen, even in the lifetimes of those now in their twenties, it is time to wake up, smell the petro and suck up the fact that the world will remain dependent on crude for a long time to come, so instead of fighting about whether or not we should drill for it, perhaps it is time to begin harvesting it from safer locations than miles deep mining shafts in our ocean floors.

Wait, so harvesting natural energy potential to our own use is suddenly exotic? Well I'll be "dammed" You do realize they literally ran entire industries up here off of hydro right? We have several operational sawmills still running 150 years later off of hydro, a couple have even switched over to hydro electric so they can feed the grid and sell unused energy back to the power company.

Shlomi of Vulcan, on 31 May 2010 - 01:40 AM, said:

That leads me to another thing that occurred since the rig exploded and the leak started gushing out that viscous poison in our gulf waters -- the government called in the Coast Guard with its booms and looked to burn-off much of the top sitting oil while it was still out far enough from the shoreline. What prevented the government from taking action that may have at least diminished some of this tragic situation? Those same environmental groups demanded a study be done first on what kind of environmental impact using the booms and burning off the oil would do. Environmental Impact? Please, a study? And who did the government listen to? Those officials in the Coast Guard, and the elected Governor of Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas, as well as those who make their livelihood from the Gulf waters? No, the government backed down because of pressure from environmentalist who wanted the study done first - which, by the way would take months. Hmmmm, I wonder what kind of environmental impact the millions of gallons of oil that has already made its way to America's pristine wetlands and Gulf beaches has and will make? Don't think we are going to need a lengthy bureaucratic study to give us that answer - we are living it.

If I may close by quoting famed liberal and Democratic pundit James Carville - "We are dying down here!"

They also listened to BP engineers who said there was too much feeding out and a burn-off would do more harm than good overall. Burning off is usually a last resort(I worked with former oil engineers at one job, and me being inquisitive, I ask lots of questions). Figure it like this, if you are burning a kerosene lamp the fuel will run dry and eventually the wick will burn out. But if you have someone funneling fuel into said lamp through a hole in the base it ain't going to burn out as fast now is it? Now make that fuel supply the size of 10 Suez class supercarriers and place it on top the water with a torch on it. Even after they manage to cap the thing you are talking 10 years minimum before it is cleaned up enough to let the ecosystem start to recover.

[Barbara]

@Poko - you're right on the dangers and I'm not sure I'd trust BP or the gov't on this one. Greenpeace does have a volunteer website set up. Dawn Dish detergent donates a buck for every bottle purchased. I'm told by friends in Corpus that the Red Cross is accepting clean towels and a variety of supplies - but that's not from a RC official. Since I work with rescued birds, they contacted me right after I asked if there were ways to help.

@EE/S_71 - of course you can't just fly into Texas or LA to help. But - that doesn't mean you can't contact your local Red Cross or the Greenpeace website and find out if they could use your services in other ways. This spill can and probably will last until August. It will eventually affect everything around us - just watch.

[sevnson_71]

Oh no doubt about it. I'll look into a RC donation after the monthly expenses are squared away and I know what we got to work with. But my point above is it don't matter who killed the dog. The dog died. Get it outta the road and we can worry about whose fault it is afterward.

[poko]

Barbara, on 31 May 2010 - 01:32 PM, said:

@Poko - you're right on the dangers and I'm not sure I'd trust BP or the gov't on this one. Greenpeace does have a volunteer website set up. Dawn Dish detergent donates a buck for every bottle purchased. I'm told by friends in Corpus that the Red Cross is accepting clean towels and a variety of supplies - but that's not from a RC official. Since I work with rescued birds, they contacted me right after I asked if there were ways to help.

@EE/S_71 - of course you can't just fly into Texas or LA to help. But - that doesn't mean you can't contact your local Red Cross or the Greenpeace website and find out if they could use your services in other ways. This spill can and probably will last until August. It will eventually affect everything around us - just watch.

August is the date BP is giving right now. Based on the accuracy of their past estimations, that roughly means 4.5 years.

[Russell Crowe]

i totally wanna go do cleanup stuff. sadly i will not have any vacation time for at least six months. they're welcome to have some of my ridiculously long hair, though

[Shodar]

On the Dawn soap thing, if it's the same thing I've seen on the bottles here in Canada, take note of the fact that they only donate if you go to the website and enter the code from the bottle. Otherwise, they keep all the profits.

[poko]

http://www.wired.com...text-oil-spill/

[ensign edwards]

I sent a letter to my Member of Parliament to tell him to support alternative energy and oppose off-shore drilling. I'm sure it will do phlox all good, but at least I can say I put my money where my mouth was in at least one tiny way.

[poko]

http://www.boston.co...in_the_oil.html