Sunday, May 16, 2010

Just Beneath The Surface

Massive deep sea oil geysers are like icebergs.  It ain't the 10% on the surface that's going to kill you...
Scientists are finding enormous oil plumes in the deep waters of the Gulf of Mexico, including one as large as 10 miles long, 3 miles wide and 300 feet thick in spots. The discovery is fresh evidence that the leak from the broken undersea well could be substantially worse than estimates that the government and BP have given.

“There’s a shocking amount of oil in the deep water, relative to what you see in the surface water,” said Samantha Joye, a researcher at the University of Georgia who is involved in one of the first scientific missions to gather details about what is happening in the gulf. “There’s a tremendous amount of oil in multiple layers, three or four or five layers deep in the water column.”

The plumes are depleting the oxygen dissolved in the gulf, worrying scientists, who fear that the oxygen level could eventually fall so low as to kill off much of the sea life near the plumes.

Dr. Joye said the oxygen had already dropped 30 percent near some of the plumes in the month that the broken oil well had been flowing. “If you keep those kinds of rates up, you could draw the oxygen down to very low levels that are dangerous to animals in a couple of months,” she said Saturday. “That is alarming.” 
Goodbye fishing industry.  Now, here's my question.  If you're a Teapublican, once again, why aren't you screaming at the Republicans and the free market solutions that created this and will end up putting thousands of hard working real Americans out of work for good?

I mean you can blame Obama for this all you want to, but the fact of the matter is he's not the one running the oil well, not the one who decided to cut safety measures to cust costs, not the one who subcontracted the rig out to Transocean and Halliburton, and not the ont that screwed up the plans for the blowout preventer and failed to maintain the piece of vital safety equipment.

And if your Republican buddies have anything to say about it, you're the ones who will be stuck with the bill, too.  This is a disaster caused by the corporations who are funding this movement.  Just like the banks, this isn't a conservative or liberal issue, or a black or white issue, or a red state vs blue state issue, or a religious vs secular issue, this is a greed issue.

And you're being played for fools by the same people who are literally wrecking this country.

[UPDATEBP has managed to get that siphon tube on the oil riser pipe, but the "percentage reduction of the oil flow is unknown" at this point.  So who knows if it's even working at all.

11 comments:

Arcadian said...

At what point does this become Obama's Katrina, before or after the investigation into the White House cover up of the true extent of this disaster?

What your pro-Obama tunnel vision blocks you from seeing is the fact that very, very soon Obama is going to rightfully be taking the blame for this. After all, "It happened on his watch" right?

Arcadian said...

Also, the same arguments people are using to defend Obama are the same exact arguments people made defending Bush about 9/11 and Katrina.

So on top of being a partisan hack, you're a hypocrite too. The good news is when you finally get over your irrational hatred of Republicans and conservatism like I did after college, you'll never vote for a Democrat again.

Zandar said...

Because this man-made, preventable disaster caused by negligence is exactly like a terrorist attack or a hurricane.

The reason why the Katrina comparisons are not working is because the events are not alike, particularly in their causes. Keep telling yourself that your "open-mindedness" is nothing like my "tunnel vision" either.

Arcadian said...

That doesn't change two facts:

1) Obama is president. Fair or unfair, the buck stops with him.

2) Republicans have not been in charge of the Mineral Management Service or the Interior Department for the last 18 months.

BP may have caused the disaster. The lack of oversight that failed to stop the spill and the slow response that looks more and more like a coverup is all on Obama's head.

The question is how much the voters will blame Obama for this. If your goal was to convince voters that government is anything but incompetent then this is not working very well is it?

tsisageya said...

I'm afraid I have to agree with you, Arcadian.

Zandar?

Allan said...

Cajun, you might have more luck trying to convert impresssionable young people with your philosophy. I suggest you hang out around elementary schools and approach the children for a chat.
Invite them to go for a ride in your car so they can listen to Reagan audiobooks with you.

Zandar said...

And that doesn't change the fact that this was still a man-made preventable disaster, and the fact that the GOP response to this has been "Well, we need to drill more and open up more oil rigs despite all this."

The incompetence here is not Obama's, but BP's. Republicans don't have a solution to this probem either, neither does the "free market".

If a disaster of this magnitude is possible at any oil rig, why are we still drilling at all?

Arcadian said...

Don't remember you being this dense before!

We get 20% of our oil from offshore so unless you plan on paying $5 a gallon for gas, it's drill baby drill! You're also evading my question, how is this not ultimately Obama's responsibility as well as his liability?

That was the argument for Katrina for Bush unless you're now admitting that Bush wasn't at fault for the response for Katrina.

You've lost this argument and so has Obama, he will go down as one of the worst Presidents ever.

Zandar said...

OK Arc, by your logic you're both saying that Obama has the ultimate responsibility to ensure that the federal government stops disasters like this from happening, but at the same time we must drill offshore for oil.

You can't have both. And since we can't drill with 100% safety, either there's a level of risk you're willing to take or not. If you're not, then we need a complete lockdown on all offshore drilling until the technology is improved and all rigs refitted.

Otherwise, there's operational risk which must be borne by the companies operating the rigs and wells.

And since you're a geology, oceanology and underwater operations expert now, what should the federal response be to a huge blob of oil hanging out under the surface, killing off entire species in the Gulf? A shop-vac?

If there's no workable solution to this, maybe we should stop the drilling.

Arcadian said...

And I completely disagree with you, Obama must ultimately accept any failure under his watch. That was the standard liberals like you applied to Bush, that is the standard conservatives like me apply to Obama.

Zandar said...

And yet Katrina and this disaster are still completely different. Does the government deserve some of the blame? Sure, and for the reasons you list.

But the real culprit here is BP, Transocean and Halliburton, let's not forget that in your rush to vilify Obama.

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