The Scale of the Deepwater Disaster

It is going to be a political issue now, and the fate of the economy hangs in the balance.

Regardless of what you want to believe, this unfortunate event in the gulf will be exploited for political gain.

Politically it can now be effectively argued that offshore drilling is too risky, so if we can't decrease our dependence on foreign oil then we must decrease our dependence on oil period.

Cap and trade anyone?

Naturally demand is going to only continue to grow, so the only logical way to reduce that demand is to raise the price so high that the demand will drop.

The problem is, we have already seen the snowball effect of higher fuel prices, and it will only serve to make an already bad economy much worse.

Alternative energy will not happen soon enough.

Eventually what will happen is you are going to be faced with much higher fuel costs.

Those higher fuel costs will be passed on to consumers in much higher costs for nearly everything and that will have an effect on people who are already struggling to get by on shrinking family budgets.... More mortgage failures, bad debt, bankruptcies and in record numbers beyond anything seen yet... more badness... more decline... Ultimately markets crash and it will be unstoppable this time no matter how much money the fed prints.

What we should do is drill more, despite the BP disaster, and we should do it anywhere and everywhere we can... But you know that isn't going to happen now... despite the fact that it will literally mean life or death for the economy.

They couldn't have planned for a better means to demonize oil exploration and drilling... And the timing was incredibly perfect.

Learn to say goodbye to your way of life now, if you haven't already... Things are going to change dramatically over the next 2 to 3 years.

It isn't going to be good.

Maybe this oil well is large enough to encompass the whole North American continent, so when all the pressure is relieved America becomes a new Atlantis, instantly sucked into some immense cave system.

Just kidding.

Chemical Dispersants....seriously? When will we learn? Isn't the spill bad enough as is? I mean, at least the oil is natural. That doesn't mean I think it won't harm the Gulf, but chemical dispersants are going to help the environment somehow?

The Gulf already had "dead zones". Why disperse the oil? Why not allow the ocean to naturally disperse it and spend all our energy stopping the leak?

Are we trying real hard to stop the ocean-atmosphere exchange that keeps the planet alive??? I mean, is it on someone's wish list?

Jeez...3% of oil and we just GOTTA have the oil...just gotta...even the stupid 3% out in the ocean...

And what happens as the oil's footprint caves in once it's all be sucked out? How does that affect plate tectonics? Keeping in mind that the ocean applies much more weight than the land mass on the plates...sounds like a bad idea to be messing with all this stuff...but, oh yeah, God wants us to take dominion of the Earth and use ALL the resources...

Funny thought, what if the bible is Satan's propaganda to fool us. What if the earth is God and God is Satan, wanting to destroy God (the earth).

I know, a silly thought. I guess I should get high and ponder that one.

...questions about the governments honesty in assessing the spill are emerging...

C'mon, how big is the Gulf of Mexico oil spill, really?

Calculating the exact flow of crude out of the bent Deepwater Horizon oil rig "riser" pipe on the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico is difficult. But it's now likely that the actual amount of the oil spill dwarfs the Coast Guard's figure of 5,000 barrels, or 210,000 gallons, a day.

Independent scientists estimate that the renegade wellhead at the bottom of the Gulf could be spewing up to 25,000 barrels a day. If chokeholds on the riser pipe break down further, up to 50,000 barrels a day could be released, according to a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration memo obtained by the Mobile, Ala., Press-Register.

...

A government report obtained by the Mobile, Ala., Press-Register explains that "choke points" in the crumpled riser are controlling the flow from the so-called Macondo well at Lease Block 252 in the Mississippi Canyon. But scrubbing action from sand in the oil is further eroding the pipe. There are likely tens of millions of gallons in the deposit that BP tapped with the Deepwater Horizon.

"The following is not public," reads National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Emergency Response document dated April 28, according to the Press-Register. "Two additional release points were found today. If the riser pipe deteriorates further, the flow could become unchecked resulting in a release volume an order of magnitude higher than previously thought."
An order of magnitude is a factor of 10.

...

The 5,000 barrels a day is the "extremely low end" of estimates, Mr. Amos told the Journal.

[edit on 10-5-2010 by loam]

reply to post by loam


Loam, I appreciate your diligence in updating this valuable thread. I frequent it regularly. I almost choked on my Rice Krispies just now reading this entry. I just wanted to point out date of article. 05-01-10.

I am hoping some of those startling predictions have been mitigated with more recent information. Regardless I continue to be troubled by lack of urgency. Not being one to jump into "Blame Game" my benefit of doubt is close to being withdrawn. BP seems to be taking one step forward and two back with each attempt. And inasmuch as blame and responsibility rests squarely on their shoulders, I am beginning to think that our Government is acting like a lifeguard holding back watching a drowning man try to save himself.

Thanks for your continued invaluable contributions.


[edit on 10-5-2010 by kinda kurious]

Originally posted by kinda kurious
reply to post by loam

 

I am beginning to think that our Government is acting like a lifeguard holding back watching a drowning man try to save himself.

[edit on 10-5-2010 by kinda kurious]

I'm beginning to sense the same thing. The U.S. goverment better start helping out. Didn't they spend a lot of money on secret projects in the past? You'd think they could come up with some James Bond type things for helping this problem out.

Maybe send a bunch of nuclear subs down their and ping the hell out of the ocean floor to see if it helps. I mean do something other than stand back and watch the swimmer be eaten by JAWS.

Did you smell strange odor in the air over the weekend?

Hoping to enjoy outdoor activities on Mother’s Day, a few Southwest Florida residents were crying foul — smell that is.

Chad Hautmann, of Naples, said he was planning to have a picnic on the beach with his wife and daughters on Sunday night, but an odor that he thinks may be a result of the Gulf oil spill kept the family “smelled in.”

Hautmann said the stench, which was like “a very old kerosene lamp that had been lighted and then snuffed out,” began to emanate outside their home in Lake Park on Saturday night and continued throughout Sunday evening.

After spending part of the day at the pool, some members of the family experienced headaches and mild nausea, he said.

Others in Southwest Florida have reported a similar smell.

...

Reddy said he can’t say, though, that the smell of those evaporating compounds could make it all the way to Southwest Florida, some 400 miles away.

So how big would the spill have to be to now be smelled in south western Florida?

[edit on 10-5-2010 by loam]

reply to post by loam

Emergency preparations in dealing with the expanding oil menace are now being made for cities and towns from Corpus Christi, Texas, to Houston, New Orleans, Gulfport, Mobile, Pensacola, Tampa-St.Petersburg-Clearwater, Sarasota-Bradenton, Naples, and Key West. Some 36 FEMA-funded contracts between cities, towns, and counties and emergency workers are due to be invoked within days, if not hours, according to WMR's FEMA sources.

There are plans to evacuate people with respiratory problems, especially those among the retired senior population along the west coast of Florida, before officials begin burning surface oil as it begins to near the coastline.

Source

(Note some wild speculation in that link)

This is a MUST SEE!

Amateur Video Of Gulf Oil Slick - Worse Than BP Admits

Video is from Alabama resident John Wathen as a volunteer pilot flew him over the area where the oil rig sank. Officials have stopped guessing at the amount of oil leaking although some speculate it may be closer to 1 million gallons per day.

Don't let BP spin this into something trivial.

"It's not a leak, it's a volcano spewing oil"

Seeing the slicks in the context of those ships says a lot.



Simply awful... and only 18 days into the disaster...

EDIT:

Also posted here.

[edit on 10-5-2010 by loam]

reply to post by loam



That was so bad I had to stop watching... Makes you want to pound some heads. The heads of boards and the heads of state namely.

Also, interesting:



"Catastrophe."

This gets my vote for "biggest catastrophe within my lifetime".

I don't go overboard with all that "end of the world crap", but THIS is one huge step towards it.

I personally believe that the media is not telling people how bad this is out of fear of public panic.

I am not the type to say such things lightly and feel very odd agreeing with the doom-sayers over this.

I really fear what this is going to do to all our lives in the near future.

If it doesn't stop...well, goodbye oceans...goodbye ocean life...


Goodbye humans?

Who really knows...nobody here, that is for sure. This is one of those "trust yourself moments", and I trust my huge feeling of dread over this gapping wound at the bottom of the sea.

How long before the entire public knows just how bad this is?

How long before WE all know the total effect of this?

Damn crazy thing to happen...

Wonder why it did.

reply to post by Mr Mask

I personally believe that the media is not telling people how bad this is out of fear of public panic.

There is also the problem that the boat captain from another thread had. Because this oil is leaking at the bottom of the sea, and it blends with seawater pretty effectively, the visual effect at the surface does not make for good TV or panic.

The oil is leaking, and it is impacting the environment, but there is not a thick sludge washing up on shore yet, and there are not pitiful tar covered sea birds yet, so the press is lacking.

Even some people on site are not worrying to the extent they should be, because it is just a murky, foamy, chocolate milk mixture apparent on the surface, with a very thin reflective rainbow sheen in on the distant water. It doesn't "look" all that bad, but it IS!

After Oil Rig Blast, BP Refused to Share Underwater Spill Footage

During a series of dry-run exercises, where the U.S. Coast Guard, other agencies and oil companies practiced their response to major oil spill disasters, industry executives repeatedly pressed federal regulators to give them more say on what information would be released to the public if disaster struck.

Reports obtained in a joint investigation by ABC News and the Center for Public Integrity show oil companies targeted the potential release of "confidential" information as a key concern.

...

Throughout the clean-up effort, BP has monitored the spill site around the clock using submarine-mounted cameras at the mouth of the spill. An official at Oceaneering International, the company that operates the submarines under a contract with BP, told ABC News he "could walk right down the hall and watch it, but I can't share it without BP's express permission."

Eric Smith, a professor at Tulane University's Energy Institute said that footage could help in making independent assessments of the scope of the spill. But it also could do public relations damage to BP. It has remained closely guarded and cannot be made public under the argument that it is "proprietary," according to Coast Guard officials who have received repeated requests to release the images.

The article continues:

...government officials told reporters they were trying to persuade the company to be more forthcoming.

Asked if the White House could compel the company to release the video, Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said Tuesday the decision rests with BP, which controls the tapes.

Amazing.

reply to post by loam


Yes, it is. Shows you who the real power is in this country. The large corporations have usurped governments.

I haven't read EVERY reply so I don't know if someone mentioned this or not, BUT

has anyone thought about the fact that Hurricane season is coming. Just think about the mess that will happen when a funnell sucks up thousands of gallons of oilly ocean water and dumps it onto the coast with gail force winds. Can we say Katrina, EXCEPT the flood won't be water, it wil be OIL!!

reply to post by trueperspective


I've seen it mentioned a few times, but a chilling thought nonetheless. Toxic rain @ 200+ mph. It was alluded that the only positive could be that it acts to disperse the oil via wave action, but probably not a likely benefit.

I live in Florida and am freaking out.


[edit on 12-5-2010 by kinda kurious]

++++ UPDATE+++++

FINALLY RELEASED. VIDEO OF LEAKING PIPE:

news.yahoo.com...

reply to post by kinda kurious


What's the diameter of that pipe? I heard 5 feet.



[edit on 12-5-2010 by 911stinks]

reply to post by loam


I have a gut feeling this "latest disater" is going to acculated into very serious effects.

Laugh at me all you will, but time will tell.

BP has *ucked up BIG TIME.

Corporate America is to blame, read my location.

Untill we kick the big corporations out of our politicians beds this will continue to happen.

We are all slaves to the corporations untill - massively we wake up and decide to rebell.

But, it will take everyone to rebell not just a few.

And, don't think this will affect you.....................dream on!