Meanwhile, March was the warmest on record according to NOAA.
That will probably be denied by the groupies of Senator Inhofe who say global warming is the greatest hoax ever pulled.
Yesterday one of the three leaks was stopped at Deepwater Horizon by sawing off the end of the riser and placing a shut-off valve on the end of the pipe.
The big story concerning the Deepwater Horizon disaster, it seems to me, is the use of untested chemicals to keep the oil from reaching the surface.
That story focuses on the panic of BP and the government which is causing them to abandon normal testing of powerful chemicals before using them in sensitive ecosystems:
Testing of a new technique that involves injecting dispersants at the oil’s source - 5000’ below the surface - will require further monitoring to tell whether the sub-sea dispersants are having an effect and further analysis to ensure effects in the water column are not worse than those from oil.(NOAA). This is a travesty showing that they were not prepared for what was clearly foreseeable.
They have not tested the hundreds of thousands of gallons of chemicals being injected at the leak sites, 5000 ft. under the surface, as well as at the surface.
They have not tested these powerful chemical agents for either short term or long term effects on the environment.
Some of those chemicals will get into the Gulf current which will carry them to the Atlantic's Gulf Stream current, which flows North East, then crosses the world wide current that can take the chemicals to other oceans.
At this point you get the sense that the world economy, in the grips of apparent meltdown due to the early effects of peak oil and climate change, is swinging wildly out of control. We're like a drunk or crack addict in the advance throws of addiction and breakdown, lashing out wildly at anything and everything that gets in the way of another fix. Can any of this end in anything other than tragedy?
ReplyDeleteThe cofferdam arrives on scene today. We'll see how that wild swing works out.
Funny, I was just looking into this before checking in this AM: synchronicity!
ReplyDelete"Cleaning up oil spills can kill more fish than spills themselves"
http://www.physorg.com/news156436169.html
and
http://news.discovery.com/tech/tech-used-clean-up-oil-spill.html
Nice Foreign Affairs article on BP, aka "Beyond Petroleum," as their bullshit advertising campaign claims. We need to make these assholes pay seriously for their crap, as we know our corrupt and dysfunctional government isn't likely to any time soon.
ReplyDeletedisaffected,
ReplyDeleteThe Foreign Affairs article contains the statement:
"Norway and Brazil require this added precaution for rigs off their coasts, but it is voluntary in the United States."
Nice.
It is ok to ruin the environment of the United States as far as the federal government and Bullshit Petroleum (BP) are concerned.
I guess the cofferdam won't actually arrive over the surface of the well head until Friday. It's never been successfully used over a spill of this size at this depth before, so its only a long shot anyway. If that doesn't work, a relief well(s) is/are the only hope, which will take 60-90 days (or more) and may not work either. Good stuff BP! We can only hope this results in their bankruptcy and criminal prosecutions of corporate heads. Actually, check that. Prosecutions are a joke. A public lynching would be much more appropriate. And their families sold into slavery.
ReplyDeleteOn the plus side, most all of this is oil that won't be available for industry, so there's at least that. The only way to bring down the oil dependent beast that's consuming the world will be to starve it directly, so it looks like BP is at least doing their small and inadvertant part in that respect afterall.
disaffected,
ReplyDeleteIt is more likely that those who complain will be punished, not those who did this catastrophe.
MOMCOM is in charge.
I just posted a thread in that regard.