Gulf Oil Spill Will be Worst in History
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The U.S. military has joined efforts to stop an oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico as fears rise about its scale.
Five times as much oil as previously thought could be leaking from the well beneath where a rig exploded and sank last week, U.S. officials said earlier.
The slick is 45 miles (72km) by 105 miles (169km) – almost the size of Jamaica – and heading for the U.S. coast.
A third leak has been discovered, and a fire-fighting expert said the disaster may become the biggest oil spill ever.
“Probably the only thing comparable to this is the Kuwait fires [following the Gulf War in 1991],” Mike Miller, head of Canadian oil well fire-fighting company Safety Boss, told the BBC World Service.
“The Exxon Valdez [tanker disaster off Alaska in 1989] is going to pale [into insignificance] in comparison to this as it goes on.”
Scientists say only a quarter of local marine wildlife survived the Exxon Valdez disaster.
Some 5,000 barrels (210,000 gallons) a day were now thought to be gushing into the sea 50 miles off Louisiana’s coast, said the U.S. Coastguard’s Rear Admiral Mary Landry.
If those estimates are correct, the spill could match the 11 million gallons spilled from the Exxon Valdez within two months.
The scale of the operation to contain the oil spill and protect both the U.S. coastline and wildlife is unprecedented, with the military and other government agencies collaborating with BP – which had hired the sunken rig – and industry leaders
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choice –
that’s exactly what the majority of this country will vote into law within 40 years because of this kind of environmental neglect and destruction. We have enough plastic already made to suit our needs, btw… up to probably about 20 billion people. Recycling it safely is available but too costly. When overpopulation, carbon kill and lack of food and becoming buried in the waste we are creating at a breakneck pace falls on top of the globe… IF America has any real authority left, they will use it to ‘chip in’ to save the planet…. if this is still a free society. And basically “choice” we are choosing to live our lives in good stead with the living planet by not driving gas guzzling bohemiths, recycling, buying energy efficiently, not over consuming energy and doing our best not little with plastics. How about you? Are you being a good steward of the planet in your neighborhood and with your vote?
Water? We’ll be paid in water. Get a clue! Read the signs. It ain’t Jesus coming… it’s a 19th nervous breakdown for Mother Earth. Excuse feelings from your decisions? Not a chance… I allow my heart to filter what my mind considers. I do my best to make use of that facility that allows me to understand right from wrong and shame on you for not understanding that…ya know?
If you are going to bitch about what size of cars that “other” people should be driving why stop there? You should tell them where and who to work for. Tell them how many kids to have and what size of dwelling to live in. Tell them how much they can make per hour/salary, how much water they can drink in a 24 hour period, how many condoms that they can use per week. Really? Try governing your own lives with realistic responsible measures and not Feelings!
They haven’t even got Exxon to clean up Valdeze (sp) completely. I NEVER purchase anything Exxon. BP is now on my no buy list… and I’ve emailed the company, several of it’s officers… and I intend to keep it up … I’ve got a ‘template bitch and accuse’ email written up on a word doc that I copy and paste eternally. One “Margaret Lindstrom” in procuring has already officially spam dropped me.
There is a book of ‘how to’ somewhere on the market on how to make the largest impact in complaint when something like this happens with a major corporation. And I’m hitting all the relevant Reps and Senators with another copy and pastie. Goes double for Gov’s. Crist is making local news with it. If you google these tactics you will find info on how to. I just follow my instincts on it.
Thanks Jess for the link!
The effects will be catastrophic and widespread. BP must pay for all of them, direct and indirect.
If anyone is so inclined, here is a group I found and donated to this morning. They have already started cleaning up some of the birds washed ashore. Non profit org based in Delaware.
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http://www.tristatebird.org/
Don’t worry gang, in a few hundred years, when a major oil spill and/or ecological disaster hits the richest and whitest of the richest and whitest sectors of the MIC, I’m sure something will be done to permanently change our energy policy.
Randal I think this might be that disaster. Pensacola is in its sights, as is other sections of the “Emerald Coast.” That is White America. Secondly Jimmy Buffet’s estate is right in the path of this slick.
What could possibly go wrong with “Drill, baby, drill”? THIS. Precisely this.
This is one reason why it’s better to reduce energy use by cutting wasteful choices out of our lives, than to fulfill our energy needs by taking more out of Earth. This is why driving a Hummer or Escalade is the act of an environmental sociopath.
Hubby drives an Escalade and I have been bitching at him to go get rid of it for months. I’m thinking I will be upping the nagging this weekend and possibly by force, dragging his ass to a dealership.
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Good idea. Seriously, good idea. For city dwellers, especially, there’s absolutely no reason to have an Escalade other than as a signal that you can afford it.
I can’t watch CSI: Miami because it irritates me too much every time I see Horatio booting around town in a Hummer. The guy carries nothing more than a gun and a notebook, for crying out loud, in a fully paved city; what does he need a gigantic vehicle for?
See this is what I tell him. You are not in the mountains anywhere needing this big a vehicle and we don’t have kids so there is no need for anything bigger than a 4 door car. I told him after I had wrecked my garage door and the top of his truck(don’t ask) he had to get rid of it. I can’t drive it because I have no depth perception and forget how big it is.
CSI: Miami is a farce. I spent my whole life in law enforcement and I guarantee crime scene investigators or commanders for that matter never drove Hummers or flew around in helicopters. You drove Ford Crown Vics, usually those recycled from road patrol. CSI: Miami is probably the least accurate, silliest LE show on television. Oh, and there’s more: The overwhelming majority of crime scene investigators in the United States don’t carry guns, investigate cases, or have arrest powers. They are highly trained technicians and scientists but they are not cops.
This will make Katrina look like a walk in the park economically and for habitat of the Gulf Coast.
AYUP, there are some accounts that this will be worse than the Exxon Valdez disaster, because there is no outlet like there was in Prince William sound(?) for it to go anywhere.
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Damn. Damn, the waste and the death to the marine life. And not to be mercenary but the expense. BP and the rig leasers ought to pay every cent of cleanup and rehab.Bastards.
I literally am having trouble sleeping over this. I try to keep the pictures of the birds covered in oil out of my mind, and the beautiful coast, once home to millions of species, now covered in fucking OIL! You know how you get made at certain things my friend? Well this is my red zone.
AYUP and now you have Lush Rimjob talking about, this is the tree huggers fault. The Redstate Armchair Brigade, and the babies at Freeperland talking about, this is sabotage by them durty libruls, see it happened on Earth Day. Dumbasses don’t even know it happened before then, the rig collapsed on Earth Day. Krugman, to his credit, called this a couple days after, that they would try and pin this on those DFHs and Obama. This is possibly going to wipe out all manner of species that are there and could be with us for yrs to come. I cannot think about all the animals that will die, or I will go into a mild depression. I’m going to see where I can donate to animal groups that are desparately trying to save the ones they can.
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I have been depressed for days Jess.
Well I turned sadness into not becoming full out ugly cry mode, by donating to a group that is there already doing good work. I posted a linky to the org down there if anyone else wants to donate.
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When you all decide to not use electricity, drive cars and recreate (plastics used for boats, skiis, backpacks etc. then you can truly hammer the oil companies. Until then….all you are is a hypicrite.