[thehindmost]

Not only are we facing the biggest oil disaster ever, not only is the amount of oil pumping out probably in the ball park of 500,000 barrels a day and maybe bigger, not only is this going to economically and ecologically going to destroy the region, not only have they contemplated setting it on fire, not only are they not paying for the cleanup costs...okay you get the picture.

One more not only: Russia is now advising we used a NUCLEAR BOMB to seal off the oil spill. A pressurized oil deposit spanning the Gulf of Mexico from Texas to Florida. Hit with big bomb. Am I the only one that's completely terrified this is just the worst so far in a continuing list of things I'm going to have to tell my child about to explain why the planet is barely habitable and resources so tight?...if we're still here for me to have a kid.

[tulsa]

Yeah, it is quite the tragedy. Where did you hear Russia suggested we nuke the thing to seal it?

[thehindmost]

http://trueslant.com/juliaioffe/2010/05/04/nuke-that-slick/

And what makes this seriously scary, is hurricane seasons almost here. And the past almost decade has been pretty constant with em. If a hurricane kicked up before we got it sealed, and it came down to letting the spill keep leaking throughout the entire hurricane and spread around all over the place by it, or doing something like nuking it shut? Scary stuff...

[Sparrow]

Not only are we facing the biggest oil disaster ever, not only is the amount of oil pumping out probably in the ball park of 500,000 barrels a day and maybe bigger, not only is this going to economically and ecologically going to destroy the region, not only have they contemplated setting it on fire, not only are they not paying for the cleanup costs...okay you get the picture.

One more not only: Russia is now advising we used a NUCLEAR BOMB to seal off the oil spill. A pressurized oil deposit spanning the Gulf of Mexico from Texas to Florida. Hit with big bomb. Am I the only one that's completely terrified this is just the worst so far in a continuing list of things I'm going to have to tell my child about to explain why the planet is barely habitable and resources so tight?...if we're still here for me to have a kid.


It's pretty bad, but really, nothing to get hysterical about.

Crude oil is as natural as anything else, dry leaves, dust, uranium, etc.
If you drive an automobile then you're as much to blame as British Petroleum. Oil is our drug of choice, they're just the middlemen.

Check this out, the Tea Baggers are attempting to stop the spill by shouting slogans at it...
http://www.alan.com/2010/05/01/tea-party-attempts-to-stop-gulf-oil-spill-by-shouting-slogans-at-it-satire/
“We’re doing our part by using our free speech,” said the Tea Partier. “But the fact is, this is Obama’s Katrina. Why isn’t the government responding faster? They should be cleaning this up, not us.”

“Obviously, this whole oil spill was created by Obama and environmentalists trying to take away our oil,” said one Tea Partier, who said he wouldn’t be able to help with the clean up because he was wearing white pants. “But we will not let this socialist-inspired oil spill defeat real Americans without having our say.”

[Daddy Darth]

Gee I dont know Sparrow - in the volumes this mess is being released into the ocean I think it is something we should all be alarmed about. The effects of this disaster are going to be felt for a very long time. To equate it to the fact that we all drive cars does minimize the threat it poses.

[Sparrow]

Gee I dont know Sparrow - in the volumes this mess is being released into the ocean I think it is something we should all be alarmed about. The effects of this disaster are going to be felt for a very long time. To equate it to the fact that we all drive cars does minimize the threat it poses.


It's just one of those "if it doesn't really effect me it must not be happening" kind of things. Sort of like the NHL Playoffs.

[Daddy Darth]

Hey now theres a topic I can get into today. The Montreal Canadiens made it to the next round of the playoffs after two nail biting rounds. My Habbies have not won the cup since 93. My fingers are crossed.

[thehindmost]

This is alot more than that 'If I don't see it, its not happening'. Oil isn't just a natural thing to not worry about. Its poison. It completely depletes the water its in of oxygen, which is going to suffocate most seabased life in the area. There goes the fishing industry down there, not to even mention the damage to the ecosystem that will probably ripple out everywhere in the surrounding area.
And the entire reason this happened is because BP decided that the risk of a spill reaching dry land was completely acceptable, and none of the precautions that should have been in place were.
We're already in the middle of the biggest and fastest progressing mass extinction that has ever been recorded on this planet, imagine what completely destroying a part of the oceanic ecosystem will do. And if a hurricane kicks up this summer before its sealed off? Even after really. All that oil is no longer just going to be a little spill off the cost, its going to get spread all around the Gulf.
People who just sit back and look at problems like that and go "Oh, thats thousands of miles away, that doesn't matter" are going to be the reason that our species is on the verge of extinction at the end of the century.
The mass extinction we're in the middle of right now is completely decimating plant species as well as animals, and the only reason the ecosphere recovered from other mass extinctions in the past is because the majority of plant species survived for the animals to recover with. Disasters and industries like this are the cause such damages now a days.
This isn't 'another Katrina', or something that doesn't matter cause your on the other side of the country. This is a sucker punch right to the planet's guts after decades of sparring with it.
If people don't start looking at events like this with the proper perspective, being that the things we do as a civilized society and the effect we have on the planet is unimaginably more influential than any lifeform since algae first made our atmosphere oxygenated, then this species is going to vanish. And we'll probably take most life on Earth with us.

[Palfrey]

Yes. Plenty of natural things are toxic. I went to St. Augustine Florida as a kid. There were still dark streaks in the sand on the beach from an oil spill that happened before I was born.

[werewolfv2]

joy, the total leak is around 6 million gallons and more coming.

makes me start wondering how badly this will hurt BP.



as of May 13th it had cost BP 450 million, and as of May 22nd they are spending around 33 million a day.

thats prior to fines, prior to clean up from when the oil does hit shore, prior to all the lawsuits from fishermen, tourist locations, etc affected and the massive lawsuits Im sure the environmental groups will slam BP with.