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No, The Gulf Oil Spill Is NOT Old News
While the Japanese nuclear crisis might upstage the Gulf crisis, it hasn't gone away.
As the Wall Street Journal notes today:
Vladimir
Uiba, head of Russia’s Federal Medical-Biological Agency… compared
the contamination of seawater by the Fukushima complex with an oil
spill in the Gulf of Mexico by BP PLC last year, and said, “The BP oil
spill has caused far more serious impact on the environment than the
Fukushima accident" ....
Whether or not the oil spill is worse than Fukushima or not, it was - and still is - a major disaster.
Gulf residents are still getting sick, the number of dolphins and whales killed by the spill appears to be many times higher than officials previously believed. Dead turtles are washing up in Mississippi. And see these photos from my favorite photographer, Julie Dermansky:
And just-released confidential BP and government emails confirm my previous posts showing:
- The government is keeping scientists away from "ground zero" of the oil spill and - for that reason - scientists cannot accurately measure the size of the oil spill
- When university scientists found underwater oil plumes, the government said shut up, don't tell anyone ... and then tried to discredit them
- BP and government representatives are still keeping scientists and reporters away from areas impacted by oil
- BP and the government famously declared that most of the oil had disappeared, when it hadn't
- The government did everything in its power to help cover up the severity of the spill
As the Guardian reports today:
BP
officials tried to take control of a $500m fund pledged by the oil
company for independent research into the consequences of the Gulf of
Mexico oil disaster, it has emerged.
Documents obtained under the Freedom of Information Act show BP officials openly discussing how to influence the work of scientists supported by the fund, which was created by the oil company in May last year.
Russell Putt, a BP environmental expert, wrote in an email to colleagues on 24 June 2010: "Can
we 'direct' GRI [Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative] funding to a
specific study (as we now see the governor's offices trying to do)?
What influence do we have over the vessels/equipment driving the
studies vs the questions?".
The email was obtained by Greenpeace and shared with the Guardian.
The
documents are expected to reinforce fears voiced by scientists that
BP has too much leverage over studies into the impact of last year's
oil disaster.
Those concerns go far beyond academic interest
into the impact of the spill. BP faces billions in fines and
penalties, and possible criminal charges arising from the disaster.
Its total liability will depend in part on a final account produced by
scientists on how much oil entered the gulf from its blown-out well,
and the damage done to marine life and coastal areas in Louisiana,
Mississippi and Alabama. The oil company disputes the government
estimate that 4.1m barrels of oil entered the gulf.
***
Kert
Davies, Greenpeace US research director, said the oil company had
crossed a line. "It's outrageous to see these BP executives discussing
how they might manipulate the science programme," Davies said. "Their
motivation last summer is abundantly clear. They wanted control of
the science."
The $500m fund, which is to be awarded over the
next decade, is by far the biggest potential source of support to
scientists hoping to establish what happened to the oil.
A
number of scientists had earlier expressed concerns that BP would
attempt to point scientists to convenient areas of study – or try to
suppress research that did not suit its business.
***
Another
email, written by Karen Ragoonanan-Jalim, a BP environmental officer
based in Trinidad [says] "Discussions around GRI and whether or not
BP can influence this long-term research programme ($500m) to
undertake the studies we believe will be useful in terms of
understanding the fate and effects of the oil on the environment, eg can we steer the research in support of restoration ecology?"
And as the Guardian notes, it wasn't just BP which was doing the spinning:
Other
documents obtained by Greenpeace suggest that the politics of oil
spill science was not confined to BP. The White House clashed with
officials from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
(NOAA) and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) last summer when
drafting the administration's account of what has happened to the
spilled oil.
On 4 August, Jane Lubchenco, the NOAA
administrator, demanded that the White House issue a correction after
it claimed that the "vast majority" of BP oil was gone from the Gulf.
A
few days earlier, Lisa Jackson, the head of the EPA, and her deputy,
Bob Perciasepe, had also objected to the White House estimates of the
amount of oil dispersed in the gulf. "These calculations are
extremely rough estimates yet when they are put into the press, which
we want to happen, they will take on a life of their own," Perciasepe
wrote.
And because nothing has really changed, it is likely to happen again.
- advertisements -
Oil and Gas will not form with our current global enviroment. Oil and Gas were formed during a time with the would was much hotter and had a large number of stagnate inland seas that promoted preservation of dead microorganisms. Dead microorganisms fell to the see floor where there was no oxygen to break them down. Then they were buried by silt and under a few thousand free of rock with a non-perminable rock that trap the organic material, and the heat of the earth cooked them to form oil and gas. Oil and Gas will not form again until the continents collide again (in about 100+ million years) to replicate the same environment required.
Also consider that an significant amounts of coal is unlikey to form again, since the conditions required are even more extreme, the Carboniferous era, which was about 350 Million years ago (before the age of the dinosaurs)
It is expected that when the continents collide again it will be the end of life on Earth because the sun wil be hotter than it was 170 Million years ago. The Sun has more heiium today an will even have more in 100 million years in the future. Its predicted that life will not be able to regulate the temperature enough causing a run away process that over heats the earth, killing all but the simplest microorganism that can tolerate very high temperatures.
Non-Earth formations of methane orginated from nebula gases that originated from supernova. Virtually every atom in our solar system orginated from inside of stars that died. There are no large quanities of methane in any of the inner planets because it was too warm and the sun blew all of it out (via solar wind). The large gas giants were made of methane and other light hydrocarbons because the were far away enough that the sun didn't blow it all away. There grew from this material as the solar system formed. No geology processes account for the formation of methane on the gas giants or their moons.
3 weeks and 6 days. Welcome to the party.
AGuy - that was an excellent post. Post more often.
How some officials in the gulf area spent BPs money is frustrating to say the least.
Ocean Springs, Mississippi, reserve police officers got Tasers. The sewer department in nearby Gulfport bought a $300,000 vacuum truck that never sucked up a drop of oil. Town officials in Biloxi bought 14 SUVs and pickup trucks.
A parish president in Louisiana got herself a deluxe iPad, her spokesman a $3,100 laptop. And a county in Florida spent $560,000 on rock concerts to promote its oil-free beaches.
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/world/us-officials-caught-out-spend...
We are so deserving of a good "die off."
AJ put out a story on it as well.
http://english.aljazeera.net/indepth/features/2011/04/20114161153981347....
Ignoring something doesn't make it not exist.
Pounding a dead horse doesn't make it breath again, either.
the worst thing is that for little money this
mess could have been cleaned up within months
via the technology provided by
www.oti.ag a swiss company which is researching this topics since decades
mynhair the horse is alive. It's about accountabliity. If companies are not properly insured to pay for disasters such as in the gulf, alaska and japan then they shouldn't be allowed to be involved with something that can be a disaster.
To head off the comment that no one has the capability to pay for or insure a disater such as this, I know it can't be insured so therefore do something else.
Life insurance doesn't pay on suicides. If insurers did, there would be no insurance very fast!
Same for a dead grandchild
Nope.
But enjoy that Florida OJ, tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, hot chilies, lettuce, shrimp, avacados, bananas from all over the Caribbean, apples, pears, peaches. Oh yeah, potatoes and yams. And most of it labeled as organic under the basically useless guidelines on what organic is then sold all over the world. If you haven't been paying attention you've probably already eaten a couple of quarts of oil and cortex. (weird how people forget the water supply around the food production area ends up in the food)
It's easy to tell it's from Florida btw. It'll state made in the USA. Anything else in the US has been printing the state it was produced to side step consumer backlash against the crap Florida is selling....because the locals are getting sick from it....why is only being sold in Florida? Nobody wants it. As a side note, Florida has some of the cheapest produce prices in the US right now. lol...wonder why. Still doesn't stop Florida from dumping in Canada, Asia and the EU though.
"...because the locals are getting sick from it..."
You don't get anymore local than me...and I ain't sick...well, physically...LOL.
You're scaremongering just a tad here my man...oil is not in the groundwater so therefore cannot end up on veggies. And I'm pretty sure they don't use saltwater for irrigation around here...not sure how they do it up there.
Groundwater here comes down from the north (off the continent) through a series of underground channels (think underground rivers/aqueducts) cut through the limestone over millions of years. You can have saltwater intrusion along the coasts due to over pumping but the coastline is not where the farms are. The coasts are for retired Canadians & their condo's.
Your Florida geology lesson for the day ;-)
Do you think the rain is manufactured in factories or comes from the sky through the local water cycle for farming efforts?
And yes the water is pumped from Northern States for drinking water. Not for farming though. The Snowbird would go apeshit if they learned that the water was local swamp water....even then, don't know anyone in the area that doesn't use a water cooler.
The food though i wouldn't eat anything from Florida until the oil is gone. Just like I tend to not eat a piece of gum off the ground that I accidentally spit out.
@CPL:
WTF are you trying to say? That "oil" is picked up in the evaporation cycle of water? If you are, then you are likely the most clueless person that's posted in a while!
In absense of airborne contaminants during the rain, rain water is some of the purest water on the planet!
Do a little research before posting crap, jacka$$..
http://plants.ifas.ufl.edu/guide/aquifers.html
Anybody that would put a murderer like Che Guevara as an Avatar is obviously a mental midget. May he rot with the worms or in hell... sick effer
Don't google "oil Gulf food web". Please don't and what ever you do please feel free to eat the shit produced by the southern US states. It's your dime.
If you actually looked a little closer at my icon it's actually this.
http://img.chan4chan.com/img/2010-04-13/tn_1271182919440.jpg
Modified from this.
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_GmjJM2gjKDw/TBMPozG5_zI/AAAAAAAACFE/0nHwiuxfq6...
Since you are neither looking and you are using a Florida state reference in your quickly hashed reaction. I suggest you might want to look for other sources. The author of the article is a BP employee. Took me all of 5 seconds to find her using google. Sarah Cervone and BP. So do you trust your source now? There is even a facebook page to troll her. She on there thanking BP for the support along with the rest of the southern ivory tower handouts.
http://ro-ro.facebook.com/group.php?gid=63437524523&v=wall
Can't blame her, taxpayers probably don't pay her enough to sit in that bastion of learnin' and studyin of Anthropology (just need to go to walmart or checkers to study it). Along with the rest of Florida, poor, dirt poor and underwater on their cottages. Oil spill was probably the best thing to happen there since Cocaine importation and distribution and selling tracks of swamp land to boomers to build on the sunny swampland off the red neck riviera.
Doesn't matter, I hope they start drilling again personally. If a well cap pops off, meh, more of you there to clean up the mess with no benefits. Nice cheap clean up labour. Can't beat that. Still don't trust a morsel of food produced by the southern states surrounded by a big chemical soup. It might be dogmatic, but I just have the option to shop anywhere else I please.
You don't have much of a choice. Bon Appetit
Pssst! CPL - when I google "oil Gulf food web", all I get is ...
http://www.zerohedge.com/article/no-gulf-oil-spill-not-old-news#new
So when did you get this job with FOX? How is the pay?
You have no clue of what you speak. Be so kind as to take a look at the size of Florida.
Say Canada, how is all that 'cracking' going? Any change in the taste of water yet?
How's that clean machine you call "oil sands" going? I'd worry about your water first, and not be to concerned with ours. Your water is getting close to being able to power a city buss from all the petro-chemicals in it.
I'm still trying to figure out how evaporated gulf water only comes down as rain over Florida and nowhere else...it's like some impenetrable geo force field or sumpin.
Just glad we got competitive Canadian farmers to give us a heads up on all this...now we can alert the airline industry so they don't crash into it...LOL.
And our groundwater is not "pumped down from northern states"...I thought I was pretty clear up top, it's a natural underground flow and most of the water used on crops is from this source as our growing season (this time of year) is the dry season...that is, very little rain this time of year.
Basically what I'm saying is CPL is full of shit and I think he knows it.
Interesting. Could you be so kind to find some data on those exports please?
Thank you.
Government of Canada has been tracking it.
http://www.canadainternational.gc.ca/miami/commerce_can/economic-economi...
The EU does not. It only shows up as imports from the US. Only reason we track it is there are trade concessions with certain states with NAFTA during certain times of the year. It's one of the reasons some US states hate NAFTA more than others. Some states get priority of their trade goods with NAFTA. Florida happens to be one of them.
Considering the effects are still occurring, I do not think it is a dead horse.