Diving the spill

[Diver Tim]

Not to mention a robust PR offensive. It was reported yesterday that BP has paid search engines to list them first, and good news about them preferentially. Google "Oil Leak", for an example.

A classic use of the passive voice to avoid assigning blame/credit. How about adding a subject, i.e. "[Fill in the blank] reported yesterday that..." so we can check out the source?

Here's this about that...

Oh, got it. A broken link from a news parody site is the source.

The spill is very, very bad, we all know it is... but can we maybe refrain from demagoguing about it?

 

[covediver]

what I find very perplexing is the lack of indignation that would be taking place if the spill was happening on the east or west coast.

yes, people have spoken up, but absent is the groundswell of public calls for action that took place in the aftermath of the Santa Barbara oil spill, the Huntington Beach spill (tanker ran over its anchor), medical waste washing up on the Jersey shore, etc.

Lots of coverage, but the only real sense of alarm that I get is when reports mention the oil might get entrained in LOOP current and soil the beaches of Florida or the Atlantic coast.

The environmental community has never really cared much about what happened in the GOM and seems confused as how to respond to the problem now.

Could it be that most of the Gulf is part of that great expanse of the coutry derisively referred to as "fly over" by bicoastal elitesand as John Mellencamp put it "they vacation in the Gulf of Mexico"; not exactly sophisticated people they have funny first and last names ending in consonants that are so rare as to warrant high point scores in Scrabble; they speak with funny accents that makes people think "ignorant" as soon as it assaults their ears; people down there enjoy catching and eating fish and tailgate at SEC football games; they look fat and sweaty; OK maybe I exaggerate a little.

I lived on the Gulf for a while and I still recall the mournful sounding foghorn near Mobile Bay on those foggy, damp, November nights when beach communities are ghost towns...don't ask for whom the horn sounds...it sounds for thee.

 

[Jim Ernst]

If this has been posted, I am sorry, tomorrow night on the discovery channel, at 5 pacific standard time, and 8 eastern standard, they will be showing a program of the BP Oil dissaster.....

 

[seaducer]

what I find very perplexing is the lack of indignation that would be taking place if the spill was happening on the east or west coast.
...snip...

Uh, where did this come from?

I was ground zero for medical waste on the Jersey Shore, and I am pretty dog gone positive that we received no where near the amount of attention that this spill is getting. (and rightly so)

In case you have some cable trouble up there in Alaska, this is front and center of the National news every day for 50 days now. There have been Congressional hearings. This is about as big as it gets.

The only reason it might get more...whatever... on the Right and Left coasts is because, well, more people live there. That is only natural, more people affected means more voices screaming. But to be honest I do not remember the mainstream media ever paying this much air time to an environmental catastrophe in, well ever.

I really don't see where anyone can get the impression that the GoM is missing out on anything from the rest of the country over this.

Now, on the other hand, if you are interested in what the government is planning on doing about this issue, allow me to enlighten...

They will do what they have always done for pretty much everything (even 9-11). They will stand on the Capitol steps, with flags and babies waving behind them, and deliver carefully crafted speeches designed to confuse the mass of ignorant voters and make them think the government is smart, and on top of things. Then they will do nothing.

And the lackeys for whatever ever party smells better when this is done will carry the torch, while lackeys for the other party bitch and moan about things.

And eventually a bigger celeb than Coleman will die (no pun intended), and we will all forget about this...

 

[vladimir]

Could it be that most of the Gulf is part of that great expanse of the coutry derisively referred to as "fly over" by bicoastal elitesand as John Mellencamp put it "they vacation in the Gulf of Mexico";

Why should elitist, ivy-league-educated, liberal snobs in New York be angry if Louisianans aren't? Last I heard, the Hamptons are still oil-free.

From a recent NY Times article:

Louisiana is an oil state, through and through. A gushing leak off of its coast has not, apparently, changed that.

Though local and state politicians are railing against BP and what they consider lax industry regulation and enforcement, it is nearly impossible to find any of them calling for offshore drilling to cease, or even slow down. Louisiana’s senators — Mary L. Landrieu, a Democrat, and David Vitter, a Republican — have both scrambled to be the most prominent voice to argue that the country should not retreat from offshore drilling just because of the spill. Many of their constituents seem to agree.

 

[fairybasslet]

...to repeal the tyrannnical second law of thermodynamics.

Have no idea what that is but I'm glad there is a knowledgeable person on this board so I know whose ass to kick.

what I find very perplexing is the lack of indignation that would be taking place if the spill was happening on the east or west coast.

yes, people have spoken up, but absent is the groundswell of public calls for action that took place in the aftermath of the Santa Barbara oil spill, the Huntington Beach spill (tanker ran over its anchor), medical waste washing up on the Jersey shore, etc.

Lots of coverage, but the only real sense of alarm that I get is when reports mention the oil might get entrained in LOOP current and soil the beaches of Florida or the Atlantic coast.

The environmental community has never really cared much about what happened in the GOM and seems confused as how to respond to the problem now.

Could it be that most of the Gulf is part of that great expanse of the coutry derisively referred to as "fly over" by bicoastal elitesand as John Mellencamp put it "they vacation in the Gulf of Mexico"; not exactly sophisticated people they have funny first and last names ending in consonants that are so rare as to warrant high point scores in Scrabble; they speak with funny accents that makes people think "ignorant" as soon as it assaults their ears; people down there enjoy catching and eating fish and tailgate at SEC football games; they look fat and sweaty; OK maybe I exaggerate a little.
.

Methinks someone exagerates a great deal or hasn't been paying attention or has fallen prey to some kind of political spin machine whose motives I am at a loss to explain or understand.
When Stephen Colbert starts fund raising for a cause, it's pretty much a lock for the "liberal elites" whomever they might be. Got to love the Gulf of America campaign. The dude is a freaking genius.
https://www.braf.org/braf/DonateOnline/tabid/119/dispatch/contribution_259952_182251243e8bf763c52ad5e4a09d70e39659c6a0_0/Default.aspx

 

[shoredivr]

Commentary about the BP spill by geologists and those in the oil industry, plus discussions on peak oil.

The Oil Drum | Discussions about Energy and Our Future

Spill and sheen location updated daily

Deepwater Horizon Incident, Gulf of Mexico | Recent and Historical Incidents | Emergency Response | NOAA's National Ocean Service Office of Response and Restoration

 

[Sask Diver]

They are sill finding oil on the beaches in Alaska
On 20th anniversary of oil spill, trouble lingers: Exxon Valdez spill | adn.com
I doubt the US goverment can or will do much, exxon said they would take care of the spill and clean up and was orderd to pay locals 500 million.
They may have taken care of the oil in the water, but it is still soaked into the beaches and the damages they were supposed to pay to the local fisheries were fought in court for up to 15 tears I beleive and the payments were reduced several times resulting in next to nothing payments.

Poeple have gone bankrupt and several have commited suicide.

Back then they did not have the equipment or expetise to deal with a spill, and this is much worse, but still BP and the US goverment say BP will pay.
I say BS, big bussiness is going to F%@k over the planet again

 

[captain]

Why should elitist, ivy-league-educated, liberal snobs in New York be angry if Louisianans aren't? Last I heard, the Hamptons are still oil-free.

From a recent NY Times article:

The Louisiana economy hasn't been significantly affected by the recession because of rebuilding after Katrina and the oil industry. Now the oil spill has shutdown the some of the seafood industry and charter fishing industry and now the government want to pour salt into the wound by shutting down offshore drilling which can effect as many as 50,000 jobs. These are $50,000 to $75,000 a year jobs but Obama says don't worry everyone will get unemployment compensation.
If an airliner crashes and kills 300 people do we shut down the entire airline industry until the cause is determined.

 

[seaducer]

If an airliner crashes and kills 300 people do we shut down the entire airline industry until the cause is determined.

Actually it is not uncommon for a model of airplane to be grounded after an incident until an investigation takes place. So in a way, yes, the industry gets shut down.

After 9-11 all US airspace was shut down for commercial flight, even though keeping terrorists out of cockpits and off planes is pretty easy (though politically incorrect).

I think it is only prudent to shut down existing deep ocean wells and put a halt to all new wells until the industry has an actual plan to A stop incidents like this from happening, and B to have an effective method to cap a well should a problem happen anyway.

I do not think it is unreasonable to suggest that the industry be able to keep the environment safe from its product, barring the ability to do that it should be the government's job to keep the environment safe from the industry.

Of course who pays the political party bills? And there in lies the problem.