Nothing to see here. Move along... Does video help you understand how bad this is? Perhaps BP would like to come here and explain their actions? The White House? Please wake up. This is NOT imaginary. This is NOT a witch hunt. This is trashing a massive amount of territory and everything that lives in it thanks to a bunch of people who decided to make money instead of follow regulations. Prison is too good for them. :mad2:
Look, I am a Pave the Earth kind of guy. I judge the necessity of my birds by how they taste. But what's going on down there is truly sad.
Besides the surface disaster, there is an underwater disaster that is less well understood. A couple of research vessels have been investigating deep water "features" that are showing up on sonar. Samples taken at various depths indicate that the oil has atomized and mixed with the water. One of the researchers said in an interview that the samples smell of oil and have a greasy feel. Usually, oil will float to the surface when released underwater. However, we don't have a lot of experience with what happens when it is released at high pressure into deep water (which is at high pressure). It is not yet known whether it was the depth and pressure that caused these "features" or whether the dispersants being used were the cause. These underwater features are still readily apparent 26 km from the well, and don't fade away until around 50 km. The researcher believed that this oil could stay in the water column for an extended period of time. What I find worrying is that we don't know is exactly what the consequences will be. How will this deep oil affect life in the ocean. Will it completely wipe out all life in the areas in which it exists? Or will it make part of the food chain toxic? We also don't know whether the ocean's natural ability to cleanse the oil will be overwhelmed. The dispersants were used to break up the oil so microorganisms could break it down and clean the water. Will that work with this volume of oil? It seems, thanks to BP, we will be learning a lot of things we didn't want to know about oil and the environment.
Not sleeping. Absolutely a horrible, horrible series of events. Absolutely plenty of blame to spread around. And I'm all for doing that in a manner consistent with the rule of law. But I have an issue with the lynch-mob mentality. I'm a rule-of-law kind of guy. Otherwise it all comes down to who has the biggest stick. "I heard/read, therefore it is fact." Hmmmm. Hope no one ever writes something untrue about me. I'd hate to be burned as a witch just because somebody read that I was one in the paper... or because the head of the Witch Regulatory Commission was low on their quota this month. This is the same mentality that drives people to boycott BP stations... even though BP doesn't own the stations.... and even though cutting off funds from BP means that they'll pay less of the bill in the end and the rest will be paid by our kids and grandkids as they service the national debt. But it sure feels good to stick it to the man. I don't for one moment doubt that BP will be found to have done SOMETHING wrong here. But, before we tar and feather them as the ONLY responsible party, I want a FULL INVESTIGATION into the FULL CHAIN OF EVENTS that led to this... including failures in oversight, regulatory regimes that didn't work, etc.
Did obama call in the navy with the best deep sea and salvage divers? Did he kick bp out and assemble the best minds on how to solve it?NO...he has let bp go it alone while he vacationed and sat with the ag on who to lay blame and who to sue...
Well....... until the dust settles, I've stopped buying BP products...... including Castrol, which by the way I like. Looks like Mobil 1 and Shell......, until they cause a calamity. Other than voting, my spending habits are the ONLY sharp stick I have.
If Bush was still in office (God forbid) the press and liberals would have his head on a stick . Time to stop the political finger pointing and plug the damn well. Sent from my Droid using Tapatalk
In many ways we are all responsible for this. The human race has become weak, over populated, and tolerant of looking the other way to feed our needs. We have many other options for things like motor oil and fuel. But it's just easy to continue on the same path and just wait till it's broken to try and fix it. I love motor sports. But this makes me seriously consider going away from it. It's just not worth it.
We have other options? Like what? Electric cars need electricity. Electricity is provided by coal. Some nuke, but mostly coal. Wind isn't there yet. May never be. Neither is solar. Hydrogen is a great concept, but it takes as much if not more energy to make the hydrogen as it would save. Fossil fuels are a fact of life. So what are our other options?
Horse and buggy. Kind of hard to mod a horse, though. Mostly it would be bling stuff: saddles, harnesses, bridles...
Hemp oil for one. It can be used not only as a fuel but as a motor oil. It was tested in an engine way back when. It works great. There are many other options. But your response is exactly what the Gov and big corporate monsters want you to think. Edit: BTW Industrial HEMP does not have psychoactive properties. We have more tech than we know what to do with. But again. The transition is what people focus on. Like you just said, hydrogen is a great concept. It has been since the 50s, but it's pushed aside by the people with the money. So it will always seem like a concept. etc etc etc. Not to pick on you, cause I am just as guilty. It's this attitude by all of us that was my point in my post. Here's a link a friend just sent. Will it make a difference? I dunno, but I am all for every little thing to help. No Bailout for BP
None of the current technologies are there yet...the operative word being "yet". We collectively worked to win wars and put a man on the moon in the past. Why can't we all work towards finding alternatives to using fossil based fuels. I realize not all of us can work on the actual projects but we can do our part to reduce our dependence. Doing a little of basic electric saving in our homes may do little as individuals but collectively that little adds up to a heck of a lot.
Because Nathan oil is our spice and also what fuels the world economy. Those that are now in power would not be if our addiction to oil were to cease. You can believe that they will do ANYTHING to make sure that never happens. Sent from my Droid using Tapatalk
You missed my point. All of this stuff supposedly exists, but not on a scale even remotely worthy of what is in place now. CAN it happen? Of course. But deciding the way and then actually getting it all done are a different ball game. Sucks, but true.
Oh, and the idiots running the country, I am pretty sure they do not have the public's best interest in mind, either. So until we rise and "speak" and send these socialist fools back to the rocks they crawled out from under, we are in for a rough ride.
I didn't miss your point at all. I know none of the technologies are anywhere near the point of scaling to where they make more than a pinprick worth of difference. We collectively need to stop sitting on our hands and demand change. It has to start on the local level to really get the ball rolling. My HOA is full of old busybodies that for the most part have bought their last house. They have point blank said they are not open to "new" technology. A small group of homeowners has petitioned the board unsuccessfully time and time again to place solar panel on the clubhouse building to power the pool. Since it would cut into short term revenues the board is dead set against this. Long term it would save money and do our little bit to reduce the electric demand in North Texas. This one thing does little, but if all the HOA's in North Texas did something similar it would help to bring about change. We need to change the status quo, forsake the short term costs and take a long term view. If that means kicking out the current crop of politicos then so be it.