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Thread: Deepwater Horizon

  1. #1
    Registered User Lulim's Avatar
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    Deepwater Horizon

    Since the explosion and sinking of "Deepwater Horizon", 800000 l (800.000 liter = 211 337.6418 gallone) of crude oil are daily spilling out of the leaks, a vast oil slick drifting towards the southern US coasts, threatening to destroy both, livelihood of men, and the environment.

    What do you think about it? Are European media, as usual, making too much of a fuss about it?

    Who is suffering most from this accident? BP? The families of the eleven killed workers? The fishing and tourism industry? The environment?

    Who is to be blamed -- if anyone?

    What should be the consequences -- if any?

    Do you consider it a case where some collateral damage has just to be accepted, for the sake of securing employment, and access to energy sources?

    Life is either a daring adventure or nothing.
    To keep our faces toward change and behave like free spirits
    in the presence of fate is strength undefeatable.”

    Helen Keller

  2. #2
    BadWoolf JuniperWoolf's Avatar
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    I've had to clean oil-covered sea birds.... poor babies. It sucks for them most of all I think.
    __________________
    "Personal note: When I was a little kid my mother told me not to stare into the sun. So once when I was six, I did. At first the brightness was overwhelming, but I had seen that before. I kept looking, forcing myself not to blink, and then the brightness began to dissolve. My pupils shrunk to pinholes and everything came into focus and for a moment I understood. The doctors didn't know if my eyes would ever heal."
    -Pi


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    Super papayahed's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Lulim View Post

    What do you think about it? Are European media, as usual, making too much of a fuss about it?

    Who is suffering most from this accident? BP? The families of the eleven killed workers? The fishing and tourism industry? The environment?

    Who is to be blamed -- if anyone?

    What should be the consequences -- if any?

    Do you consider it a case where some collateral damage has just to be accepted, for the sake of securing employment, and access to energy sources?

    No, I'm in Louisiana and it's a big deal here as well. The spill could have a huge impact on the gulf coast:

    http://www.associatedcontent.com/art..._could_be.html


    I live in the northern part of the state where they found one of the largest deposits of natural gas ever. Drilling companies have been popping up everywhere. Everybody thought it was the best thing since sliced bread when the oil companies were buying landowner's mineral rights but now the reality has set in and the wells are loud, there's tons more truck traffic and just recently several neighborhoods were evacuated for about a week because of high pressure on a well head and gas leaking into the water supply.
    Do, or do not. There is no try. - Yoda


  4. #4
    BadWoolf JuniperWoolf's Avatar
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    Well, I'm freaking out about this.

    It seems to me like no one really knows what the hell is going on. The solutions that I've read about so far sound infantile and ineffectual. I don't think that people really understand yet how serious this is, to absolutely every living creature on earth. Ecology is such a fine balance, something small (say, the introduction of sea urchins to an area where they don't belong) could change everything on a global scale. This isn't something small, this is huge. This is going to throw off every ecological niche on earth.

    Every single marine foodchain is SCREWED, and without the bottom-most foodsourse (krill, diatoms, tiny little sensitive things like that which are RIGHT NOW dying off in massive numbers) there will be nothing for the other animals to eat. There are many land-animals that eat sea-animals (including us) and THEIR survival will be thrown into a tailspin as well. Then of course, the animals which feed on those animals and so on and so on... ****. This is really ****ing serious. I thought that the geniuses who developed the rigging mechanism in the first place would have stopped the geyser of oil long before this.
    __________________
    "Personal note: When I was a little kid my mother told me not to stare into the sun. So once when I was six, I did. At first the brightness was overwhelming, but I had seen that before. I kept looking, forcing myself not to blink, and then the brightness began to dissolve. My pupils shrunk to pinholes and everything came into focus and for a moment I understood. The doctors didn't know if my eyes would ever heal."
    -Pi


  5. #5
    Jethro BienvenuJDC's Avatar
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    I'll say this one thing. I am very impressed that Actor and Environmentalist Kevin Costner is putting his money where his mouth is. If you haven't heard of his efforts to help create a solution, google "Ocean Therapy". Talk is cheap and there are many celebrities who talk a big talk, but Kevin is actually doing something productive.
    Les Miserables,
    Volume 1, Fifth Book, Chapter 3
    Remember this, my friends: there are no such things as bad plants or bad men. There are only bad cultivators.

  6. #6
    ésprit de l’escalier DanielBenoit's Avatar
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    *sigh*

    If there is a God, it must be sad sitting back and watching mankind kill itself. We must seem so pitifully stupid. Like a colony of ants collapsing their hill because they put too much sand on it.
    The Moments of Dominion
    That happen on the Soul
    And leave it with a Discontent
    Too exquisite — to tell —
    -Emily Dickinson
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TVW8GCnr9-I
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ckGIvr6WVw4

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    Registered User keilj's Avatar
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    There is blame to be shared all around. The oil companies and their colossal incompetence at having no failsafes or contingency plans, the people and their rampant consumerism and gluttonous lifestyles, the politicians, who will give lip service and feign indignation while being in the oil men's pockets, the incredible apathy and ignorance of how devastating this will be to the ecology, sea life, local fishermen and local seafood restaurants in the gulf.

    overall the whole thing is so sickening to me that I don't even like to talk about it around the water cooler

  8. #8
    Jethro BienvenuJDC's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by DanielBenoit View Post
    *sigh*

    If there is a God, it must be sad sitting back and watching mankind kill itself. We must seem so pitifully stupid. Like a colony of ants collapsing their hill because they put too much sand on it.
    As tragic as this is, I think that is an over dramatic approach...
    Les Miserables,
    Volume 1, Fifth Book, Chapter 3
    Remember this, my friends: there are no such things as bad plants or bad men. There are only bad cultivators.

  9. #9
    Registered User keilj's Avatar
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    dol.JPG


    ......................

    Quote Originally Posted by BienvenuJDC View Post
    As tragic as this is, I think that is an over dramatic approach...
    Not really. man has poisoned and pillaged his way across the earth. From everything to fossil fuels to living things like whales and elephant tusks. Take a look at the history of whaling in the U.S., the national parks, currently we are still strip foresting in the Appalachians and also slicing the tops off of mountains in the Appalachians as well. Look at the ecological disaster that happened in TN a couple years ago - the biggest in U.S. history and it was barely even reported

  10. #10
    Vincit Qui Se Vincit Virgil's Avatar
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    Good God. There's a reason I don't join in any of these discussions any more. People get so hysterical and over react. This is certainly not a good thing, and my heart goes out to the people and wildlife affected, but no one, and I repeat no one of any sanity, is going to turn the clock back to pre-industrial life. Oil is the life blood of the modern world. Your standard of living is based on it. I doubt anyone is going to give up their cars, electricity, winter heat, summer air conditioning, and electrical items. You are all consumers. This will have to be corrected, learned from, and better measures implemented in the future.
    LET THERE BE LIGHT

    "Love follows knowledge." – St. Catherine of Siena

    My literature blog: http://ashesfromburntroses.blogspot.com/

  11. #11
    Reader plainjane's Avatar
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    Here is a link to ABC News video featuring Philippe Cousteau Jr. and some of his comments. http://news.yahoo.com/video/us-15749...N0ZWF1anJ0aA-- He said he'd never seen anything so bad.

  12. #12
    ésprit de l’escalier DanielBenoit's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Virgil View Post
    Good God. There's a reason I don't join in any of these discussions any more. People get so hysterical and over react. This is certainly not a good thing, and my heart goes out to the people and wildlife affected, but no one, and I repeat no one of any sanity, is going to turn the clock back to pre-industrial life. Oil is the life blood of the modern world. Your standard of living is based on it. I doubt anyone is going to give up their cars, electricity, winter heat, summer air conditioning, and electrical items. You are all consumers. This will have to be corrected, learned from, and better measures implemented in the future.
    I don't think anybody here was really suggesting that we'd going back to a pre-industrial society, not even close. (Though I can only speak for myself.)

    This thread will probably be closed in the near future, as it is bound to get into current politics (how can it not?), but I will like to say that despite oil being the life blood of modern society, that is not entirely a good thing.

    Because oil is such a vital source of energy and money, it has caused many very unfortunate things in recent decades, both political, environmental and economical.

    I remain unspecific so as to not get my post removed, but oil has brought with its many benefits that we take for granted, an equal amount of disadvantages. Current alternative energies do not hold all of the answers either, but I think it should be a priority that we seek out to improve the technology so that we can cut-off our dependence on oil completely, which I admit is a overly optimistic and idealistic goal which has no chance of being fulfilled even in the next few decades.
    The Moments of Dominion
    That happen on the Soul
    And leave it with a Discontent
    Too exquisite — to tell —
    -Emily Dickinson
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TVW8GCnr9-I
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ckGIvr6WVw4

  13. #13
    Registered User Lulim's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by DanielBenoit View Post
    (...) but I think it should be a priority that we seek out to improve the technology so that we can cut-off our dependence on oil completely, (...)
    As oil is running out, probably within this century, there will be no choice anyway.

    Life is either a daring adventure or nothing.
    To keep our faces toward change and behave like free spirits
    in the presence of fate is strength undefeatable.”

    Helen Keller

  14. #14
    Vincit Qui Se Vincit Virgil's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by DanielBenoit View Post
    I don't think anybody here was really suggesting that we'd going back to a pre-industrial society, not even close. (Though I can only speak for myself.)
    Well their hysteria implies it. The only reasonable alternative to oil is nuclear energy and that brings it's own issues. I welcome both. If you think we have economic and political problems now, just try to live in a world of limited energy souces. Then you will see economic and political problems like never before.

    Quote Originally Posted by Lulim View Post
    As oil is running out, probably within this century, there will be no choice anyway.
    I've seen estimates (and not by whacky environmentalists but people in the oil industry) that we have probably consumed less than 20% of all the oil in the earth, and that's going back almost two hundred years of use. Sure we use more now because more nations are industirialized, but I bet we have at least several centruies of oil to use. We are stumbling over oil everywhere. Doesn't it amaze you that oil is discovered almost in all parts of the world? Oil has been a blessing. We would be living like people did two hundred years ago, with wood and possibly coal for heat. Everytime you turn on your electricity (and that includes your computer and ipod and DVD players) or get into a car you are reaping the benfits of oil. Love it. Embrace it. It's the life blood of the modern world.
    LET THERE BE LIGHT

    "Love follows knowledge." – St. Catherine of Siena

    My literature blog: http://ashesfromburntroses.blogspot.com/

  15. #15
    Jethro BienvenuJDC's Avatar
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    I know what they taught in school (which is mostly a bunch of misinformation). But have there been any estimates on how long it takes for oil to be produced in nature? We were always taught that coal took MILLIONS of years to form, but it has been discovered in the past few decades that vegetation can become coalified in a matter of just decades. So what is the truth about oil?
    Les Miserables,
    Volume 1, Fifth Book, Chapter 3
    Remember this, my friends: there are no such things as bad plants or bad men. There are only bad cultivators.

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