This page has been archived and commenting is disabled.
Gulf Methane Levels 1 Million Times Above Normal Are Depleting Oxygen And Creating Marine Dead Zones
Reuters is so not getting the administration's latest round of taxpayer bail out funding when mainstream media comes knocking on Obama's door looking for handouts. The media company has shockingly decided to release some of the truth about the biosystematic genocide currently happening in the Gulf: "As much as 1 million times the normal level of methane gas has been found in some regions near the Gulf of Mexico oil spill, enough to potentially deplete oxygen and create a dead zone, U.S. scientists said on Tuesday. Texas A&M University oceanography professor John Kessler, just back from a 10-day research expedition near the BP Plc oil spill in the gulf, says methane gas levels in some areas are "astonishingly high." Luckily, America is gradually realizing that the entire food chain in the southeast is about to be turned around on its head, leading to a massive and unprecedented ecological disaster, which will certainly wipe out thousands of species and result in not only a surge in unemployment (that's a given) but outright loss of life (at statistically significant levels), and the anger is mounting. Perhaps the one good thing to come out of the worst ecological disaster in world history will be the sudden, and jarring awakening from the generational slumber for most of America, and a long overdue overhaul of a broken political and economic system.
More from Reuters:
Kessler's crew took measurements of both surface and deep water within a 5-mile (8 kilometer) radius of BP's broken wellhead.
"There is an incredible amount of methane in there," Kessler told reporters in a telephone briefing.
In some areas, the crew of 12 scientists found concentrations that were 100,000 times higher than normal.
"We saw them approach a million times above background concentrations" in some areas, Kessler said.
The scientists were looking for signs that the methane gas had depleted levels of oxygen dissolved in the water needed to sustain marine life.
"At some locations, we saw depletions of up to 30 percent of oxygen based on its natural concentration in the waters. At other places, we saw no depletion of oxygen in the waters. We need to determine why that is," he told the briefing.
Methane occurs naturally in sea water, but high concentrations can encourage the growth of microbes that gobble up oxygen needed by marine life.
Kessler said oxygen depletions have not reached a critical level yet, but the oil is still spilling into the Gulf, now at a rate of as much as 60,000 barrels a day, according to U.S. government estimates.
"What is it going to look like two months down the road, six months down the road, two years down the road?" he asked.
No commentary necessary, suffice it to say we sincerely urge Whitney Tilson to hedge his BP holdings with at least a few puts.
h/t John
»
- 15314 reads
- Printer-friendly version
- Send to friend
- advertisements -
Tyler, would you please schedule a ROUND OF GOLF with that piece of Messiah SHIT in the White House and discuss this situation with him.
Come to think of it, I wonder if he can even speak on the golf course considering I have never seen any teleprompters.
I can only assume that he must have one on both of the bedroom night stands, unless he never speaks to his wife during sex.
LONE.STAR.HOG.
Ha! I love it! Yee-haw!!
Your post is exactly what I've wanted to say for a long time, but it takes a Lone Star cowpuncher to get 'em words right! You and I are the same, my brother.
Fishin'. Huntin'. Salisbury Steak TV dinners. And some red-white-and-blue, up-yer-ass, Texan wisecraken' to say it like it is!
Fuck 'N A!!!
God. Guns. Guts. and Trucks!!
Palin/Jesus 2012, or Die bitches!!
Hilarious!
Support our troops!
You're either for us or agin' us!
We fight them there so we won't have to fight them here!
God bless the USA!
Now where'd I put that damn remote --- can't miss my fuckin' cagefightin' on Spike! Hey bitch, git off yerr fat ass and order a damn pizza --- extra cheese and stuffed crust and no goddamn veggies! --- and bring me another fuckin' Bud light while yer at it!
Cheney/Palin/Jesus 2016
This could actually be good for BP. Methane is a greenhouse gas and another bullet to be used for cap and tax. BP is involved in the cap and tax scheme. They play their cards right and they could dance their way out of this and maybe make a few ducats. And after all BP is TBTF anyway right?
This news is so sad it makes me want to puke. Does it surprise anyone though?
Perhaps the one good thing to come out of the worst ecological disaster in world history will be the sudden, and jarring awakening from the generational slumber for most of America, and a long overdue overhaul of a broken political and economic system.
We should be so lucky.
Meh. No oxygen? Let them breathe methane. Wussy fish. Wussy dolphins. Boo-hoo. Who needs life on this planet anyway?
I think we should tar and feather BP execs and the fascist kleptocrats that let them do this and we will see who likes life.
Mr Lennon Hendrix
Black Dynamite: I'd like to take the credit, but dig, mama, there's no "i" in "revolutio...", in "team."
scolded
I think we should start a new (mandatory) screening process, "Oil Exec Deathmatch." Each oil industry exec has to go 10 round vs. Dick Cheney, who gets all the shotgun ammo and heart medicine he wants. Any who survive become the next Gladiator for the time being. Repeat until the oil industry ranks are purified.
This as long as we keep Cheney in a lockbox.
"Bring out the gimp!"
The government elite have an equal hand in the disaster. They are taking payola money from big biz and are political whores.
Ssecondly, govt oversight and regulation failed in keeping the well safe.
third, govt is at fault for restriction on land and shallow water drilling in the first place, forcing riskier drilling to be done at great depths. Drilling in shallow water or on land is much less risk and an easier fix when something does go wrong.
Uh, sure, right. Please tell me where on land in the US or in shallow water there are commercially significant quantities of oil waiting to be tapped. Specifics, please.
As for this:
That's like someone having a car crash and blaming the police for not making them drive more safely. The fault in the Macondo BP spill lies very, very clearly with BP.
Your analogy's a bit off.
It would be more along the lines of someone with multiple collisions, DUIs, and traffic tickets bribing the DMV to not suspend his license.
Both parties are certainly responsible, and are engaged in one big circle jerk of bribery and ignored safety standards.
Yeah...agreed. BP has no interest in developing any wells. They only want to spill it into the ocean. And nobody clamors for this product, either. It's utterly useless and not like the foundation of industrial society.
The truth is that we cannot have our life this way without companies like BP doing what they do. WE need to have the international conversation as far as what our goals are. Sadly, this will only be arbitrated by war. The 3rd world isn't going to say, yeah, we'll content ourselves with living in squalor in perpetuity while the west consumes amounts per capita orders of magnitude higher. Neither is the west going to say, yeah, we'll stop driving cars altogether and resign ourselves to soviet-bloc living arrangements.
I'm absolutely sure they want to develop wells. And if they can accomplish this by cutting corners (which they have a history of), they will do it in the interest of saving money considering the cost of drilling at those depths.
And if saving money means bribing a few government hacks and lobbying for preferential legislation, they'll do that too (and they did).
And if setting up a $20 billion slush fund for politicians will protect them from hundreds of billions of dollars in damages to the gulf industries and residents, they'll do it (and they did).
Doesn't mean any of it is responsible or right.
From Jim Sinclair’s Commentary (jsmineset dot com)
"In Africa’s Riff Valley this happened to a large lake, and as the level rose the methane bubble popped the top, flowed with the wind and killed an entire town." -Jim Sinclair
it was not methane.
and it was NOT in the rifT valley!
If you want to be on the side of the good guys, , please check out your facts first ...
Lake Nyos, Cameroon:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Nyos
When Nyos turned over, the result was like a pyroclastic flow without the high temperatures.The CO2 roared down the mountain and flattened everything as well as causing asphyxiation.It was horrible.Methane rises so even if it ignites, it will just make a huge flare.A more interesting FAIL mode is that if a large area of the gulf fizzes, every ship in the area would sink instantly.This is because water displaced supports the ships...but if enough of the water is gas bubbles, the ship sinks like a rock because the density of the water has decreased.This mechanism is suspected to be a problem in the Bermuda triangle.A stricken vessel would submerge so fast that it is lost without a trace.
The very large scale oxygen depletion combined with the toxic aromatics means a very, very large kill zone.EPIC compared to the ones seen before from ag runoff.
My grandchildren may eat gulf shrimp.Perhaps.
remember the bermuda triangle
"A Northwestern University chemical engineer believes the culprit may be an enormous explosion of methane (natural gas) erupting from the ocean depths. This explanation is closer to the inverse of an external impact, like an asteroid, and more like a disgorging of trapped energy that erupts from deep below the oceans. Such a global catastrophe has a more local precedent, as a similar eruption happened in Africa at Lake Nyos in 1986, killing 1700 people and rippling as far away as 25 kilometers."
http://www.astrobio.net/pressrelease/582/methane-the-great-dying
Shades of Gregory Ryskin,
http://www.chem-eng.northwestern.edu/Faculty/ryskin.html
Yup, his research on this event is classic and sweet.
Extinction level event, anyone?
Oopsy, there goes Florida....
http://www.astrobio.net/articles/images/KT_hit.jpg
I've always wanted to be a triceratops. What about you? T-rex maybe.
Marine dead zone? Time to go long Live Cattle, Lean Hogs and Frozen Pork Bellies.
And steroidally enhanced chicken breasts.
At this rate, it only takes a few more months for those levels to reach a bursting tipping point where the seawater releases all it's methane in one big sea explosion.
This could become pretty cataclysmic actually.
Sudden Debt
"At this rate, it only takes a few more months for those levels to reach a bursting tipping point where the seawater releases all it's methane in one big sea explosion."
A big wet sea fart?
Here's the solution
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ybLxFwj9c8U
No a lot more fun than a sea fart! Live in Baton Rouge and am considering whether it would be wise to buy respirators for my family just in case this gets ugly... uglier.
Ryskin asked what would happen to that gas in a stagnant ocean basin. His
answer, in the September 2003 Geology, is an oceanic eruption driven by
explosive methane. The scenario is horrifying in several ways.
Enough methane dissolves in deep, cold water (about 0.4 percent by molar
volume) if that water were to rise, the gas would come out of solution and
create a mist whose volume is seven times greater than pure water. The
resulting eruption would quickly spread and release the whole ocean basin's
worth of natural gas in great clouds. These would inevitably ignite. The
amounts of gas would be enormous, and the worldwide fires and explosions
would be catastrophic. Even the formation of fullerene compounds, now
considered a sure sign of asteroid impacts, is plausible. Land organisms
would suffer mass extinction.
In the ocean, the eruption of sterile, anoxic water would smother sea life,
and the stirred-up sediment-and more washing in from the burned-over
continents-would kill more. So there would be Strangelove oceans and marine
mass extinctions, too. Finally, the atmosphere would fill with soot and
carbon dioxide, and a full-fledged climate crisis would result. And the deep
sea would start right over again, building up methane for the next burst.
Only the slow shift of continents would change the sea's configuration so
that deep currents could resume.
This spectacular story will be tested against the geologic record, but
Ryskin hints that the human record may be relevant. The kind of methane
eruption he describes could happen on a smaller scale in places like the
Black Sea or lesser basins. If people witnessed one, they might describe it
much like the epic of Gilgamesh, in which the land was flooded, burned,
shrouded in darkness and "shattered like a pot." They might also come up
with the ominous words of Genesis: "All the fountains of the great deep
burst forth."
But hey, at least that judge really stuck it to Obama on offshore drilling, huh!
It's all good as long as that communist is losing, right guys?
che
Dude how the fuck is a BIG BUSINESS CORPORATIST a fucking COMMIE?
Whatever the fuck you been smoking is over fifty years old.
Your fart contains higher concentration of methane and still you are not concerned about oxygen depletion. Methane is an inert gas (paraffin, means inert, without affinity). Unless you use high temperature or catalyst it stays as it is even in an oxygen atmosphere.
Please explain how methane qualifies as an inert gas. Or you can just concede your statement is unfounded.
The microbes utilize chemistry (enzymes) to 'burn' the methane for fuel, just as our bodies use sugar at relatively low temperatures. This process uses oxygen from the water.
The depth of this leak gives the emnating methane (and bunches of other gases) all kinds of time to dissolve in the water on the way up. Is there a 'gurgle' on the surface of the GoM. If not, all the free gas is dissolving before making the surface.
Methane is the shortest of aliphatic hydrocarbons, they are also called paraffins and as the name suggests it is without affinity. It is even less active than the longer paraffins. Methane is hardly ever used as food in microbiology not to mention higher organisms. Could you show me any species that can leave on methane as its carbon source? Methane is spewing from your ass because it is not preferred as food by your bacterial gut flora. It is an end product under reducing conditions. Don't forget reducing is a relative term as your fart also containes about 5% oxygen. You can find life around methane hydrate slush in the deep.
This whole methane issue is just a scare for (bio)chemistry illiterates.
On the other hand methane is a good marker of health but only with an endogeneous source not as with contamination.
Methane will undergo oxidation in the presence of oxygen gas, consuming oxygen and creating carbon dioxide and water in the reaction, and a bit of heat.
I personally don't know what methane would do in water, but I don't see how the redox equations alter much since water is on the wrong side, and the rxn is strongly exothermic..
It burns, eventually. Might take a while, but the residency time here must be measured in decades, not days. It will all burn.
Whether in the atmosphere or in the water, it's all about oxygen depletion, dood!
- good fucking lord.
Argon is inert, Methane is reactive. You might want to think about changing your avatar there Steroid.
Rusty baby, chill. This has all been figured out by the good folks at the University of Gas. That's why the US military has been spraying the Gulf with millions of tons of Beano. I loaded up on Glaxo well before this hit the fan, man.
http://www.beanogas.com/
Getting ugly in the Florida Panhandle. Fourth of July on the horizon.
http://www.pnj.com/article/20100624/NEWS01/6240323/On-beach-sheets-of-ta...
And you have to actually tell people not to swim in the water. If you see tarballs you wouldn't believe what the naked eye can't see! They moved the celebration to the pier. Hope the wind blows the stink back out to sea on the 4th. It would be nice to have one last ignorant celebration of a country that no longer understands freedom.
And people are taking their kids to the beach - insane! Commonsense should tell you not to get close until the risks are understood or at the very least don't take your kids along - very sad:
http://www.businessinsider.com/screaming-kid-has-oil-stuck-on-her-foot-at-florida-beach-2010-6
You know why I like kids? They have instinct. That baby girl was smart. Her mom, not so much. Mom lost her instinct.
You can set fire to the beaches, beotches.
fuck burning man when you got the gulf coast
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G_mWRIY45Yk&feature=related
just remember kiddees, safety first!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hsjaJJCvLxM
what in the hell is obama doing today. why doesn’t he get his latest hired hick from Alamosa Colorado that calls himself U.S. Secretary of the Interior busy on this job. thought a secretary was suppose to female¿ just kidding.
really scientists 10-day R E S E A R C H expedition. why aren’t they conducting a collection of evidence to hold a focking trial in court. defendants, we got a long list by now.
nothing absolutely nothing is going to come out of this disaster that will be good. so what, if the jarring awakening from the generational slumber for most Americans.
Y E A H ,,,, right like velobabe will become velodude. these people do not want to wake up. listen these asleep at the wheel americans, they need to stay in their beds, cause they are dangerous angry rich white people, especially the females. no really folks, the ones i have to get around are just gone, big time in the head. can't even get 2¢ out of them.
Marla seeing your S L I D E sign a lot, makes me chill, good use of that word†
ESPN idiot commentators, NY stock exchange volume has been down most in 10 days while USofA played, but after Donovan made goal late in the 90 minute match, volume suddenly picked up and everything became merry again on WS. clinton was just chilled to the bone by Donovan's
S C O R E.
SCORE...rymes with war....which Billy alluded too....
He is a sick sick man/puppet.
yeah i caught that one too. leave it to slick willy to unzip his pants at the most opportune moment. god bless him.
(note to bill : psst, hot chicks dig football much more than war jackass, especially when you're a pussy and don't even declare it.)
p.s. go ghana
10 days of research. Well maybe 10 days to research the location of the release and the amount and kind of oil.
But anything having to do with the GoM impacts will will take 20-30 years. Minimum.
People are simply not understanding the scale of this. But they will understand it soon enough.
This oil well blowout represents a two-part problem....First, the oxygen level gets depleted by the oil and second all that methane bubbling up lowers the PH level of the water.....The sea life doesn't stand a chance.
It would almost be Patriotic to short BP.
+1
Everyone knows there are lakes all over the world with methane bubbling from them - and there are still fish. Some have so much, they are going to use it as a power source. Like Lake Kivu. They don't even have the natural churning of the ocean. All these scientist hacks are going to suck money out of the economy for their pet projects.
I too have thought that this event may be on such an epochical scale that this nation must be shaken from its arrogance and "exceptionalism". Through hubris and greed we have finally unleashed a disaster that cannot be hidden, ignored or even fixed. God help and forgive us.
I have heard unconfirmed reports that Charlie the Tuna himself is on life-support after being pulled from the oily depths of the Gulf; but my inquiries have only been met with stern "No comments" from the StarKist P.R. Department.
Sponge Bob is homeless. Krabby Bill's is awaiting payment from BP for loss of business.
thought this was excellent
http://mises.org/daily/4488
Who cares? It's like a forest fire, once a bunch of life is extinguished, it means there's more space for others. Life will reestablish itself in the Gulf. There have been oil spills before, and there will be oil spills in the future. The Earth will survive.
Go BP! Make it until at least January! My 401k is counting on you! Woohoo!
YouTube: Methane gas explosions...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WZjU0az20KU&feature=player_embedded
Awesome. ZH: Apocalyptic headquarters for the jc freaks.
Ironic. The Gulf may have been the site of the watershed event that triggered the last wave of mass extinctions on earth. Perhaps a truly global reset is in the making, we shall see.
BP's political connections run deep. They now embody today's "Military Industrial Complex". True to form, they're carrying President Eisenhower's farewell admonishment to its logical conclusion.
In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist. We must never let the weight of this combination endanger our liberties or democratic processes. We should take nothing for granted.
BP will claim that anything in their own interest will be in the interest of "national security". But that may not be consistent with "Earth Security" on which everyone's security rests.
1) It will take 5 years at least to measure the impact of the GoM spill on water column dynamics, fisheries, weather patterns (yes) and human health. At least that, and the work hasn't even started yet. And that is just the measurements, it will take another 15 years to connect the collection of dots. Perhaps 1000 biologists would be needed over 20 years to do the job correctly at a cost of perhaps $1B.
2) Early work while important will miss certain signals, underestimate certain others, and not generate a very clear picture. A lot of critical data is being lost and more will be lost, some of it deliberately. That is not a criticism of the workers in the field now, it's just the nature of the work especially when government and corporations are involved.
3) Serious water chemistry problems can be expected in limited areas, particularly near the site of the release but also in deeper waters where circulation patterns lock water into closed gyres that can remain in place for many years. The water chemistry will become very interesting, and not in a good way. The impacts on atmospheric chemistry, while shorter in duration, could be horrific on a local scale.
4) A hurricane will not help things in the ocean at all, as the influence of such a storm doesn't extend very deep. Though I can imagine a hurricane redistributing the oil slick in interesting ways, none of them good, and blowing the production ships off the release site for a week.
5) Metal levels in organisms will likely sky rocket, and there could be broad EPA consumption restrictions on the GoM fisheries for a decade or more. These will be ignored locally, resulting in increased chronic childhood disease and long term healthcare commitments. In particular would be methyl-mercury, which is a very potent neurotoxin.
6) Current "dead zones" in deep water cannot become more dead, but can certainly become larger or more persistant. This can be subtle; larger can mean greater volume and longer duration as much as greater extent, so be wary of the guy with a flat map and a circle on it that is only twice a "big" as it was before. There are both square and cube functions in play here. All that methane is going to burn at some point, and it will consume oxygen in the process, and that oxygen will be many years in the replacing at those depths. If ever.
7) An actual restoration of the Mississippi Delta is out of the question. And, current practices up stream and in the area will continue to degrade the habitat as they had for decades prior. Any actual attempt to restore the habitat could well cost several $billions and take a several generations of effort.
Based on similar disasters I have heard discussed in the past or am personally familiar with, I'll estimate now that the environmental damages will be both widely destructive and locally apocalyptic. Probably nobody alive today will see the Gulf coast exactly as it was before this accident, and it wasn't in good shape even then.
Florida and the Keys are another matter. I cannot even guess what their fate is.
If the well bore erodes and the oil release becomes unmanaged then we have a new playing field. I cannot imagine what happens then.
We are conducting an experiment in the GoM. We'll see eventually what we have accomplished, but not this year. And not even the next. Given the usual government foot-dragging and corporate interference it is unlikely that anyone reading this now will ever read a report about what really happened in the GoM in the year 2010.
I've been there. You simply cannot imagine.
Great post, Cougar. I'm curious though about #5. Why will metal levels increase? Is it metal coming directly from the crude oil, or indirectly from some other avenue?
Oil and coal both contain a significant store of a number of metals including nickel, copper, cadmium, lead and mercury. The metals in oil are what make diesel particulates toxic when inhaled. The mercury from coal-fired powerplants in China has turned up in "pristine" Alaskan glacier lakes far from human reach. This stuff gets into everything, and we release so much of it everywhere, there is simply no escape.
But we've been playing this game a long time. The importance of oil and coal to the economy is evident when you notice how little discussion there is about the environmental costs of burning oil and coal safely, let alone when oil is dumped raw as it is now.
Now we get to see what happens in our backyard. A unique opportunity. We'll see in 5 years if we've learned anything, my expectation (from 30 years of waiting) is that we will not have.
- we are dealing with "super-critical water" here, look into it, you may be shocked by what precipitates out of it.
I have heard that the pollution from China is crossing the Pacific onto the NW of the lower 48.
And great post!
Thanks for posting as a biologist.
As far as coal goes you forgot thorium and uranium going up the stacks.Tons a year.
I fear the experiment in the Gulf will end badly...very badly.If I knew a way to mitigate it, I would post it....but I don't.As a biologist you are far more aware than others here what kind of "fun" occurs when large bacterial blooms happen due to serious environmental changes.This is what worries me.I have no idea what will prosper in these conditions...or how it will impact us.Suffice it to say I fear the worst.
Thanks - excellent post! I agree that it is going to years or decades to understand the full effects of this spill. And short term - not good. I'm not a doomer but am struggling hard with this one ...
"It will take 5 years at least to measure the impact ..."
Man oh man, I hope your optimism is warranted.....5 more years you say?
Can't wait for 2012....
The problem with Reuters newly designed website is that they don't put a date on their articles (unless you click on the print version). The one in this post is from June 22
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE65L6IA20100622
print version
http://www.reuters.com/assets/print?aid=USTRE65L6IA20100622
That dead zone has been increasing in size for years after all of the contaminants coming down the Mississippi River are deposited in the Gulf.
Last I heard it was a 600 square mile "dead zone"........I guess President Teleprompter will wake up some day and figure out we are all downstream. Then his will hit the fan too!
And it looks as if they got the cap partially off the bop again. Must have been another robot incident? Or could it just be that the "pressure" is getting to them?
.
http://live.cnn.com/
Done and done - donated to Zero Hedge - not much but every little bit helps! (I think).
REUTERS is now owned by CANADIANS, who as we now know are only ones with any trace of integrity left.
I'm still waiting for them to publish that story on Steve Cohen that they pulled
http://www.zerohedge.com/article/sacs-heavy-hand-prompts-thomson-reuters...
This pic says it all, courtesy of NASA:
http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/images/imagerecords/44000/44375/USA7_AM...
no label on the jgp, but i believe you.
pretty opaque f l o a t i n g bloat.
can't sink or swim, so it will just sustain itself.
Remarkable photograph. Thank you.
I can't believe that everyone is buying this end-of-the-world ka ka. We're getting rumors and that's all. BP has cordoned off the area around the Deepwater Horizon, so no one can really see what's going on. It's quite easy to dump a little oil here and there to scare the sheeple.
On April 23rd, National Geographic published the following article:
Oil-Spill Fears Subside at Rig-Explosion Site
Fears have lessened that the sinking of the oil rig Deepwater Horizon will cause a major oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, according to the U.S. Coast Guard, which announced Friday that petroleum had stopped flowing from the seafloor drilling site.
But the incident provides new ammunition for environmentalists girding to fight U.S. government plans to expand offshore drilling.
Full article:
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2010/04/100423-nation-oil-rig-de...
While everyone's watching the alleged live feed of the oil leak, the U.S. has been sending battleships and aircraft carriers to the Persian Gulf region near Iran. You're being deceived!
Use your brain. Why would the news media actually report the truth...ever?
LOL!
LOL*2
look in the upper right corner of the page of the natgeo article. Mine said "sponsored by Shell". LOL
Ignoring your apparent ignorance/willful denial of reality for a moment -- why are a desire by TPTB to distract attention from other potentially catastrophic activities (hot war#3) and the need to influence public and political debate to suit their aims (cap/trade, drilling restrictions, whatever) mutually exclusive with A HUGE, AS-YET UNSTOPPABLE LEAK OF MILLIONS OF BARRELS OF CRUDE into the GOM? Does the fact that it suits other purposes as well negate the fact of the catastrophe?
That the public is being deceived is not in question. But this is one of those cases where the underlying catastrophe is far beyond the abilities of those covering up.
Perhaps you don't remember the alleged swine flu pandemic. It was also supposed to be catastrophic and spreading everywhere. The U.S. Government urged everyone to get swine flu vaccines, telling them that they'd die if they didn't. They showed scary video footage of people in Mexico who were wearing surgical masks.
Then the alleged pandemic fizzled because no one wanted to get the poisonous vaccine. It turns out that members of the World Health Organization, the very organization that declared the pandemic, were hooked up with the pharmaceutical companies making the swine flu vaccines.
Fear is very powerful. Fear makes people do what the ultra-wealthy want them to do. The rich want everyone to hate drilling for oil in American waters. That way, by their logic, the population will let them invade Iran and take their oil.
Right after the 9/11 attacks, the Bush Administration made everyone fearful. They said that terrorists were coming to get them. They even told people to buy duct tape and gas masks.
Heck, the way things have been going thus far, you may even be right. And I am not, repeat, not discounting the capacity of governments/entities with quasi-governmental powers for deceit, instilling fear and in general trying (and all too often succeeding) in manipulating the population. I am merely suggesting that in this case the scenario needed some "real" fuel (no pun intended) for the fire - and the mess has snowballed to a size beyond the control of the allegedly all-powerful PTB. The range of possible scenarios:
a) it's truly just a tragic accident, resulting from BP fuckery, .gov corruption instead of regulation and subsequent incompetence in seizing control (or even that there IS/WAS no other solution beyond relief wells anyway). Size and extent of leak/damage being hidden by both BP and .gov
b) it was intentional sabotage from any number/combination of actors who want/need the US population and/or government distracted (or obsessed with oil, as you said). Maybe the extent of the damage was not modeled to be so huge, maybe it was exactly the intended effect. Size and extent of leak/damage being hidden by both BP and .gov, each for their own reasons.
c) This whole thing is a massive, gigantic, unprecedented hoax. Perhaps BP is bringing in FULL supertankers to create the illusion of a massive spill, maybe all satellite imagery photos are being doctored, thousands of people on site being misled, tarballs manufactured, etc.
I am not willing to ascribe % values to the probability of each option - but c) would get the smallest amount from me. Which is NOT the same thing as it being entirely out of the question (fortunately? unfortunately? I don't know anymore). Perhaps the best I can do is pray that you are right. Bad as it is, it's still better than A or B. It still seems to me that the gov is trying to soothe/calm/damage control the situation while exhibiting the appropriate level of 'outrage' and 'indignation' and 'firm, decisive steps' rather than truly trying to create a panic/frenzy.
OK,
So we're not allowed to use oil because it (increasingly) comes from under the sea and we can't risk the underwater spills.
We're not allowed to use natural gas because it (increasingly) requires hydraulic fracturing and we can't risk getting gas and chemicals in our water.
We're not allowed to use coal because it is "dirty" and there is no such thing as "clean coal".
We're not allowed to use corn ethanol because it is a fraud.
We're not allowed to use nuclear because it is "dangerous"
OK, smart guy, what the f$#% are we supposed to use to power our economy?
Dung.
From cattle.
Different economy, yes. Adjust your expectations accordingly.
now, that is some powerful methane.
punning thing you, cougar.
The power of cow dung can be electric - Times Online
Ha, I call cow shit on that one. Take a look at Environmental Power Corporation (EPG), which had the most commercially viable animal waste-to-energy business model, but went "udders-up"
"Udders up" happens all the time in alt energy. They get few government supports and have to deal with all the usual limitations. The producers must bear 100% of the cost of their operations. Oil and coal on-the-other-hand bear nearly none of the true costs of their normal operations, including the costs of environmental damage, mine and drill site restorations (that never take place), cleanups from numerous "accidents" all over the world, medical costs from environmental emissions of their products, loss of life of workers during "accidents", and just about anything else they do or cause to happen.
Oil and gas operations are protected from almost any externality, even liability. Look even BP is now being defended from all sides and it is clear they major screwed up. BP probably won't pay a thin dime for any of the "cleanup" outside oil removal from surface waters near beaches. Meanwhile Florida real estate could implode to the tune of $100B if a bunch of beaches are oiled.
Bah. Don't even get me started.
Dung. From Cattle. Or GTFO.
chemba, what economy????
rickshaws.
Bankster gangsters
Exactly.
Good luck!
We're not going to get rid of the ones you mentioned. But there's a hundred alternatives that can chip away at the problem.
Here's one I ran across recently that's totally straightforward:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1dTt2s6YwJ8
This is getting depressing. 'Bout time for tonight's Thorazine and Ativan enema.
I never get invited to any of the interesting parties.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h9FGrFKkPnM
A tournament,
a tournament, a tournament of lies. Offer me solutions, offer me alternatives
and I decline.
It's the end of the world as we know it.
It's the end of the world as we know it.
It's the end of the world as we know it and I feel fine.
The supply of methane is enormous. Someone please check whether GS has shorted methane.
And people are taking their kids to the beach - insane! Commonsense should tell you not to get close until the risks are understood or at the very least don't take your kids along - very sad
But the leader of the free world said
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSN1316527220100615
"Perhaps the one good thing to come out of the worst ecological disaster in world history will be the sudden, and jarring awakening from the generational slumber for most of America, and a long overdue overhaul of a broken political and economic system."
No, that's not it. It's Stealth Devaluation, 70's style: blame something other than government policy for a failing currency. Then pass Cap and Trade.
I already predicted the "food chain" part in this thread:
http://www.zerohedge.com/article/matt-simmons-revises-leak-estimate-1200...
(see 'whatdidyousay')
As a result, expect to see massive crop burning, livestock slaughtering, seafood, milk dumping, you name it. Also, many buildings and homes, even factories will have to go.
They want to devalue without causing hyperinflation, that's all.
BP is TBTF. Let's face it, they will get a bailout, Americans will continue to get bent over and subjected to unauthorized rear entry, why? Because we do nothing about it time and time again. We are too afraid of missing or favorite shows on TV to start a revolution.
I say, let's line up the execs at BP and give them each a 15 second jolt to the testicles one of these. Then send them to a Supermax prison and let them become somebody's bitch for 20 years.
Happiness restored!
Bingaling. Read your very important site. too much to really read all--but the prime info. is incredible and really needs to be read widely. Very good knowledge. Many thanks.
By chance do you have any info on the properties of methane gas. I remember reading of a methane bubble rising in a lake in Aferica I believe a few years ago and it killed thousands in a very short period of time--like minutes.
I live in Colorado and as such is this a gas that rises to 6000 ft or more, or is it a low lying gas? My understanding is that perma frost is loaded with methane, so I would assume it occurs at high altitudes also. At some point this gas could be a terminal action for all species if the circumstances were just right. And basically we are all totally ignorant of this very potential threat. Regards, Milestones
ALL - take a breather -
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L_XFMCgeI7c
Everyone loves this song (I hope) - time to chill
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L_XFMCgeI7c
Who is CD? I think I made a mistake
Who is CD?
cd is ....?
...either me, or the ZH contributor Cognitive Dissonance. Not the same. WTF are you talking about?
History Channel: Methane Explosion
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=25BE42PzZZc < Includes the African lake explosion that was referenced by Jim Sinclair.