Do we really know just how serious the oil spill is?

[Edbear]

Subject: Re Gulf spill: INTERESTING COMMENT FROM AN ENGINEER


If this engineer is right, this is truly a scary scenario! Here's his story.


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"Heard you mention the oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico this morning, and you (and most everyone else except maybe US talk show host George Noory) are totally missing the boat on how big and bad a disaster this is.

First fact, the original estimate was about 5,000 gallons of oil a day spilling into the ocean. Now they're saying 200,000 gallons a day. That's over a million gallons of crude oil a week!

I'm an engineer with 25 years of experience. I've worked on some big projects with big machines. Maybe that's why this mess is so clear to me.

First, the BP platform was drilling for what they call deep oil. They go out where the ocean is about 5,000 feet deep and drill another 30,000 feet into the crust of the earth. This it right on the edge of what human technology can do. Well, this time they hit a pocket of oil at such high pressure that it burst all of their safety valves all the way up to the drilling rig and then caused the rig to explode and sink. Take a moment to grasp the import of that. The pressure behind this oil is so high that it destroyed the maximum effort of human science to contain it.

When the rig sank it flipped over and landed on top of the drill hole some 5,000 feet under the ocean.

Now they've got a hole in the ocean floor, 5,000 feet down with a wrecked oil drilling rig sitting on top of is spewing 200,000 barrels of oil a day into the ocean. Take a moment and consider that, will you!

First they have to get the oil rig off the hole to get at it in order to try to cap it. Do you know the level of effort it will take to move that wrecked oil rig, sitting under 5,000 feet of water? That operation alone would take years and hundreds of millions to accomplish. Then, how do you cap that hole in the muddy ocean floor? There just is no way. No way.

On the longer-term side of things, there are signs that this largest oil drilling catastrophe could also become the worst natural gas and climate disaster. The explosion has released tremendous amounts of methane from deep in the ocean, and research shows that methane, when mixed with air, is the most powerful (read: terrible) greenhouse gas — 26 times worse than carbon-dioxide. Our warming planet just got a lot hotter.



The only piece of human technology that might address this is a nuclear bomb. I'm not kidding. If they put a nuke down there in the right spot it might seal up the hole. Nothing short of that will work.

If we can't cap that hole that oil is going to destroy the oceans of the world. It only takes one quart of motor oil to make 250,000 gallons of ocean water toxic to wildlife. Are you starting to get the magnitude of this?

We're so used to our politicians creating false crises to fo rward their criminal agendas that we aren't recognizing that we're staring straight into possibly the greatest disaster mankind will ever see. Imagine what happens if that oil keeps flowing until it destroys all life in the oceans of this planet. Who knows how big of a reservoir of oil is down there.

Not to mention that the oceans are critical to maintaining the proper oxygen level in the atmosphere for human life.

Unless God steps in and fixes this. No human can. You can be sure of that!

[Tank]

Interesting site:

http://www.ifitwasmyhome.com/

place the spill over any location to help with the perspective of size. Scary.

[Katman]

[Mudfart]

its funny how its been 50 days of spill now, and not one news site from anywhere in the world has gone in depth as to what conglomeration owns BP. Yes I know its British Petroleum, but does that mean its a state owned enterprise belonging to the english people, or the Queen?. who are the fat cats that require gutting over this? Why is noone saying anything? Why does noone care who is at fault?
All they say is BP, BP BP!!! with all the joke sarcastic signs, like British Pollution.
Biggest question of all, why is our news so false, predictable, negative, agitative, and shallow?. They never go deep enough and ask the truly hard or really important questions.
John Campbell does, but when the polititians side skirt an answer twice, he then moves on. Go for the throat and don't let the fucker off.

[Gone Burger]

No I don't think we quite realise how major this disaster really is. It won't be until months / years down the track when we are still trying to clean up the incredible mess, that the full scale of it will really become clear.

This image below really gets my blood boiling. What a way to die for such a large amount of wildlife. Slowly, painfully, inhumainly..

It's not over yet... not even close.

[rainman]

We are unable to discuss issues like this (oil enviro damage and scarcity, climate change, etc) logically, because we are aware at some visceral level that oil is in equal parts wonderful and terrible.

My bet is there will be some talk about banning off-shore drilling, even some action on this (has happened in a few places already) but it will be short-lived, and when the media gets bored and goes away, we'll all move on to something more exciting. A truly sane response to the oil issue requires us to make more radical change than we are prepared to, and would kill a few sacred cows along the way. So it won't happen; we'll just "keep on doing what we can, until we can't, and then we won't".

[Genestho]

We are unable to discuss issues like this (oil enviro damage and scarcity, climate change, etc) logically, because we are aware at some visceral level that oil is in equal parts wonderful and terrible.

My bet is there will be some talk about banning off-shore drilling, even some action on this (has happened in a few places already) but it will be short-lived, and when the media gets bored and goes away, we'll all move on to something more exciting. A truly sane response to the oil issue requires us to make more radical change than we are prepared to, and would kill a few sacred cows along the way. So it won't happen; we'll just "keep on doing what we can, until we can't, and then we won't".

Too true, since this happened I've been keeping up with news through the states, and as I was already aware that we do rely on oil, out of interest - I thought I'd see just how far it reaches into our everyday lives, I found there's 4-6000 products we use daily. It's not enough to scream abuse at BP, it additionally requires alot more long term lifestyle change and dedication from consumers, and I don't think people are prepared to change their consumption, to reduce demand.
In America consumption is something like 21% of world consumption alone - depending on what you read.

[BoristheBiter]

While this is a disaster that will be felt for a long time to come, no one (myself included) knows what goes on in the oil fields of third world countries.
I watched with disgust on Monday night the "Ross Kemp looks for pirates".
I could not even begin to describe how bad it was. He was in Nigeria and it was all because of the oil fields and corruption in the government.
I will try and find it on YouTube and post up here.
But it makes you think of what else we are not told about.

[Edbear]

While this is a disaster that will be felt for a long time to come, no one (myself included) knows what goes on in the oil fields of third world countries.
I watched with disgust on Monday night the "Ross Kemp looks for pirates".
I could not even begin to describe how bad it was. He was in Nigeria and it was all because of the oil fields and corruption in the government.
I will try and find it on YouTube and post up here.
But it makes you think of what else we are not told about.

Yup! Check out the Niger Delta, it's an oil-soaked waste

[BoristheBiter]

found some of it

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xzrv-RYELxs

my connection is playing up so haven't checked if it is the right part.

[YellowDog]

I know that BP started out as being British Petroleum however that was when it was a relataively small company. I thought BP stood for Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited (BPCL), which is among the largest PSU companies in India. The Arab countries (Kuwait in particular) also have a large slice as well as American Banks (JP Morgan being the major holder). BP is just two meaningless initials and from their diverse portfolio of offerings, in the late 1990s they attempted to re-brand BP as standing for Beyond Petroleum (they failed).

What is however very clear is that it has taken 50 days to reduce the destructive oil flow to around 50% of what it was on day one. How can this company get away with not having an effective Disaster Recovery plan? This is catastrophe is not like the Twin Towers going down together. Oil platforms have suffered such serious blow outs before and to be so inadequately prepared is pretty disgusting.

The damage to the environment is irrepairable. What I don't understand is why it has been so easily accepted. The talk will now be about what steps shold be put in place to prevent a similar disaster occurring again in the future. Surely this has already been done more than once and why should anyone believe they will get it right next time?

[Korumba]

Couldn't they just get one of thos $10.00 oil filters from Mt Eden Motorcycles and fix it?

[rainman]

How can this company get away with not having an effective Disaster Recovery plan? This is catastrophe is not like the Twin Towers going down together. Oil platforms have suffered such serious blow outs before and to be so inadequately prepared is pretty disgusting.

That's easy: there is no economic incentive for them to do so. There was a similar leak 25 years ago (or thereabouts, Ixtoc I think) which took months to clear up despite being in shallower water. We did not learn the lessons from that because there is not enough financial incentive to do so. If we priced environmental risk externalities correctly modern society would fall apart.

Capitalism depends on cheap energy, cheap labour, and loose environmental regulations.

[BoristheBiter]

I watched a bit of that interview on with that oil worker that jumped off the rig after it blew up. the bit that suck in my mind was when he saw the rubber from the selas coming up in the pipes he didn't shut it down.
now i have been on the oil platforms off NP and everyone has the right to shut the plant down if they is a risk to the plateform or personel.
Some resposabilty has to come down on the operators out on the rig.

[wysper]

Slowly, painfully, inhumainly..

I have always thought "inhumanely" is one of the most inappropriate uses of language given that humans are quite possibly the most vicious, dangerous, destructive and cruel animal on the planet.