Oil spill

[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).