Oil spill

[shootingstar]

I work at a research facility that is part of a (primarily engineering) university. I'm amazed at how often I hear pretty scientifically-oriented people at work talking about climate change not being real. Making statements about how humans just don't affect the planet that much. Okay - I'm no expert, and everyone has a right to their opinion. Maybe it isn't real. I, personally, do fully believe that climate change is real, and can see the possibilities whenever I look at a city, a pollution-belching factory, etc. How can we NOT be hurting things?

This amazed me also about some scientifically oriented people who don't believe in climate change. While I don't disagree there are a myriad of other factors causing unusual climactic patterns (include soil erosion, excessive tree-cutting), but when humankind introduces repetitive processes at a speed which the ecosystem cannot cope for continuous rebalancing/replenishing, then humankind does need to relook and change their practices.

Dearie's opinion on the low profile mention of BP at this time (which could change soon), he believes the oil industry execs...and U.S. senior govn't would be concerned about way too much limelight that could hurt oil production in general, by the U.S. particularily if its own citizens protest too much.

Meanwhile continue to ride our bikes ..

[OakLeaf]

It is a terrible disaster, and it may be a long time before we know the full extent of it.

I'm of two minds about how much focus should be specifically on BP right now. It isn't like any of the oil companies are any different. It's perhaps a futile pipe dream in a capitalist world, but you have to think that - for instance - if the Valdez disaster had been seen as a symptom of something endemically wrong with the oil industry rather than just something wrong with Exxon, more attention might have been given to energy alternatives.

Pipe dream, I know.

[Grog]

I am pretty upset about this.

In the meantime, this article is interesting:
http://www.alternet.org/environment/...driving?page=1

[Mr. Bloom]

I'm sick over it too! I didn't follow closely at first since I thought that it was a non-issue and contained...boy was I wrong!

[Blueberry]

Every news story I read sounds worse

They're now saying because of the Gulf Stream, it may get the East Coast (or at least eastern FL too).

[bmccasland]

The fishing grounds east of the Mississippi River are now closed. This was after they were opened early to allow the fishermen out to harvest what they could. Now those same fishermen and women have signed up to work the spill clean up. Where the news has focused on the effects in Louisiana, don't forget that the coast of Mississippi, Alabama, and Florida are also threatened. But the fishing grounds WEST of the Mississippi river are still open. So if you have the opportunity to eat Gulf seafood, please do so, support our fishermen!

So far 1.6 million barrels have been spilled. In comparison 5-7 million barrels were spilled from damages to rigs due to Hurricanes Katrina and Rita (Exxon Valdez was 11 million barrels). It's the cumulative impacts of the Deep Water Horizon well not being capped for months that's the greatest fear. Current weather is strong winds out of the south which is hampering clean up efforts. Small water craft are having to stay in port.

[shootingstar]

The British Columbia provincial govn't premier (Campbell) has offered up our oil spill experts to the Gulf of Mexico oil spill disaster.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/...rticle1553788/

Campbell has and continues to actively promote off-shore oil well drilling by British Columbian coast. This has never been done before. And there is alot of concern about this. This whole area is virgin and wild territory/waters.

Grog's article link where author focuses on getting car drivers to reduce oil consumption/dependency by using other transportation modes for shorter car trips, is useful.

The tough challenge is convincing a huge group of people who are very accustomed to living a perceived faster pace of life, getting something instantly..ie. getting somewhere by car, which they perceive is faster (despite sometimes, congestion and driving around to find parking), have their own personal space/privacy (in a car) and be protected from the weather.

One wonders how many people will see the connection between high risk of oil spills in oil extraction that comes with communities and lifestyle all oriented around cars..which depend on alot of oil consumption.

Will they make the connection, when they can not buy fresh/local shrimp/seafood? Methinks even if the dead animals wash up onto the land near their area, alot of people still won't see the big picture. They'll still want to jump into their car several times per week, at any time, for the 3-5 mile drive to the store / bank / library / community centre...vs. cycling, taking public transit or walking or at least car-share. Or maybe the change is/will happen alot sooner.

[tulip]

I read yesterday that they have NO IDEA how much oil is spilled, and that some estimates from satellite images are in the 9-million gallon range already.

Terrible, terrible. It was not an accident. It was negligence--permissible by the industry and by the government. There should have been backups to backups. And Plans B, C, D, and E. But no, there were not.

[bmccasland]

There was an interesting interview with Tony Hayward, CEO of BP this morning on NPR's Morning Edition http://www.npr.org/templates/story/s...ryId=126468782.

At least the weather is a bit more cooperative today.

[bmccasland]

Lost track of the attempt number to stop this thing, but the latest one has been pronounced a failure.
They say it'll be four more days before they're staged to try the next thing - cut a pipe and cap it, pumping oil to the surface. Which they've tried, and failed, before. But apparently this version will have hot water pumped down to keep things from freezing up, which was the cause of the failure the last time. So four more days of 5000+ gallons/day will pump into the Gulf.

There was an interesting article in today's Times-Picayune about cosy relationship between the State of Louisiana, oil companies, and the state regulatory agency - the same state agency collects royalities and permits wetland impacts. http://www.nola.com
"Oil projects often sail past state regulators" http://www.nola.com/news/t-p/frontpa...630.xml&coll=1

I've dealt with this agancy, the wetland regulatory end of it, and often wonder why my agency is raked over the coals (OK, that's our biased opinion), while we see that the oil companies are allowed to rape and pillage with abandon. Glad to see the dichotomy is out, even if it was burried in the middle of the front section of the paper.

The only good news I can say is that I no longer smell oil or corexit (the chemical dispersant) at my house. Either that or I'm now used to it as a background smell. I guess if a strong south wind blows, we'll smell it again.

And Hurricane Season starts tomorrow.

My heart is sick. I'd love to go for a nice long bike ride to work off the stress, but my bumm knee isn't up to it yet.

[Tri Girl]

I saw photos and it made me cry. Little dragonflies with wings covered in oil, birds sinking because of being drenched in oil. I can't look anymore because it hurts too much. If you don't feel sorrow and anger when you consider the incomprehensible damage done to the creatures of the ocean and air- you have no soul.
The environmentalist in me is outraged, but hopeful that this will lead to the serious development of alternative engergies. I just don't know how they're going to clean this up. I mean- it's SO incredibly huge- and it's not over yet (the leakage anyway).

I'm sickened and saddened. I can't imagine how living in the area would affect me.
I went and bought 5 bottles of Dawn dishwashing soap today to do a teeny tiny part to help save some of the animals. I know it's insignificant, but it made me feel better (for a second).

[shootingstar]

Am curious to know though...for people living the states that border the Gulf where the oil spill is occurring:

Are most people just horrified by what they see, and just continue on with their lives, but not change aspects of their lives to reduce oil dependency?

I guess until the oil is lapping up literally into their backyard, most people won't make the change. Or they can't eat local shrimp/local seafood right now because it's contaminated?

I know it's not that easy if an area is built ..to depend on cars primarily to get around, etc.

[Grog]

I sat horrified watching this for a while yesterday:
http://www.bp.com/liveassets/bp_inte...ov_stream.html

Right now it's showing some large metal cage (?) but the camera view changes now and then, and for a while it was the oil gushing out of the hole. Terrifying.

[SOAP BOX]

As a civilization we are willing to get oil from more and more remote and dangerous places. And we're pretty snug about it. I read a feature about this guy that specializes in "killing" operations, who boasts that there isn't a well he's not been able to kill, and how confident he is that this one will be no exception. That kind of technical self-suffisance makes me sick. This well might teach us a lesson... but what will we learn?

I can ride my bike to work all I want - great! - but that's just the peak of the iceberg. Everything we consume heavily relies on fossil fuels, including services such as the Internet (how much energy used by a single google search? a post on TeamEstrogen?), television, health care, etc. All things we take for granted. Renewables, you say? Some guy did the back-of-the-envelope calculation to check out whether the UK could live only on renewables. http://www.withouthotair.com/ (There is a 10-page synopsis.) Bad news ladies: basically it would require 75% of the country to be covered in crops for biomass, 500 km of coast line to be used for tidal, and solar panels covering about 5 to 10% of the country. You'd also have to fill the sea with windmills, equivalent to twice the area of Wales. And that would be quite enough at current levels of use. To say nothing of the mining and destruction required to make, say, electric car batteries.

The conclusion is obvious: the only way is to drastically reduce our consumption, not just of direct energy (in our homes) but of everything. Or to keep watching live, in horror, as millions of gallons of oil transform the Gulf of Mexico into a dead sea.

[/SOAP BOX]

If you read this far, thanks for letting me vent.

[Tri Girl]

Grog- I read your soapbox and that study on using only renewables is eye-opening.
You're right- the problem is that petroleum is used in SOOOO many things. We can't just simply do without it. I wonder if we stop using so much as gasoline, if what we don't use there could be used for many more years making the things we depend upon still available to us?
I'll be gone before there is a serious crisis/shortage of fossil fuels (based on projections of how much longer it will last). It will require extreme ingenuity to figure out how to live without it- but I'm hopeful that not only technology will progress, but that humans will be smart enough to figure it out. I think we have to change our habits NOW and start doing things immediately to help future generations.

It's such a quandary...

[Bike Chick]

It sickens me more every day to watch this happening. I feel so sorry for all the folks that live on the gulf coast and depend on it for their livelihood. They have all just begun to get back on their feet after Katrina and now this has happened. It's heart breaking.

I went to get gas for the car today and purposely drove past the BP station and went elsewhere. I know that it won't make a difference in the least but it made me feel better. I am actually surprised that there hasn't been a boycott on BP.