Gulf Coast Oil Spill

[jayswin]

Originally Posted by Pinner

You know alot and I respect your opinion fotze.

Wow, you just gave fotze a virtual BJ.

[Pinner]

Or at least a good signature. hahaha

[Wookie]

I want to sue BP.

[Azure]

Originally Posted by RougeUnderoos

Who should those people be blaming instead?

I don't know, maybe it's because we live in Calgary, but I'm hearing a lot of weak excuses for this thing. Excuses from the same people who would normally say "don't expect the government to bail you out if you eff something up".

I see you didn't quote the rest of my post.

It has nothing to do with BP not being at fault. They are, and I hope they have to pay billions in damages.

But stopping the leak isn't as simple as just "plug the damn hole."

Or they would have done it already. Unless you're naive enough to believe that BP is letting the leak go because they hate the environment and really want to spend the next 100 years in court trying to settle lawsuits.

[Pastiche]

Why not shoot a torpedo at it?

[Azure]

Originally Posted by RougeUnderoos

The story is being twisted shift some of the blame on to a certain politician's soundbites not being strong enough to stop the oil from coming out of the ground, so now it is partially his fault. And I quoted a post on here that said something like "people are blaming BP for not being able to stop the leak", as though it's a bad thing.

Yes, that is exactly what is happening.

All I was saying is that while BP was at fault for not having the preventive measures in place, you can't blame them for not 'trying' to fix the leak.

They are, to their best ability.

Its just that every single moron on an internet forum somewhere thinks they know better how to stop this than the guys actually down there TRYING.

[Thor]

I read a comment on the Icelandic volcano on CNN where a guy was furious at the government for not taking action to stop the eruption, as he put it:

"with all our wealth and technology you expect us to believe we can't stop a damn volcano from shutting down a continents airports???"

The Internet is such a fun place, its like a contest between who can say the most outrageously stupid things possible.

[Pastiche]

The Economist had an excellent article about the Volcano and it being a reminder that we are still significantly at the whim of nature. This forebodes the potentially disastrous natural effects of climate change.

Death by disaster is in many ways a symptom of economic underdevelopment: witness the very different consequences of the earthquakes in Haiti and Chile. In general, richer places and richer people are better able to survive and rebound. More interconnections provide more ways to mobilise resources and explore alternatives when things go wrong. If the Eyjafjallajokull plume had been as risky as it first appeared and long-lived to boot, such interconnectedness would undoubtedly have provided ways to keep Europe supplied, though probably at substantial cost and with a fair bit of lasting disruption. The apparently sublime power of the volcano was largely the result of an initially supine reaction.


Very few events are able to perturb an increasingly globalised world. The Indian Ocean tsunami of 2004 was a murderous event, but the world pushed on and many areas recovered quickly (see Buttonwood). For a natural disaster to represent a global threat, it has to act on a global scale. An eruption of hot plasma from the sun, called a coronal mass ejection, which could do damage to electricity grids over an entire continent, might fit the bill. The largest volcanoes might cause short-term climate change profound enough to reduce agricultural production precipitously in many places at once. A large asteroid strike would do yet more damage.



These are, though, rare events. Very large coronal mass ejections are thought to happen every 500 years or so (the most recent was in 1859). Volcanoes that change climate enough to affect agriculture round the world are perhaps 100 times rarer than that, and cataclysmic asteroids rarer still. What is more, such asteroids could, in principle, be identified and, with plausible technology, nudged aside. Here Burke’s sublime is turned on its head, and human capability seems to humble nature.



This is worth applying to climate change. Many of Burke’s descendants find it difficult to believe that something as big as the earth’s climate could really be at risk from human activity, and even harder to think you could do something about it. But the risk, if not full certainty about its consequences, is there. Moreover, the idea of a counterbalancing, “geoengineered” cooling to counteract some aspects of climate change is worthy of study and discussion. Large volcanic eruptions spread cooling palls through the stratosphere. Techniques for doing something similar in a less dramatic way are plausible.


When people talk about the charms of powerlessness in the face of nature, part of what they are saying is that they don’t want to be bothered with facing up to what humans can do, and to what they might have at risk. The business of looking after a planet requires being bothered in advance—and not just about little matters like volcanoes.

http://www.economist.com/opinion/dis...ry_id=15951696

[FurnaceFace]

If you can get past the condescending tone, this is a good explanation of the next thing they are going to try:

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/...entry_id=64659

Pretty delicate operation.

[Thor]

Damn, I never knew the sheer number of oil/gas platforms but here's a map of the almost 4000 platforms in the Gulf near the US.

[corporatejay]

Originally Posted by Azure

Clearly that means this is the fault of George W. Bush!

Even 2 years removed from office he still can't keep his dirty hands from screwing up all kinds of things.

Didn't say it was W's fault, just that Halliburton is probably going to share some of the blame.

[corporatejay]

Originally Posted by Azure

Yes, that is exactly what is happening.

All I was saying is that while BP was at fault for not having the preventive measures in place, you can't blame them for not 'trying' to fix the leak.

They are, to their best ability.

Its just that every single moron on an internet forum somewhere thinks they know better how to stop this than the guys actually down there TRYING.

That's why it's ridiculous that people are blaming Obama for anything...what is he supposed to do? BP is one of the largest oil producers in the world and one of the wealthiest corporations. My guess is they have the best and brightest trying to stop this thing. Putting any of this in the hands of the government is just going to add one more layer of red tape and decision making and meetings. Could you imagine them trying to explain their next "solution" to Obama? What's he going to do, offer an opinion? He probably has no idea what he's talking about. Let BP handle it, and "deal" with them after.

[Robbob]

Originally Posted by Pastiche

Why not shoot a torpedo at it?

I'm sure there is a star wars reference we could use here.

[Pastiche]

I'm of the opinion that blaming Obama for mismanagement of this issue is a bit of a reach. What exactly is he supposed to do?

The experts aren't civil servants, they're people working for BP and other oil companies.

[Pinner]

Originally Posted by Pastiche

I'm of the opinion that blaming Obama for mismanagement of this issue is a bit of a reach. What exactly is he supposed to do?

The experts aren't civil servants, they're people working for BP and other oil companies.

The same people in the states that are fighting national health care because it is a form of socialism are criticizing Obama for not stopping the leak, they think the military should be in charge of this and did I not hear that they consulted NASA engineers and took them for a tour?

Obama can oversee the military supervision of NASA's engineers and get this well under control

[corporatejay]

Originally Posted by fotze

As soon as I hear Obama's name in relation to this incident I skip the article/news story. Absolutely no interest in the politcal angle and its irrelevance.

Media pulled the same garbage with Bush too.

Except hurricane Katrina was a FEMA screw up and FEMA (as far as I understand) is a governmental agency, if you're referring to a different incident, then I agree.

[Azure]

Originally Posted by corporatejay

That's why it's ridiculous that people are blaming Obama for anything...what is he supposed to do? BP is one of the largest oil producers in the world and one of the wealthiest corporations. My guess is they have the best and brightest trying to stop this thing. Putting any of this in the hands of the government is just going to add one more layer of red tape and decision making and meetings. Could you imagine them trying to explain their next "solution" to Obama? What's he going to do, offer an opinion? He probably has no idea what he's talking about. Let BP handle it, and "deal" with them after.

Like it was mentioned earlier, Obama shouldn't even be involved in stopping this. All he should do is provide leadership for the people being affected by this.

[Azure]

Originally Posted by Pinner

The same people in the states that are fighting national health care because it is a form of socialism are criticizing Obama for not stopping the leak, they think the military should be in charge of this and did I not hear that they consulted NASA engineers and took them for a tour?

Obama can oversee the military supervision of NASA's engineers and get this well under control

There certainly is a lot of hypocrisy involved.

Obama ain't doing too well popularity wise, and this makes him an easy target.

The general population hardly ever puts the blame where its due anyways, so its not surprising that they think Obama should hire Rev. Wright to scream 'God damn the leak' and it'll stop.

[Azure]

Originally Posted by corporatejay

Except hurricane Katrina was a FEMA screw up and FEMA (as far as I understand) is a governmental agency, if you're referring to a different incident, then I agree.

Except hurricane Katrina was a massive screwup on all accounts, including those of the state of Louisiana, and the city of New Orleans.

But people just love to blame Bush.

A certain mayor in the 'chocolate city' who should also have taken the fall got re-elected.

Apparently the people in New Orleans are morons too.

[Phaneuf3]

Originally Posted by Pastiche

I'm of the opinion that blaming Obama for mismanagement of this issue is a bit of a reach. What exactly is he supposed to do?

The experts aren't civil servants, they're people working for BP and other oil companies.

Put on a wetsuit and get out his snorkeling gear. Dive down and plug up the hole himself. It's what Reagan would have done.