Gulf Coast Oil Spill

[captain]

As with most accidents multiple things go wrong and pile up on one another until control is lost.
We may have controls and safe guards in place to handle each individual thing that could go wrong but when multiple events occur the controls for each event may not be able to control the sum of all the events at one time. Foreseeing an infinite combinations of individual events and having a planned reaction to whatever the combination of events is is the problem.
Probably no human endeavor other than the manned space program has received the "what if" scrutiny and back up to the back up to the back up redundancy more but it hasn't prevented several catastrophic events such as Apollo 13, the loss of two shuttles and the Apollo fire on the ground that killed 3 astronauts.

 

[AdvancedAquarist]

Boycott bp!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[Jeff Toorish]

In these situations I try to see all sides before making any judgements. But there are some facts that do not paint a very good picture of BP.

BP has one of the worst safety records in the industry according to media reports. Politically, they essentially fight any regulation, even when other oil companies are on board. For the most part, I have found their response to this catastrophe somewhat lacking. They don't even sound particularly concerned. They have thwarted attempts by scientists to gain more data so we can find out exactly how much oil is gushing into the Gulf.

While the CEO of BP says things like, its a big ocean and a small amount of oil, and conservative commentators suggest that the oceans will take care of themselves, it is important to remember that one gallon of oil can pollute up to a million gallons of water.

At the end of the day, this disaster will be paid for by millions of people with lost wages, lost businesses and lost opportunities. As the OP said, he decided to wait on making a travel reservation because of this. That income won't be made up in Florida.

Most recently, it appears there is a good chance the oil will spread up the east coast of the US, creating a new set of problems.

Jeff

 

[widget]

I see the "insertion tube" has had some limited success and they are recovering about 1/5th of the outflow or 1000 barrels per day of oil, still relatively low, but maybe they can improve on this over the future short term.

One wonders why they didnt try this initially as it seems to make the most sense and seems to be a workable solution, but, I guess, "hindsight" is a wonderfull gift.:depressed:

At the end of the day, this disaster will be paid for by millions of people with lost wages, lost businesses and lost opportunities. As the OP said, he decided to wait on making a travel reservation because of this. That income won't be made up in Florida.

Yeah, you are right, at the end of the day its the folk who really had nothing to do with it who suffer the most, BP will survive and nature will slowly clean up the mess, but, for some innocent folk it could very well mean the loss of an income, business etc -and thats the really sad part.

 

[discnjh]

In these situations I try to see all sides before making any judgements. But there are some facts that do not paint a very good picture of BP.

BP has one of the worst safety records in the industry according to media reports. Politically, they essentially fight any regulation, even when other oil companies are on board. For the most part, I have found their response to this catastrophe somewhat lacking. They don't even sound particularly concerned. They have thwarted attempts by scientists to gain more data so we can find out exactly how much oil is gushing into the Gulf.

While the CEO of BP says things like, its a big ocean and a small amount of oil, and conservative commentators suggest that the oceans will take care of themselves, it is important to remember that one gallon of oil can pollute up to a million gallons of water.

Agreed. So as I mentioned earlier, I work at an oil refinery, and its not fun to work for any oil company when things like this are happening, but man I'm glad I don't work at BP. Since the Texas City refinery in explosion in 2005 (i think) they have just been a MESS. I have no idea what is going on with that company.

 

[captain]

Agreed. So as I mentioned earlier, I work at an oil refinery, and its not fun to work for any oil company when things like this are happening, but man I'm glad I don't work at BP. Since the Texas City refinery in explosion in 2005 (i think) they have just been a MESS. I have no idea what is going on with that company.

I know the feeling, I was working for Union Carbide Corp. when the Bhopal, India chemical release occurred.

 

[northen diver]

Just last year this govt gave that rig an award for safety. Wow!!

Oddly enough, BP had several high level personel on the rig to celebrate 7 years of a "perfect" safety record when the blow out took place. This was supposed to be one of BP's "safer" rigs. How scary is that!!

 

[Randy43068]

I stopped buying BP products a long time ago. Their stores and restrooms used to be filthy so now I refuse to spend any money with them. Maybe they're better now, however I'm not checking it out. There are too many other places who actually want my money.

 

[shoredivr]

Speargirl posted this link elsewhere on SB.


Oil on the reef off Marathon - Spearboard Spearfishing Community

The NASA photo in this thread isn't good.
http://www.spearboard.com/showthread.php?t=104886

 

[hvulin]

Speargirl posted this link elsewhere on SB.


Oil on the reef off Marathon - Spearboard Spearfishing Community

The NASA photo in this thread isn't good.
Loop Current off of Key West ?? - Spearboard Spearfishing Community

interesting idea in that thread: delete whole thread since they don't have all the facts????

as if anyone has the facts?!?!? Let's just hope they soon plug the hole...