MR

Posted: **Fri Apr 30, 2010 3:27 pm**

I can't believe no one has posted a thread on this tragedy yet. The BP oil spill in the Gulf is going to cause so much devastation to the whole region and have a rippling long term effect. There are a billion pounds of seafood taken from that region alone....already affected are dolphins, sea turtles and other sea life that swim closer to the surface....seabirds. Now the oil is approaching the coastline where it will cause even more devastation...especially when it gets into the marshes where many species like crab, fish and shrimp begin their life and where shore birds are nesting, the beaches..it's almost time for sea turtles to begin to come onto shore to nest.... and the list goes on.

The tragedy started with the loss of human life and will now cause the loss of plant and animal life which will all have a rippling effect that goes on to our food and economy. Everything in the world is connected and has a reliance on one another so this is a tragic event that all should be paying attention to.
The damage that already has occurred and will continue from this....just so very sad.. :cry:

Here are just a couple of articles from today...

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/36800673/ns ... vironment/

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000142 ... e_facebook

The oil slick is already 120 miles wide right now and the rig could continue to leak for months. IMO, offshore drilling should be decreased and not increased as this failure should prove...the risk of devastating long term damage is just too great. We should be moving more and more towards clean energy alternatives instead.

It's going to take many years for nature to heal the damage that man has done even in just this instance....if it can rebound and the damage isn't so severe that it's permanent.
.

Posted: **Fri Apr 30, 2010 4:54 pm**

Just what we needed, another super expensive disaster.

Posted: **Fri Apr 30, 2010 5:12 pm**

Sarah wrote:Just what we needed, another super expensive disaster.

Even worse, a tremendous amount of death of plankton on up the food chain of species. Just heartbreaking. :cry:

Posted: **Fri Apr 30, 2010 11:05 pm**

Blueskies wrote:
Sarah wrote:Just what we needed, another super expensive disaster.

Even worse, a tremendous amount of death of plankton on up the food chain of species. Just heartbreaking.

And it is.I worry about all the critters well the sealife.Saying lots of prayers here in Fl.I feel sure we will see it here too. :cry:

Posted: **Fri Apr 30, 2010 11:06 pm**

Yet those moronic republican/Tea baggers can be heard yelling from the rooftops, "Drill Baby Drill." :roll:

This is why California said no to that shit.

Posted: **Fri Apr 30, 2010 11:10 pm**

Rockindeano wrote:Yet those moronic republican/Tea baggers can be heard yelling from the rooftops, "Drill Baby Drill." This is why California said no to that shit.

They want to drill here in Fl and hope it will not happen.We don't need it the gas price is still high.Reg gas is now $2.89

Posted: **Fri Apr 30, 2010 11:20 pm**

Babyblue wrote:
Rockindeano wrote:Yet those moronic republican/Tea baggers can be heard yelling from the rooftops, "Drill Baby Drill." This is why California said no to that shit.

They want to drill here in Fl and hope it will not happen.We don't need it the gas price is still high.Reg gas is now $2.89

$2.89? WTF you complaining about. $3.17 here.

Posted: **Fri Apr 30, 2010 11:43 pm**

Rockindeano wrote:
Babyblue wrote:
Rockindeano wrote:Yet those moronic republican/Tea baggers can be heard yelling from the rooftops, "Drill Baby Drill." This is why California said no to that shit.

They want to drill here in Fl and hope it will not happen.We don't need it the gas price is still high.Reg gas is now $2.89

$2.89? WTF you complaining about. $3.17 here.

I guess i will not say anymore then Dean. :lol:

Posted: **Sat May 01, 2010 3:56 am**

But there are more important issues! We NEED to find Obama's birth certificate!

But seriously - those who keep yelling "DRILL! DRILL! (including the president)" -hope yer paying attention. Are we the only species that defecates in our own food supply?

Tons of large earthquakes, Volcanoes, ruined oceans, and Glee... pretty much all points to end of life on the planet.

Time to cash in yer chips folks.

Posted: **Sat May 01, 2010 4:01 am**

brywool wrote:But there are more important issues! We NEED to find Obama's birth certificate!

But seriously - those who keep yelling "DRILL! DRILL! (including the president)" -hope yer paying attention. Are we the only species that defecates in our own food supply?

Obama had to make concessions to those cocksucking republicans and blue dog Dems....I don't think dude wants to drill in the ocean. The White House does have to own this spill though. He needs to act swiftly, unlike Bush, and get control of the situation.

Posted: **Sat May 01, 2010 4:38 am**

brywool wrote:But there are more important issues! We NEED to find Obama's birth certificate!

But seriously - those who keep yelling "DRILL! DRILL! (including the president)" -hope yer paying attention. Are we the only species that defecates in our own food supply?

Tons of large earthquakes, Volcanoes, ruined oceans, and Glee... pretty much all points to end of life on the planet.

Time to cash in yer chips folks.

Right on!

Have you noticed that people can go on and on for days, even weeks talking about and expressing outrage over some golfer being stupid and spend their time and attention on the insignificant gossip fodder, for example, but yet have no outrage over things that really matter and affects every single person and all life on the planet? :evil:

Posted: **Sat May 01, 2010 4:42 am**

This bird is only the beginning ....

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100430/ap_ ... losion_305

Posted: **Sat May 01, 2010 4:51 am**

Stop Off Shore Oil Drilling

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FG-b4n4yTGc

:evil:

Posted: **Sat May 01, 2010 4:53 am**

we haven't even begun to see the disastrous effects of this oil spill. such a horrific accident on so many levels. there better be some serious consequences for bp and some reqirements to include that 1/2 million dollar device to shut production in case of disaster on all rigs.

Posted: **Sat May 01, 2010 4:59 am**

Lula wrote:we haven't even begun to see the disastrous effects of this oil spill. such a horrific accident on so many levels. there better be some serious consequences for bp and some reqirements to include that 1/2 million dollar device to shut production in case of disaster on all rigs.

Exactly! No US off shore rigs have a remote shut off switch and have not been required to have them!

But aside from that, IMO the oil rigs shouldn't be out in the ocean in the first place! Being dependent on oil has caused death, war and destruction! We don't need to use oil! There are far less destructive, cleaner and smarter ways to go!

Posted: **Sat May 01, 2010 5:11 am**

Blueskies wrote:
Lula wrote:we haven't even begun to see the disastrous effects of this oil spill. such a horrific accident on so many levels. there better be some serious consequences for bp and some reqirements to include that 1/2 million dollar device to shut production in case of disaster on all rigs.

Exactly! No US off shore rigs have a remote shut off switch and have not been required to have them! But aside from that, IMO the oil rigs shouldn't be out in the ocean in the first place! Being dependent on oil has caused death, war and destruction! We don't need to use oil! There are far less destructive, cleaner and smarter ways to go!

Before you fuckin Cons say 'no way,' look no further than Brazil. Completely self sufficient without the use of oil. But I know, we're just a bunch of tree huggers, right? :roll:

Posted: **Sat May 01, 2010 5:21 am**

Rockindeano wrote:
Blueskies wrote:
Lula wrote:we haven't even begun to see the disastrous effects of this oil spill. such a horrific accident on so many levels. there better be some serious consequences for bp and some reqirements to include that 1/2 million dollar device to shut production in case of disaster on all rigs.

Exactly! No US off shore rigs have a remote shut off switch and have not been required to have them! But aside from that, IMO the oil rigs shouldn't be out in the ocean in the first place! Being dependent on oil has caused death, war and destruction! We don't need to use oil! There are far less destructive, cleaner and smarter ways to go!

Before you fuckin Cons say 'no way,' look no further than Brazil. Completely self sufficient without the use of oil. But I know, we're just a bunch of tree huggers, right?

I would rather hug a tree WHICH SUSTAINS LIFE rather than hug some self absorbed, greedy ass bastard who doesn't give a damn about anyone but themselves and could care less about how their greed and only their own wants and comforts affects anyone else or how it affects the planet! It's all just me, me , me by too many in this world any more without regard! SICKENING! :evil:

I'm not referring to you, Dean..just saying in general about some like you were.

Posted: **Sat May 01, 2010 5:33 am**

Before my stalkers come in and "critique"......no I don't often but hell yeah I'm cursing over this issue today! and Buddhism has great philosophy but I don't agree with being totally passive all the time. Total passivity just leads to getting run over by the ill willed and ill intended. Sometimes a stronger stance has to be taken when harm is being done and some things should and have to be fought against. Some things you have to be passionate about.
( Just saying before some numbskull comes in to divert the topic onto me when it's not about me and is too important a topic to act stupid about so stick to the issue at hand)

Posted: **Sat May 01, 2010 5:58 am**

Interview with

Jacqueline Savitz, Sr. Scientist, Oceana:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/co ... ?tid=toast

One excerpt:

Jacqueline Savitz: There are a lot of marine life at risk. Sea turtles, fish, marine mammals, birds, you name it. Oil is extremely toxic to marine life of all kinds.
Many fish spawn in the Gulf including Atlantic bluefin tuna which are under severe pressure from overfishing. Their larvae are very sensitive and the spill could affect their populations. Also snapper and grouper, all of those are important commercially.

There are also 4 species of sea turtles in the Gulf and they are all endangered or threatened. They can be exposed to oil when they come up to breath, and end up being coated by oil and even swallowing some of it. This can interfere with their digestion, respiration, and a variety of other functions.

Sea birds are the classic poster child for oil spills. Coating can leave them unable to keep warm and cause hypothermia.
So there are a lot of ways marine life will be impacted by the spill even long before it gets to land.

Posted: **Sat May 01, 2010 6:31 am**

This is devastating. I've been very upset about opening up off-shore drilling off the Florida coast and couldn't believe how little uproar there has been about the push for it, b/c Florida has always fought hard against that. I hope this is a wake-up call.

Posted: **Sat May 01, 2010 6:34 am**

florida has some of the most prestine beaches, to drill off the coast would be a crime and not nearly worth the risk.

Posted: **Sat May 01, 2010 7:45 am**

Lula wrote:florida has some of the most prestine beaches, to drill off the coast would be a crime and not nearly worth the risk.

I have been there and they are nice, but they pale in comparison to California's 780 mile coastline, yet we have those Goddamned derricks popping out of the water like giant whale dicks...tons of them. Sarah Palin can go to Hell with her Drill baby Drill bullshit.

Posted: **Sat May 01, 2010 7:57 am**

Lula wrote:florida has some of the most prestine beaches, to drill off the coast would be a crime and not nearly worth the risk.

We do and it scars the hell out of me & what it can do.I for one do not want the drills here at all. :twisted:

Posted: **Sat May 01, 2010 9:19 am**

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE63T55Q20100430

Second Louisiana Rig Minor : Report

(Reuters) - An inland shallow-water drilling rig capsized near Morgan City, Louisiana, while being towed to a salvage yard, the Coast Guard said on Friday.

U.S. | Green Business

There were no injuries, and navigation was not affected by the incident in the Charenton navigation channel south of U.S. 90 near Morgan City, Coast Guard spokesman Mike O'Berry said.

"This is not a major waterway," he said. "Nobody was on board. It was being towed."

The incident followed the April 20 explosion of the Transocean Deepwater Horizon in the Gulf of Mexico, in which 11 people died. The rig sank and a disastrous oil spill has ensued.

A 210-foot-long barge rig, which worked swampland and shallow water oil and gas prospects, was involved in Friday's incident, the Coast Guard said.

It had a 20,000-gallon diesel tank but carried only about 200 gallons of fuel when it capsized. Spill containment boom was put around it as a precaution, the Coast Guard said.

O'Berry said the rig was owned by T. Moore Services in Franklin, Louisiana. A telephone call to the company was not returned.

(Reporting by Bruce Nichols)

Posted: **Sat May 01, 2010 9:32 am**

Update:

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/stor ... c=fb&cc=fp

Posted: **Sat May 01, 2010 9:48 am**

I'm on my way to Dallas for the weekend. Have a good one, y'all.

For the latest information on the spill, here are some suggested Web sites:

http://www.deepwaterhorizonresponse.com/

http://response.restoration.noaa.gov/

http://www.crcl.org/coalitionprograms/o ... overy.html

http://www.incidentnews.gov/incident/8220

If you are interested in volunteering, or know someone who is, please call the Deepwater Horizon Response Volunteer Request Line at 1-866-448-5816.

Posted: **Sat May 01, 2010 10:05 am**

This keeps getting worse...

http://blog.al.com/live/2010/04/deepwat ... _memo.html

Leaked report: Government fears Deepwater Horizon well could become unchecked gusher
By Ben Raines
April 30, 2010, 2:18PM

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano uses a map of the Gulf of Mexico during the daily press briefing at the White House in Washington, Thursday, April 29, 2010. A leaked memorandum obtained by the Press-Register on the unfolding spill disaster in the Gulf makes clear the Coast Guard now fears the Deepwater Horizon well site could be on the verge of becoming an unchecked gusher shooting millions of gallons of oil per day into the Gulf.

A confidential government report on the unfolding spill disaster in the Gulf makes clear the Coast Guard now fears the well could become an unchecked gusher shooting millions of gallons of oil per day into the Gulf.

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

Asked Friday to comment on the document, NOAA spokesman Scott Smullen said that the additional leaks described were reported to the public late Wednesday night. Regarding the possibility of the spill becoming an order of magnitude larger, Smullen said, "I'm letting the document you have speak for itself."

In scientific circles, an order of magnitude means something is 10 times larger. In this case, an order of magnitude higher would mean the volume of oil coming from the well could be 10 times higher than the 5,000 barrels a day coming out now. That would mean 50,000 barrels a day, or 2.1 million gallons a day. It appears the new leaks mentioned in the Wednesday release are the leaks reported to the public late Wednesday night.

"There is no official change in the volume released but the USCG is no longer stating that the release rate is 1,000 barrels a day," continues the document, referred to as report No. 12. "Instead they are saying that they are preparing for a worst-case release and bringing all assets to bear."

The emergency document also states that the spill has grown in size so quickly that only 1 to 2 percent of it has been sprayed with dispersants.

The Press-Register obtained the emergency report from a government official. The White House, NOAA, the Coast Guard and BP Plc did not immediately return calls for comment made early this morning.

The worst-case scenario for the broken and leaking well pouring oil into the Gulf of Mexico would be the loss of the wellhead and kinked piping currently restricting the flow to 5,000 barrels -- or 210,000 gallons -- per day.

If the wellhead is lost, oil could leave the well at a much greater rate.

"Typically, a very good well in the Gulf can produce 30,000 barrels a day, but that's under control. I have no idea what an uncontrolled release could be," said Stephen Sears, chairman of the petroleum engineering department at Louisiana State University.

On Thursday, federal officials said they were preparing for the worst-case scenario but didn't elaborate.

Kinks in the piping created as the rig sank to the seafloor may be all that is preventing the Deepwater Horizon well from releasing its maximum flow. BP is now drilling a relief well as the ultimate fix. The company said Thursday that process would take up to 3 months.

"I'm not sure what's happening down there right now. I have heard there is a kink in what's called the riser. The riser is a long pipe that connects the wellhead to the rig. I really don't know if that kink is a big restriction. Is that really a big restriction? There could be another restriction further down," said LSU's Sears.

"An analogy would be if you have a kink in a garden hose. You suspect that kink is restricting the flow, but there could be another restriction or kink somewhere else closer to the faucet.

BP Plc executive Doug Suttles said Thursday the company was worried about "erosion" of the pipe at the wellhead.

Sand is an integral part of the formations that hold oil under the Gulf. That sand, carried in the oil as it shoots through the piping, is blamed for the ongoing erosion described by BP.

"The pipe could disintegrate. You've got sand getting into the pipe, it's eroding the pipe all the time, like a sandblaster," said Ron Gouget, a former oil spill response coordinator for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

"When the oil is removed normally, it comes out at a controlled rate. You can still have abrasive particles in that. Well, now, at this well, its coming out at fairly high velocity," Gouget continued. "Any erosive grains are abrading the inside of the pipe and all the steel that comes in contact with the liquid. It's essentially sanding away the pipe."

Gouget said the loss of a wellhead is totally unprecedented.

"How bad it could get from that, you will have a tremendous volume of oil that is going to be offgassing on the coast. Depending on how much wind is there, and how those gases build up, that's a significant health concern," he said.

The formation that was being drilled by Deepwater Horizon when it exploded and sank last week is reported to have tens of millions of barrels of oil. A barrel contains 42 gallons.

Smullen described the NOAA document as a regular daily briefing. "Your report makes it sound pretty dire. It's a scenario," he said, "It's a regular daily briefing sheet that considered different scenarios much like any first responder would."

Posted: **Sat May 01, 2010 10:50 am**

"More than a week has passed since the Deepwater Horizon rig exploded 50 miles off the Louisiana coast, killing 11 workers, injuring over a dozen more, and causing a massive oil spill that may eclipse the Exxon Valdez.

Yet the two most prominent political champions of offshore drilling -- Sarah Palin and Michael Steele -- appear not to have uttered a word about the incident.

Not that either one of them has been completely silent. Sarah Palin has published four new messages on her Facebook page since the initial explosion, including a post on Thursday titled "The Straight-talking 'Hockey Dad' with a Message for Reform" and another defending Rev. Franklin Graham after he was asked not to attend a Pentagon prayer event.

Likewise, Michael Steele has issued at least six statements over the past week, including one on a new Republican National Committee web video, "Mr. Obama's Wild Ride."

And yet, if they do comment, it's hard to imagine that Palin and Steele would take the same tone that they've typically used when discussing offshore drilling.

"Drill, baby, drill! And drill now!" Steele memorably chanted at the Republican National Convention in 2008. "Do you want to put your country first? Then let's make decisions about our security based on what keeps us safe and not on what's politically correct," he told the crowd.

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And during that year's vice presidential debate, Palin told Joe Biden, "You even called drilling -- safe, environmentally-friendly drilling offshore -- as raping the outer continental shelf. There -- with new technology, with tiny footprints even on land, it is safe to drill and we need to do more of that."

UPDATE: At 10:40AM ET on Friday, Sarah Palin made her first comment on the oil spill, posting the following on Twitter: "Having worked/lived thru Exxon oil spill,my family&I understand Gulf residents' fears.Our prayers r w/u.All industry efforts must b employed."

Posted: **Sat May 01, 2010 1:39 pm**

http://www.OilSpillVolunteers.com/

Posted: **Sun May 02, 2010 4:46 am**

we could stop all off-shore drilling but someone else would just drill (& not do so to our standards) & then sell it to us. it's like saying you're not going to cook at home to save gas & electricity so you're going out to eat instead... but what do they use to cook their food? so you're not really saving anything.

anyway... do some research about the products we purchase... plastic, clothing, medicine, cosmetics, etc. if we really cared about using less oil we would make an effort to purchase more "clean" products. research & read labels.

does it really matter WHERE the environmental damage is? as long as it's not on our shores it's ok?

MR

Oil Spill Devastation

Oil Spill Devastation

Another incident today