The Big Oil Spill of 2010

[Saturo]

Then there's the cheerful comments like:

Maybe the 2012 crowd are right, end of the world, thanks to bp's oil gusher.

I think we are literally looking at the end of the world here. it will probably end up completely unstoppable and we will have sea the color of blood soon enough, with the whole food chain whacked out of control, marine life smothered in oil or killed from dead zones, co2 from microbes consuming the oil leading to a runaway global warming feedback eventually leading to all the methane hydrates being released. Earth will turn into a new uninhabitable Venus.

Good news, everyone! I think I just perfected a new plague, that will eradicate all life on Azeroth!

[Ryai]

Then there's the cheerful comments like:

Maybe the 2012 crowd are right, end of the world, thanks to bp's oil gusher.

I think we are literally looking at the end of the world here. it will probably end up completely unstoppable and we will have sea the color of blood soon enough, with the whole food chain whacked out of control, marine life smothered in oil or killed from dead zones, co2 from microbes consuming the oil leading to a runaway global warming feedback eventually leading to all the methane hydrates being released. Earth will turn into a new uninhabitable Venus.

Ignore the fact 2012 nuts don't know half the end of days shit they spew, have it mottled and mixed up with all sorts of end of days shit and take the 2012 date for 'end of days' from what is it the mayan calendar? And ignore the fact that said people who understood the prophecy and gods better than westeners claim it's less about destruction and more about rebirth or some shit like that.

http://thereifixedit.com/2010/05/20/epi ... oga-river/

Because SHIT LIKE THIS HAS NEVER HAPPENED BEF-

Oh.

Wait.

I can't believe they have not stopped the leak yet.. I don't get why they can't stop it.

There's a shitload of water between the leak, and those who want to fix it.

And now thanks to BP everyone is slagging oil companies. The good long with the bad. Yaaaay.

[Saturo]

And now thanks to BP everyone is slagging oil companies. The good long with the bad. Yaaaay.

You saying oil companies are good? Because they are not. In any way.

[Vephriel]

Ignore the fact 2012 nuts don't know half the end of days shit they spew, have it mottled and mixed up with all sorts of end of days shit and take the 2012 date for 'end of days' from what is it the mayan calendar?

I wasn't saying I believed it, I was just pointing out a random comment.

[Ryai]

And now thanks to BP everyone is slagging oil companies. The good long with the bad. Yaaaay.

You saying oil companies are good? Because they are not. In any way.

If oil companies are bad for drilling for oil, even the good ones, and the good people in them, then you are just as bad as the oil companies For profiting from their evil evil destruction of mother earth.

When you want to start preaching how evil they are, stop using your computers, stop playing with your Ipads and Iphones, stop using your cars, stop using EVERYTHING AND ANYTHING in your life and go 100% au natural in the woods.

Because until then? You are just as guilty as the oil companies you try and mark as evil.

And that is why I am sick and tired of people slagging the good, along with the bad. Mmkay.

@ Veph: I know, but meant more in general. Conspiracy nuts seem to know all the doom but never really the why. It gets tiresome after the first few nuts.

And unlike WoW there is no irl ignore feature.

[Saturo]

Because until then? You are just as guilty as the oil companies you try and mark as evil.

Nope, because the electric company I purchase from doesn't buy their power from oilcompanies. Sure, the power I get may be from such corporations, but I'm not paying them. Don't speak about things you don't know about.

[Adam-Savage]

Because until then? You are just as guilty as the oil companies you try and mark as evil.

Nope, because the electric company I purchase from doesn't buy their power from oilcompanies. Sure, the power I get may be from such corporations, but I'm not paying them. Don't speak about things you don't know about.

Geo Thermal ? Per the comment about living in the woods and stuff..We don't have the skills to do that and there are far to many ppl on the planet to not live in a city. Yah using oil is bad but I myself do try my best to reduce my impact on the environment as much as I Can.

[Razzy]

For you, Ryai:



I live along the gulf coast, and it hasn't done all that much damage to my particular state yet. They did say, though, that if we had a large hurricane it would spread oil all over the land. The oil would be so much of a fire hazard that they'd have to evacuate everyone. (which would totally happen. I swear, old people are the most stubborn..)

[Saturo]

Because until then? You are just as guilty as the oil companies you try and mark as evil.

Nope, because the electric company I purchase from doesn't buy their power from oilcompanies. Sure, the power I get may be from such corporations, but I'm not paying them. Don't speak about things you don't know about.

Geo Thermal ?

Nope, I'm swedish, so that's not around here. It's called Telge. All they purchase is wind and water.

[Tahlian]

This has become a disaster far beyond what I think anyone might have in their wildest nightmares imagined. I hope the clarion call to turn to alternative energy sources is heeded, and not in the fashion of wind OR solar OR nuclear...but AND. Unless I'm very much mistaken, nuclear energy is very safe, provided it is treated with the proper respect. We're going to have to do it eventually...we can't keep sponging off dead dinosaur corpses forever. Why not go ahead and move into the next century now?

My heart aches for the people who have lost their livelihoods and their way of life, for the lives lost in the initial explosion, and for the Kemps-Ridley's sea turtles, and the brown pelicans, and the little Alabama dune mice, and all the other endangered species that human greed may drive to the brink. It angers me that carelessness and cost-cutting very likely caused this. Something HAS to be done to ensure safety and preparedness if we continue to drill for oil at those depths - or at all.

[Anansi]

Nuclear power is very safe these days provided it's created by newer generation reactors. The newest designs actually create next to no waste materials so we need these to get built in large numbers which mean people need to get over their fear of nuclear and educate themselves on the reality of nuclear power generation. Most of the nuclear waste that we will create is already created and stored.

There is some truth to the claim that we are all complicit in the oil company activities however. Even if we don't own a car or use oil to heat our homes, our reliance and consumption of plastic is all profit for oil companies. And we can't make plastic out of solar, wind or nuclear power.

I sincerely hope that this disaster (which seems like such a weak word to describe the scope of the situation) absolutely acts as a catalyst to develop more alternative power, more recycling of materials, better innovations for creating plastics and so forth. The devastation that BP's greed has caused is horrific and inexcusable.
Of course we're already seeing BP setting up new drill sites so I suspect nothing will change.

[Nick]

But like some others said, I can't really reply to this topic without going into a rage.
So I'll just stay out of it.
>->;

[Tygamoon]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2AAa0gd7ClM

But in all honesty the the reason it has not been fixed yet is because of its location and people with power who are NOT experts in this sort of situation clamored for a fix asap.
The platform is waaaay the hell out there with all that water. Why is it out there in deep water where it would be harder to fix? It's because of all the regulations that our government has already imposed on the oil companies. Why are there regs that forced drilling out there? Its all about a way of thinking called "Not in My Backyard". The general American public has adopted it in most every aspect of their lives. People who go vacation down in the gulf don't like to see platforms off shore. SO they stop going. The area suffers from reduced tourist dollars. In an effort to get the tourists back the state government (in some cases) will require the oil companies to go further out. In other cases it's about the environment but lets be honest here, when has the government done ANYthing for just the environment alone? There may be times it has but I can't think of any without it being 'tainted' with another motive.

And to all the people on the interwebs and news who are spouting off about how this is the biggest man made disaster from the past 100 years needs to just stfu already and do some actual research. Does anyone recall the oil Saddam Hussein purposely split into the Persian Gulf? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gulf_War_oil_spill if you feel like reading it. Or http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lakeview_Gusher, and a more interesting read http://articles.latimes.com/2010/jun/13 ... n-20100613

Granted, we have no way of knowing the actual amount of oil that has been released in the Gulf of Mexico yet and when this is all done we might never know. BUT keep this in mind, oil eating bacteria, found naturally in the gulf there some years ago ate the oil that would seep out of the ground. These little buggers have been doing this for thousands of years without adverse affects. They might have a population boom and cause some imbalances in the ecosystem but mother nature has a way to work these things out. I know there is a lot of talk going on right now about the genetically modified cousins we have in our labs now but the point is there are things down there now working on it. This spill is by far NOT the end of our world but I do hope it will wake up the common consumer to the cost of the every day things they use.

[Vespias]

Last time I spoke on this subject I got a nasty letter. But far be it from me to give a rat's ass about that. Oil companies are to blame, but they are not alone. Equal blame goes to the government for not providing suitable alternatives. And as I said before, greed greed GREED is the reason we're stagnated and stuck on the oil consumption merry-go-round!

[Redith]

Hey can anyone link me the info on HOW the funk this happened? What the hell caused that mother to blow so bad it took the valve with it

[KeemZ]

Why are we bringing such a volitile topic here? Don't get me wrong, none of us fathomed this would happen and being someone who worked in the oil profession for almost ten years but you will here of things going wrong. Nothing in this world in 100% fool proof. I'm pretty sure noone decided "Hey, lets blow this platform up, kill these eleven guys and start spilling all this oil into the Gulf" I live in south Louisiana and know quite a few people that has had their lives impacted by this travesty and everyone feels it deep in their hearts and souls. From a logical stand point, you think that all these oil companies are a bunch of evil asses just trying to get as much money as they can and not give a damn about the outcome of things...I feel you are really being ignorant to the fact that most things are made from some sort of oil byproduct. Except stuff like glass and iron/metals, anything plastic has something petrolium in it. Another thing, you see alot of people talking down oil companies seem to forget that things like SUVs and alot of trucks/cars still run on this wonderful thing called gasoline or diesel. And the people that work in this profession aren't just people from Louisiana and Texas, my company has people from Brazil, Washington, New York and a few other states that rely on these jobs not to rake in billions of dollars and buy huge mansions...but to feed their kids.

There could have been lots of things done after the spill to start soaking up/capture the oil floating out here, maybe give all the boats that just wanna ride out in the middle of nowhere just to take pics of oil and talk about how bad everything is and give them a couple bags of boom to throw out while they're out there doing nothing, and BP is wrong for not getting people out there ASAP to start picking stuff up. You cannot damn a whole industry for one accident, that is just unintelligent. Safer practices and more detailed inspections may need to be done or maintanance of and replacing of some parts may need to be done more often, but you cannot expect that from this one accident the people that have depended on this product for years can simply wake up and say "Hell with oil, I'm going green" cause it's not gonna happen.

If today we decided to just stop all our drilling/production, where would that leave us? Honestly think about it? Would we thrive as a hypicritical nation by continuing to buy oil from other countries? Would one of our allies come around and start dropping windmills and solar pannels to us and start making us independant?...or would our society, one that has had comfort in the production and use of oil, collapse? Already jobs are down hill and closing up the oil field would only add to that. Face it, most of the people in this country aren't fit for a world in which we'd have to struggle to get everything we can. It being as hot as it is now, most would just die from not having air conditioners. Would other countries come over and try to take over in the time it would take to totally change to other energy? While we'd try to load up planes and tanks with solar panels, countries still producing oil would be wiping out man/woman/child just to say they hit us while we were down.

I hate that I put so much up here and some of my spelling/grammer may be off because I feel both sides of the aisle about this subject that it's actually hard to put some of this stuff down knowing someone who believes they 'know' about the oil industry, 'know' that oil companies are puposely trying to screw everyone will say how much an ass I am or some other insult that others will try to jump on simnply because they think it's the cool thing to hate everything related to oil. I just wanted to give you all a prospective from someone who loves the state they're from and the industry that has provided for so many families including mine since before I can remember.

Thank you for all who sat through this ranting.

[Vespias]

Sorry, but the oil industry IS an evil industry. Yes, we do feed them and allow them to be this way but somewhere in the back of my mind I find it really really hard to believe that some of the greatests minds in the world...THE WORLD...can't develop alternative energy beyond windmills and solar panels. It just seems very unreal. So if one presumes that minds that can put men on the moon, remote sensors on the furthest edge of the galaxy, and invent spandex can also invent an alternative energy source, then one has to look at the reason WHY they are not doing these things. If i could invent such a thing the only way to get me NOT to invent it would be to pay me not to. Does this make sense?
As for why this disaster happened in the first place, it has been found that BP used substandard parts in an effort to save costs on building the valve. SAVE COSTS! Yes, because God forbid the CEO of that company should only make an insane amount of money as opposed to a ridiculous amount. Put that with the fact that it seems idiots are running the efforts to stop this and the former CEO has done nothing but lie about what was going on, well that sounds pretty damned evil to me.
But all the blame does not lie with the oil companies. They share the blame with governments that sit idle while the huge oil profits machine rolls on. And again, why are they not working more diligently in finding alternatives? Who really pays government officials? Surely you don't think they only get the american tax dollars for their announced salaries? Sorry, but they recieve a ton of money from lobby groups and the oil industry has got to have the most financially padded group of all. Former President Bush and his Vice President would jump through hoops for Saudi Oil families...through hoops. You can't tell me that men in such high places would do such a thing unless the money was very very good.
OK, enough of my rant...if I missed anything I'm sure I'll be told about it. If need be I will also do the research and provide the resources for some of my rants. All I ask is that any disagreements be written as a reply on this forum and not as a private, insulting letter.

[Saturo]

[...]I find it really really hard to believe that some of the greatests minds in the world...THE WORLD...can't develop alternative energy beyond windmills and solar panels.[...]

We do have an alternative to those. Nuclear Power. It's safe and clean as long as it's handled properly. People just don't want it nearby.

I think they're experimenting with fusion as well, which would be much better than fission.

[Vespias]

Not sure I want a neuclear reactor under my hood...esp with the way manufacturers here like to skimp on parts to keep costs down. I just find it hard to believe that the internal combustion engine is the best we can do for personal transportation.

[Anansi]

There is a stigma attached to nuclear power that society must overcome before we can move on to using it in a more wide-spread and thus beneficial manner. We would not run our cars on nuclear power, but nuclear power goes generate electricity which can be used to power electric cars. There are models in development and coming on the market now with remarkable speeds and distances per charge.

We have such a massive reliance on oil for power that our entire transportation infrastructure is built on it. Moving towards an electric model does not just require the vehicles to be available, but for charging stations to become part of fuel stations, for electric generation plants to move towards nuclear, solar and wind and away from coal and hydro. We need alternative plastic creation as well.

Society needs to practically move in one solid step to get us out of oil dependency, and the alternatives need to be super affordable. Such a monumental shift in thinking from both society and corporate business is practically unthinkable. I can't see it happening until the planet can actually provide no more oil for common usage.