On Friday, after the Deepwater Horizon oil rig finally sank beneath the waves of the Gulf of Mexico, the Coast Guard issued a statement that there did not appear to be any oil spilling from the drill site. Pro-drilling apologists around the country guffawed that environmentalists had been getting all worried about nothing. What’s a little explosion on an oil rig, killing eleven people, and an inferno that burns on for days? That’s just the cost of doing business! Drill baby drill!
Of course, it was possible for the sinking oil rig to fall directly onto the spot on the ocean floor, a mile below, where it had been drilling, somehow sealing the hole with its great mass. Unfortunately, that’s not what happened. The map to the right, provided by the Coast Guard, shows where the Deepwater Horizon finally hit bottom, not at all on top of where the plume of crude oil is now rising from the sea bed, but almost a third of a mile away.
What’s happened is that, in spite of Friday’s announcement, two leaks on the sea floor have developed, at the rate of one thousand barrels of oil per day, from the drill pipe, and the “riser”, a device through which drilling fluids return to the oil rig.
There is not yet any indication of when these leaks may be repaired.
Barack Obama has announced that the disaster of the Deepwater Horizon is his “number one priority”. Obama has also announced that his policy of expanding offshore drilling for oil will go ahead unchanged. Apparently, dealing with the disasters that inevitably result from offshore oil drilling don’t become President Obama’s priority until they happen.
Great. Now we can wait for the inevitable clean up bill to come our way. More expense for the taxpayer, no problem for Big Oil and their lackeys in Congress and the White House, and WHO CARES ABOUT THE OCEAN?
If anyone really thinks that we go unscathed for all the pollution we continue to dump into the atmosphere, biosphere and oceans, they’ll soon see that they were sorely wrong and that we all will suffer because of it. The earth continues to seek balance, but we keep adding more crap to the mix before it has a chance.
Tom,
According to law, BP is responsible for paying for the cleanup efforts. Of course, that is reflected in their cost of producing product, which can find it’s way into the pump price, but that does not apply to their competition, so they cannot simply raise their price to pay their cleanup costs.
At any rate, what it costs BP does not affect you directly, unless you purchase their product, or products made from it.
I CARE ABOUT THE OCEAN
and then, on top of all the man made problems, we have a volcano blow up. green man, can you evaluate the damage done by the volcanic ash verses the human carbon emissions? i’ve been told that human imprint means nothing in comparison to nature’s rumblings.
From the US Geological Survey, Hawaiian Volcano Observatory http://hvo.wr.usgs.gov/volcanowatch/2007/07_02_15.html
“Gas studies at volcanoes worldwide have helped volcanologists tally up a global volcanic CO2 budget in the same way that nations around the globe have cooperated to determine how much CO2 is released by human activity through the burning of fossil fuels. Our studies show that globally, volcanoes on land and under the sea release a total of about 200 million tonnes of CO2 annually.”
“This seems like a huge amount of CO2, but a visit to the U.S. Department of Energy’s Carbon Dioxide Information Analysis Center (CDIAC) website (http://cdiac.ornl.gov/) helps anyone armed with a handheld calculator and a high school chemistry text put the volcanic CO2 tally into perspective. Because while 200 million tonnes of CO2 is large, the global fossil fuel CO2 emissions for 2003 tipped the scales at 26.8 billion tonnes. Thus, not only does volcanic CO2 not dwarf that of human activity, it actually comprises less than 1 percent of that value.”
very interesting.
take that deniers.
Catastrophe! In one of our most important fisheries. Where will the oil drift, how many specialized eco-systems? Beaches for tourism? Environmental catastrophe certainly, economic maybe. It all makes me ill, it should make everyone ill. I will not vote for any Congressional candidate who does not have a stated postiion against opening more coastal areas for drilling. The risks are simply too high.
Meanwhile, the SC legislature has decided to promote the exploration of oil and gas off our shores. Considering that tourism is our number one industry, this has to be one of the stupidest decisions they’ve made in a long time. Even our conservative newspapers agree that it’s a very stupid decision.
GOOD FOR YOU
Wait…SC has other industries? Ha!
why not send a remote controlled sub with whatever it takes to seal off the well?
They’ve already tried that, many times, and failed. The blowout preventer technology is apparently pretty lame, with no remote controls, and weighs an enormous number of tons – difficult for any submersible to activate.
HOW COULD YOU NOT CARE ABOUT THE OCEAN
EVIL OCEAN HATER
MAYBE THE PIRATES COULD USE THE OIL
MAYBE IT WAS THE CANADIANS