B.P. and the Gulf spill?

[Triumphgirl]

what makes me mad in the whole situation is the little attention that has been given the 11 PEOPLE who died when this happened. i recognize right now the focus is fixing the leak... but these were people. not birds, or fish, or shrimp... people.

Yes it is tragic that people died too. But, to down grade the other species that share our earth to a lesser importance is disheartening to me. The dolphins, sea turtles and other LIFE are dying. Thing is what "People" dont understand is the importance of our oceans. If the oceans life dies...we die. And where in creation does it say that humans are worth more? We have overstated our worth and importance, and ruined the planet for our own greed. And lets not forget that it may be the largest US oilspill in history, but the gulf is also shared by many other countries that will be affected by this catastropy.

[HYPERR]

i don't know what we've learned. but all the drilling that goes on every day and it's been 30 years. i wish we could have accident rates like that for driving.

The end result of a car accident and a catastrophic failure like this one is not even remotely comparable.

Also majority of car accidents occur due to ridiculous negligence and incompetence. If every driver lived by the rule of "failure not being an option" then accidents would be reduced to pretty much zero.

[dean owens]

Yes it is tragic that people died too. But, to down grade the other species that share our earth to a lesser importance is disheartening to me. The dolphins, sea turtles and other LIFE are dying. Thing is what "People" dont understand is the importance of our oceans. If the oceans life dies...we die. And where in creation does it say that humans are worth more? We have overstated our worth and importance, and ruined the planet for our own greed.

i think you and i are just going to have to agree to disagree on a fundamental issue. i do believe people are more valuable then animals. no question about it. i have a dog that i love. if i had to pic between him or my kids... i'd pick my kids without hesitation. and lest you think it's just my kids... it'd be the same for a stranger. call me evil and a jerk but i can't fathom someone looking at a cow, turtle, shrimp, gold fish, dog, mosquito, cat, bunny or roach and equating them with a person.

And lets not forget that it may be the largest US oilspill in history, but the gulf is also shared by many other countries that will be affected by this catastropy.

hmmm, i thought it was washing up on our shores. i hadn't heard about it washing up on anyone else's shores. i don't say that in a condescending way, i just hadn't heard that. regardless, all the countries that can drill in the gulf are STILL drilling in the gulf. so they must not be too concerned about it.

[dean owens]

i don't know what we've learned. but all the drilling that goes on every day and it's been 30 years. i wish we could have accident rates like that for driving.

The end result of a car accident and a catastrophic failure like this one is not even remotely comparable.

Also majority of car accidents occur due to ridiculous negligence and incompetence. If every driver lived by the rule of "failure not being an option" then accidents would be reduced to pretty much zero.

i recognize they are vastly different. but they are both accidents. that was my point. accidents happen in all parts of life. about 350-400 people die each year in bathtub related accidents. i'm sure they didn't go to take a shower with failure as an option. nothing in life is perfect. there are currently 48,000 rigs in the gulf. that many rigs and we haven't had a spill like this in over 30 years. perspective is key. this isn't the only rig. this doesn't happen every day. i'm not saying that i'm happy about it. just saying that life is full of risks. we don't ground all flights because of a crash. it's a terrible thing that has happened down there. but it will get fixed. and the people and nature will rebound.

[High_Side]

i recognize they are vastly different. but they are both accidents. that was my point. accidents happen in all parts of life. about 350-400 people die each year in bathtub related accidents. i'm sure they didn't go to take a shower with failure as an option. nothing in life is perfect. there are currently 48,000 rigs in the gulf. that many rigs and we haven't had a spill like this in over 30 years. perspective is key. this isn't the only rig. this doesn't happen every day. i'm not saying that i'm happy about it. just saying that life is full of risks. we don't ground all flights because of a crash. it's a terrible thing that has happened down there. but it will get fixed. and the people and nature will rebound.

Your perspective seems to be that given all of the drilling in the gulf having one blow-out that lasts for months every thirty years is acceptable. If you take the view that all accidents are preventable, and even unacceptable, you will find ways to prevent them from occuring in the first place. How do you make a fool-proof blow out preventer? I don't know. But if you mandate that all wells must have one and a fool proof system of checking them within 1 year, the oil companies will find a way to make it happen. They will initially tell you that it cannot be done, but they will find a way.

[BuzZz]

One thing that's sort of been glossed over by everybody, especially the media, is the long term environmental impact of crude oil spills. Dean excepted....

Sure it sucks if you're a bird or a shrimp or a fisherman living in the path of a fresh spill. It will mess you up if you or your livelihood is not intelligent enough to get avoid getting covered in it. For a few months.

But crude oil is a hellva good fertilizer. It's organic, made by nature, and nature is more than capable of dealing with it. Here on land, it is not uncommon for an oilwell to blow a set of packing and spray a couple hundred barrels of oil in a plume over a wheat field. The crop under that plume that season is killed (and the farmer is compensated by the oil company), but the next year, you can see exactly where that oil was the year before. The crop growing in the soil soaked in crude the year before will be half as high again as the rest of the field and about 5 shades darker green. And greener and taller to lesser degrees for several years after.

The same thing happens in the ocean. A spill kills off a lot of things up and down the food chain for a short time. Then the plantlife comes back and uses the extra nutrients to grow extra hard, and the plants fuel the rest of the food chain. The spill in the Gulf 30 years ago mentioned in the video...... it killed off a ton of things back then, but then things came back as good or better than before.

BP should have to compensate those affected by this spill for their short term losses. But I have a hard time branding them the Devil for a spill when the reason they are drilling is because we all use petroleum to run civilization. We are all the reason for drilling and everything that brings all down the line, good and bad.

I'm no fanboy for Big Oil either. The responsible company should have to pay compensation, handle the disaster and clean up and all that. But they will only end up paying a small fraction of the total.... they got the best lawyers money can buy. And that's why they will also accept the risk of a big spill every so often. When the number of spills gets to great and starts costing too much, that's when they will start looking at 'fail proof' (nothing is fail-proof) equipment.

[csspostal]

I heard on the news that there was a similar spill in the UAE but they bought all the super tankers they could find and just kept them rolling in sucking all the oil up that came out. They could handle 85% of it I think the guy said. (former president of an oil company) no one in the west knew about it because they cleaned it up so fast by spending the dough.

[Wrider]

Why the idiots that put up the oil booming fail at life in general...
Caution: Harsh Language

[ofblong]

I thought I heard on the news that in other Jurisdictions, an automatic shot off valve at the well head was a requirement. However that was not required in U.S. waters. So I am thinking that since BP is drilling all over the world and in some places the valve would be required, why would they not instal one on their US drilling sites. What would it cost, 1/10 of a cent per barrel. Is this a case of "penny wise and pound foolish" or maybe they just don't give a damn. And before we castigate BP as being totally responsible, consider that the govt would have mandated what safety equipment is required. What venal politician(s) got what to limit the safety requirements.

They are required to have 4 safety systems to keep this from happening. Somehow all 4 systems failed and as thus we have a huge amount of oil spilling. So yes it is required and yes they had it on the well before it failed.

[ofblong]

what makes me mad in the whole situation is the little attention that has been given the 11 PEOPLE who died when this happened. i recognize right now the focus is fixing the leak... but these were people. not birds, or fish, or shrimp... people.

Yes it is tragic that people died too. But, to down grade the other species that share our earth to a lesser importance is disheartening to me. The dolphins, sea turtles and other LIFE are dying. Thing is what "People" dont understand is the importance of our oceans. If the oceans life dies...we die. And where in creation does it say that humans are worth more? We have overstated our worth and importance, and ruined the planet for our own greed. And lets not forget that it may be the largest US oilspill in history, but the gulf is also shared by many other countries that will be affected by this catastropy.

God said humans are more important. Plus I dont eat or drink anything out of the ocean so if it dies I wont be out anything because I am not sustained by any Ocean. Humans are way more important than some duck.