Gulf Oil Disaster – What to do

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  • #158361
    twin200
    Member

    I thought we are the keepers of our planet.Well we suck.We are approaching seven weeks of pumping crude into the gulf of Mexico.

    Our media and gov. try to minimize this by telling us that 22 to 47 million gallons have escaped into the oceans.Well I have never heard of oil production referred to in gallons,only BARRELS?.

    How or why it happened is not worth discussion.The success in the past with zero problems is very impressive,but this one time with no back up plan has the potential to be the worst disaster known to modern man.

    When I see the image of the oil soaked,crude covered,helpless pelican sitting there peering from one eye with the only sign of life left in him I loose control of my emotions.I am responsible for this pelican,the crabs scurrying around,the beaches and the oceans.What to do. this cannot be reversed.the damage will last for decades and there is NO price tag on our pelicans or our planet.

    The gulf states are feeling the devastation right now.Next Florida will soak it up like a sponge.Floridians rely on a muti billion tourist industry(GONE).Once this man made monster gets its head around the southern tip of florida and enters the gulf stream it will be traveling 100 miles a day up the eastern sea board.

    I hope my tarheel friend david sees this because our beloved outer banks will take a direct hit due to its geographic location to the gulf stream,which is why the outer banks have always been the most desirable fishing location on the eastern seaboard.

    #158362
    DavidCMurray
    Participant

    This is your Tarheel friend, David, responding. I, too, am sickened by what we’re seeing and I dread what we’re going to be seeing. With only the luck we can reasonably project, this disaster will travel up the whole of the east coast on the Gulf Stream. Cape Codites, enjoy life while you can.

    What is most scary about this is not the oil spewing out of this well but the oil that is not (yet) spewing out of countless equally vulnerable wells. Imagine, just imagine, another one . . . (or two).

    #158363
    maravilla
    Member

    what to do, what to do. you can sign up for this fb page. it’s one billion people against offshore drilling.

    http://www.facebook.com/#!/group.php?gid=114093341964208

    we really need to wean ourselves off the fossil fuel teat. i, for one, am so disgusted by the rapacious greed of these oil companies, (and people who dare to drive something as ostentatious as a Hummer — sorry, Hummer owners!) that i do not even want to have a car anymore. i didn’t have one for 8 years when i lived in manhattan. i either did it on foot or rode my bicycle, and only occasionally did the taxi or bus routine. i cannot see those oil covered birds and not feel nauseous. we need to stop all offshore drilling. period. and we need to find other energy alternatives besides oil.

    #158364
    gzeniou
    Member

    Okay, yes this is terrible but I also see a lot of good in this.

    Perhaps Americans will now get a wake up call with off shore drilling, perhaps they will completely stop it, or maybe they will stop using as much oil, or go with alternative green energy. In any event, people should now have some awareness and education on the subject.

    What we really need is a Hurricane to really make it a huge mess that will even effect a greater number of folks. Americans might ask with all the technology and resources American has do we have to be the greatest user of oil and the greatest polluter of all nations?

    Sometimes things need to get bad before a drastic change is made. Lets hope this is just the event.

    #158365
    bogino
    Participant

    [quote=”gzeniou”]
    Perhaps Americans will now get a wake up call with off shore drilling, perhaps they will completely stop it, or maybe they will stop using as much oil, or go with alternative green energy.
    [/quote]

    I’m not going to “hold my breath” for Americans to get a “wake up call”. We got a BIG “wake up call” just recently when crude oil prices ran up to $150+ and retail gas prices at some locations exceeded $4.00. Sure enough…everyone complained and moaned and then the markets turned south…the recession hit…crude prices fell way down and gas prices came down and Americans quickly forgot about the energy problem. So today…when I drive around I STILL see gas guzzling SUV’s..Trucks…Hummers ALL OVER THE PLACE. Funny thing is…I’ll see these huge TANK of a truck..a Surburban i.e. that probably gets 8 miles to the gallon and it will have an Obama or Gore bumper sticker on it…which just cracks me up. We don’t need to all by Pruis’s or Hybrids but given what happened not to long ago with oil prices and all the inefficient gas guzzling vehicles people still drive it’s apparent to me that Americans STILL aren’t willing to give up their BIG vehicles for something more efficient and economical. So yeah..Blame BP and the oil companies but…they wouldn’t be there if the DEMAND by consumers wasn’t there.

    #158366
    maravilla
    Member

    if i were queen (or dictator) for a day, i would outlaw all those big gas guzzlers. the Hummer is the car of choice in my hood in Colorado. when gas was at its highest, it was costing nearly $250 to fill that thing up. and nobody batted an eye. americans are taught from the cradle to consume without nary a thought to the consequences. europe has its share of big hog vehicles, but most of them are fuel efficient little tiny things such as the Smart Car, etc. and of course, europe has efficient public trans so having a car is not necessary really. but with urban sprawl, it isn’t possible to not have a car in many parts of the U.S.

    #158367
    waggoner41
    Member

    Mankind has been a cancer on the planet ever since we came out of caves.

    We have destroyed forests, moved mountains, fouled our air and water and generally made our home a toilet at a quickening pace since the industrial revolution began.

    Do any of you really think we will learn a lasting lesson from this disaster? We haven’t managed that trick yet.

    As soon as the oil stops spouting and this is partially cleaned up we will continue on as if nothing had happened.

    The human race is smart but in reality lacks intelligence.

    #158368
    twin200
    Member

    Have you folks seen the latest news flash from media.BP’s containment cap is containing 10,000 barrels a day.Thats great,but what happen to the gallons.Are they using this deception to keep us from freaking out,well I’m freaking out with thier intelligence.Just another freaked-out american.right? no reply neccessary to the latter.:roll:

    #158369
    maravilla
    Member

    this will really put you over the top. big business and greed are antithetical to the welfare of the inhabitants on Earth.
    at least in China, they will execute the executives of companies who commit the most heinous crimes of damaging the environment. hmmmmmmm. how about stuffing that Hayward guy headfirst into that well?

    VBS.TV
    http://www.vbs.tv

    #158370
    grb1063
    Member

    It saddens me to see the pristine, powder white beaches of the Emerald Coast in Florida fouled with oil. The amount of marshes and estuaries all along the gulf coast is phenomenal. The dispursant they are using breaks down the oil even more, such that it will invade every pore of the wildlife chain for generations to come = 20 year recovery. The fed could also help future catstrophes by allowing the states to build sand berms to protect the marshes without so much red tape endemic with all the federal agencies. They have been asking for years.

    The reality with oil is that until all the major industries that are totally reliant on it, such as large portions of the electrical grid, trucking, railroads, shipping and airlines are converted to renewables, the demand will always be there. The technology is here now to at least have a 100-200 mpg vehicles with hybrid/diesel, yet we do not see it on the market! This is the transition technology we need now, until someone can harness other 0 emission energy sources for the mass market to keep us mobile.

    #158371
    dfdyke
    Member

    I’ve spent over 58 yrs on the beaches of the panhandle of florida, the most beautiful in the world. I’ve seen tar from previous spills on the beaches (1970’s). It will clean up the worst will be in the estuaries and wetland habitats, that will take years. As far as i am concerned the fault lies with BP, the government and mostly the environmentalists who demanded that we drill in 5000ft of water instead of 200 where it could easily be capped and stopped. Also not allowinfg drilling on land in places where we have more oil than all of Saudi Arabia. Montana, Wyoming, the Rockies, Alaska and on and on. These bleeding heart libs won’t be happy till we’re back in the stone age.

    #158372
    maravilla
    Member

    i hate to burst your bubble, but the some of the worst spills occurred in shallow water — such as the one in Australia. don’t be fooled by the propaganda — deep water drilling isn’t the problem, it’s drilling at all whether the water is 200 or 2000 feet deep. and no i don’t want them drilling in the arctic circle and destroying the tundra and the habitat for wildlife, which means more to me than somebody driving an SUV.

    just a few examples of oil well blowouts in shallow water.

    1969 Santa Barbra oil spill at a debt of 190 feet and 6 miles off the coast lasted 11 days before it was capped. The spill caused so much damage that California banned drilling off the coast.

    http://www.geog.ucsb.edu/~jeff/sb_69oils…

    1979 Ixtoc oil spill off the coast of Mexico in 160 feet of water. It took 11 months to cap the well and is considered the 3rd largest oil spill ever.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ixtoc_I_oil…

    2009 Montara oil spill in the Timor Sea off the Australian coast in 250 feet of water. It took 2 1/2 months to cap the well.

    http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/03/us/03m…

    #158373
    edlreed
    Member

    [quote=”dfdyke”] [i]As far as i am concerned the fault lies with[/i] BP, the government and mostly the environmentalists who demanded that we drill in 5000ft of water instead of 200 where it could easily be capped and stopped. Also not allowinfg drilling on land in places where we have more oil than all of Saudi Arabia. Montana, Wyoming, the Rockies, Alaska and on and on. These bleeding heart libs won’t be happy till we’re back in the stone age.[/quote]

    Your concern lies with finding fault? May I suggest the reason for this outrage is obvious. Maybe the stone age was the last time we were in harmony with the earth.

    #158374
    DavidCMurray
    Participant

    [size=200]Zzziiinnnggg!!!![/size]

    [size=](Nice one, maravilla.)[/size]

    #158375
    maravilla
    Member

    gracias! that was an easy one! and why does this have to turn into this mud fest about liberals? how about just doing what is good for the planet and those who inhabit it? it’s complete b.s. to turn it into a political issue; it’s more about rapacious greed and multinationals putting the screws to the powers that be to let them destroy the world. sheesh. open your eyes, people! did any of you watch the video from Linden, China? are you fine with that? i remember living in LA before they “cleaned up the air” and people thought I was crazy because i constantly commented that i did want to breathe air i could see. oh my. two more months of oil gushing without even a clue as to what the potential environmental and health consequences are going to be. my heart aches for every living thing that has to endure this mess.

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