BP Gulf of Mexico Oil Disaster
Today is day 44 of the BP-Deepwater Horizon oil rig explosion and spill disaster in the Gulf of Mexico just 50 miles off the Louisiana coast. It is also day 2 of the 2010 hurricane season. This area of the world is my home and a vital part of my home state, Louisiana.
Our wetlands are a world treasure of diversity of plant and animal species, including much of the seafood and fish eaten in America. Our coral reefs are vital to the survival of many more species from every layer of the food chain. Our wetlands are the marsh equivalent of rain forests. If our area were its own economy, it would be 29th in the world. It’s a huge part of the state and a huge part of America.
Wetlands aren’t only a diverse national treasure and a means of survival of an entire region, they are also the sponge that soaks up hurricane energy before the storm reaches populated areas. Four linear miles of wetlands soaks up 1 foot of storm surge. If a severe hurricane comes ashore with a 30 foot storm surge, it takes 120 linear miles of wetlands between the shore and populated areas to stop the storm surge.
As we lose land to natural forces, our populated areas become much more vulnerable. New Orleans used to be on solid ground more than 20 miles inland from the marshes. It was well protected with a crude and rather small levee system to cover the lower lying areas of the city. As land washed away, New Orleans became more vulnerable by the year. In the last 30 years, even with the complex levee system and new pumping capacity (that was under-designed and under-built by the Army Corp of Engineers for the forces it must withstand), there are not enough linear miles of wetlands between the Gulf and New Orleans to protect New Orleans.
Baton Rouge and other areas well north of the Gulf now get significant hurricane rain, wind and damage. The kind of severity we’ve seen over the past 5 years is far worse than anyone living can remember. For Baton Rouge, Gustav was the worst storm ever seen in anyone’s memory; worse than Betsy (1965), and Betsy was our worst storm until 2008. We saw significant rain, wind and damage with Andrew in 1992, Katrina and Rita in 2005, and Gustav in 2008. Baton Rouge was spared Ike, but coastal Louisiana was severely damaged along with coastal Texas.
Our wetlands are once again facing a severe threat to their survival, just as they were beginning to fully recover from the hurricane seasons of 2005 and 2008 (Katrina, Rita, Gustav, and Ike).
Representative Charlie Melancon told the story of the devastation and showed the emotion we all feel about our coast being hit again by man’s greed and lack of care of the environment:
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BP is responsible. But right now it doesn’t matter who is at fault. What matters is containing the spill, finding the plumes and collecting them, protecting the marshes, and plugging the well, getting the relief wells drilled and getting that well permanently sealed. None of the attempts so far to siphon off oil and water or to plug the well have been successful.
The next try is to cut off the damaged pipe and put a small cap over it to draw the oil up a pipe to a ship for containment until the well can be sealed. The only way to seal a well is to relieve the pressure with relief wells and use one to cement the well shut. Instead of top kill, they use bottom kill, drilling mud injected into the well to keep the oil down while they pour concrete and seal it. The oil’s upward pressure is relieved by the other relief wells. It will take as few as 90 days to drill 2 relief wells. It may take several more tries than two to get to the exact target of that blown out well.
If a major hurricane hits before the well is sealed and a good deal of the oil is cleaned up, oil will be dispersed and drawn up into the storm waters. It will not only rain water, it will rain water mixed with oil everywhere that storm goes throughout the country.
Eleven people were killed in the explosion and fire. BP will at least face manslaughter charges for those deaths if found criminally responsible for the incident. BP will also face penalties from:
* the Clean Water Act
* the Oil Pollution Act of 1990
* the Migratory Bird Treat Act
* the Endangered Species Act
The explosion and fire seem to be the direct result of trying to hurry the procedure to cap the well for later use. BP allegedly ordered Deepwater Horizon workers to slow and stop the flow of drilling mud while they began pouring concrete through the pipe to seal the well.
The problem with cutting this procedural corner when sealing a well is that methane and natural gas can bubble up through the pipe when drilling mud pressure is relieved before concrete seals the well. Methane and natural gas are extremely flammable. When this happens, the gases almost always cause an explosion, fire and loss of a rig. When the burning rig finally collapsed and the blowout preventer failed, oil began spilling a mile below the surface of the Gulf of Mexico waters at an alarming rate.
Numbers of barrels of oil per day spilling varies widely depending on who you ask. An average number is 12,000 barrels per day. How much oil is on the surface and how much is in plumes under the water is unknown. Oil has many components from light gases to heavy tars, so there are most certainly plumes of heavier components floating at various depths. Tar balls are washing up on beaches in the Florida Keys. (See following video ~1 min, I believe the scientists):
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Oil on the surface of the Gulf water has moved into marsh grasses and onto barrier islands. Countless wildlife are being coated with oil and many have died. Many more will die before the oil can be cleaned up.
We really don’t have good ways of cleaning up massive oil spills. Don’t believe me? Revisit Prince William Sound in Alaska over 20 years after the Exxon Valdez oil spill. If you dig down into the sand along the sound, you will find a lot of oil and tar. The big differences are climate, mud and bacteria content of the water and mud available. The climate in Alaska doesn’t lend itself well to active biodegradation.
Here is a link to a set of photos of the wildlife toll.
As of noon on May 28, the Deepwater Horizon response team has recorded the following deaths among marine life:
* Birds: 444
* Sea Turtles: 222
* Mammals, including dolphins: 24
When wetlands are coated in oil, the grasses die and the silt and sand wash out with the tide. Louisiana loses 25-50 square miles of land each year to erosion, subsidence, and a complete lack of natural rebuilding from Mississippi River annual flooding. When something happens to kill the marsh grasses and damage the wetlands, land loss happens much faster. We need to rebuild the wetlands mechanically or technologically since we have taken away the natural process that builds those wetlands.
Fortunately, the Atchafalaya River is rebuilding wetlands as it flows into the Gulf, but that basin is west of the Mississippi River Gulf Outlet and the area of the state that protects New Orleans from hurricanes.
In 2005, Hurricanes Katrina and Rita were responsible for the loss of about 100 square miles of wetlands within a 4 week period, on top of the normal 25-50 square mile annual land loss.
This is yet another kick in the teeth of a vulnerable area of the U.S. Does America really care to save Louisiana and her economy? Does America care to save New Orleans and her unique culture? If what has happened down here happened in New York City, Boston, Los Angeles, San Fransisco, or Washington D.C., you can bet the response would have been a lot better and the recovery would have been complete by now. An oil spill wouldn’t happen because there is a drilling ban off the Atlantic and Pacific coasts.
Rachel Maddow sums up the issue extremely clearly here:
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The ultimate question: is off shore oil drilling safe? Not presently. Can it be made safe enough to have acceptable risks? Probably, but it’s only a drop in the bucket. The amount of oil we get from our own sources is a small amount of our total supply.
We need to break our addiction to oil, move to intermediate fuel sources (like vegetable oils and natural gas), and get to clean, renewable energy sources, like wind and solar power. We have to power our cars with electricity and organic fuels until we develop the technology to move to electric cars, or better yet, public transportation systems that are clean and reliable.
We in Louisiana are getting pretty discouraged with the disregard for our state’s environment that has brought all these disasters about. This is a very long-term problem, over 50 years of environmental abuse and neglect. The disasters are still severely affecting our economy and will for years or even decades to come. We want to get this well plugged, the oil cleaned up, and finish our recovery from recent hurricanes. We’ll do it. We’re a tough and resilient people. Our climate is warm and the mud is a great surface for oil-eating bacteria. The oil here will likely get cleaned up and biodegraded more quickly than in Alaska.
But we need America’s help in caring about our environment by going on an oil diet and ultimately to stop using oil so we can stop drilling off our shores. And we need to stop buying foreign oil that jeopardizes our national security. The time is now to end our oil addiction.
Filed under: Accountability and Justice, Environment, History, Non-storm Disasters, Science, Videos
This is one of the best “what happened” reports I have read by anyone. Your passion shows but you have presented the facts to show the terrible loss that will occur as a result of terrible policies that benefit only a few.
The oil is only a drop in the bucket relative to need, but those drops look like they will destroy the Gulf Coast and make life tough for the rest of the United States.
.-= Bruce´s last blog ..Twitter Weekly Updates for 2010-05-30 =-.
The companies and Governments involved need to work as one team rather than pointing the finger.
BP first came out and said it’s not our fault – we don’t care whose fault it is.
Resolve the issue and then find out what went wrong and what lessons can be learned.
Andrew
.-= Andrew @ Blogging Guide´s last blog ..Search Engine Optimization Is Easy And Cheap =-.
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Sherri Joubert, Debbie (Koenig)Bills. Debbie (Koenig)Bills said: RT @joubess BP Gulf of Mexico Oil Disaster http://bit.ly/cmQ4vf [...]
When it comes to New Orleans let us remember that they had the money from the goverment to build bigger and better levees, but chose to use that money elsw where. As for the oil spill, let’s face it is all about greed these days. Where ever you look we have a broken system that needs to be fixed.
Right now everyone needs to stop pointing fingers and fix the problem and then worry about blame and who has to pay for it.
Because of greed these days it is all about blame and not fixing a problem. Very sad.
Debbie
This is something I have not seen on the news anywhere.
WHY?
“Wetlands aren’t only a diverse national treasure and a means of survival of an entire region, they are also the sponge that soaks up hurricane energy before the storm reaches populated areas. Four linear miles of wetlands soaks up 1 foot of storm surge.”
.-= Corinne Edwards´s last blog ..A PUBLISHING DEAL – YAY! – now what? =-.
Sherri
Thanks you for providing such an informative and thought provoking post – I’m only saddened that the topic is so tragic. Although the story has featured on our (UK) news its often been focussed on BP rather than the impact locally. Certainly the possible impact on the wetlands, and consequently the future impact of destructive weather systems, was something I wasn’t aware of.
I will promote this as much as I can through social media and I hope you get a good readership.
David
.-= David Rogers´s last blog ..Time for Change =-.
This is a tragedy and to think that Louisiana would be hit by two terrible disasters like this in just a few years in unbelievable.
Krizia
.-= Eat Smart Age Smart´s last blog ..The New Moosewood Cookbook Mollie Katzens Classic Cooking =-.
Everyone of us uses more oil than is necessary per day. There are great uses for oil, lots of vital and essential products – powering cars is not really one of them. There are alternatives and ways to cut down usage and we can all play a part.
.-= Joel´s last blog ..More Easy Blogging Tools For You =-.
Joel, thanks for reading and commenting. We all use more fossil fuels than we need to. In America, the primary uses of oil, coal and gas are in generation of electricity. Reducing electrical usage not only lowers the bill, it also reduces the amounts of fossil fuels we consume.
Until gasoline reached $4/gal a couple of summers ago, many Americans drove and still drive gas guzzlers. It would seem to me that raising the price of gas with taxes would reduce driving, and the money could be used to develop green, renewable methods of generating our electric power.
Wind and solar “farms” are being built, but we need to expand those methods to every house and building rooftop in the country. We need a power World Wide Web just like we have a computer www. Power production needs to be decentralized like computing has been. We lowered our electric and gas bills by installing compact fluorescent light bulbs throughout the house, and we are using far fewer kilowatt hours of electricity. It’s easy for me to keep track through the electric company’s online usage records. I could keep track by reading my own digital meter as well.
Experimental work with carbon dioxide usage by algae from coal and oil power plants needs to continue to make biofuels that consume greenhouse gases and don’t use our farm land for fuel production. Every acre used for fuel production instead of food production causes greater famine in the third world.
Sherri
Krizia,
Thanks for writing. I wish it had only been 2 major disasters. We are on our 5th in less than 5 years; 4 were hurricanes.
The oil disaster has the ability to do far more long-term damage that will make future storms far worse for everyone. It will destroy fragile and much-needed wetland protection.
Once a hurricane makes landfall, it moves in some path north, northwest, or northeast until the storm front is used up. Corinne got roof damage in Chicago from storms that were spawned from Hurricane Gustav. If a storm picks up tons of crude oil, it will be raining oil throughout any path that hurricane takes.
Sherri
David,
Thank you for commenting. BP is a major part of the UK economy, unless it is off-shored like many companies in the US and doesn’t pay taxes anywhere. Still, it provides a lot of jobs. BP’s future is important to the world economy as well because they provide so many jobs worldwide as well as provide oil to an energy-starved world.
The thing that angers me so much isn’t BP in particular, it is the oil industry in general. They, collectively, have made no technological safety improvements to cope with off-shore drilling disasters. The technology used today to deal with this disaster is exactly the same as the technology used in the 1979 Gulf oil spill off the south Texas coast. They’ve learned to drill deeper and with fewer oil rig risers above water, but they haven’t made a single improvement in disaster prevention and spill cleanup.
The impact on the wetlands and the livelihoods of those who depend on them will be negatively impacted for years or decades. The economic impact on small businesses and the local economy is far greater in dollars than the oil industry. If anyone has ideas for cleaning oil off marsh grasses and keeping oil off the shore, I want to know about them.
Thanks you for spreading the word that an oil rig disaster has long-term consequences to the environment and the people in it.
Sherri
Corinne,
Thanks for supporting this blog, though I don’t write on it as much as I do the other one. This one gets too personal and painful. I started it to begin to tell my story of how Katrina and Rita harmed us, and me personally.
Why haven’t you heard about wetland diversity, the economy wetlands produce and sustain, and how many linear feet of wetlands soak up how many feet of a hurricane’s storm surge?
It is taught in 8th grade Louisiana history. If you don’t study environmental science or live where they teach about wetland and hurricane history and ecology, those are facts you won’t hear. I imagine only a few reporters know those facts or how the whole ecosystem fits together and works to protect land.
We also are taught just how much we can hold nature back. Recent core samples from lower wetlands show that the Gulf goes through cycles of light and heavy hurricane activity. There are two major cycles, one every 10,000 years and one every 1000 years. Climate change or not, we are entering a period of heavy activity with the beginning of a 10,000 year cycle and a heavy 1000 year cycle, a double whammy. The 1000 year cycles last several decades in the 100 year period beginning the 1000 year cycle. There are also trends within centuries that last a few to several decades.
This is the first large cycle where the wetlands have been severely compromised and there is a large population close to the coast who will be affected by big storms.
Sherri
Hi Andrew,
I agree. Fault and blame need to be put on hold until the disaster is over and cleaned up. Then we can worry about whose fault it is.
We kind of already know that, given who owned the rig, who leased it and who was in charge of decisions. But given that, why worry about it? We know who to investigate later.
Sherri
Bruce,
Thank you. I’ve had plenty of time to learn to feel the anger and still remain pretty objective. I’m a scientist with many years of experience and whether or not I like the facts, they are the facts and nothing changes them.
It’s also very hard to stay angry at things you can’t change, like 4 major storms in 3 years. Earth isn’t a system any of us can control and storms are one of those parts of the system. You either accept that nature holds power far beyond our meager abilities or you remain miserable. I also don’t believe God did this to us as some kind of punishment as some evangelicals believe. To me, that’s bullpucky. This is just what happens in this part of the world, like earthquakes in California and Haiti.
I am angry at the oil industry and the U.S. Department of the Interior in general. This could just as easily have been an Exxon or Shell disaster. DOI really dropped the ball under the Bush administration. But the industry is really to blame for not developing technologies to improve the safety and prevention of disasters when blowouts happen, and they always do at some point. We know how to drill deep. We don’t know what to do if something goes wrong, and no one has worked on that technology after 30 years. The same things are done today when well blowouts happen as were done in 1979. Where are the engineers developing the better technologies? I have no idea. I don’t think anyone knows.
I just hope it changes. That we either stop off shore drilling for oil, or we fix these problems. I’d like to see both, but we won’t stop drilling until we have replacements for that form of energy. So we have to improve blowout prevention and oil spill cleanup.
I find it ironic that a drop in the bucket of our energy needs will wreak havoc on the Gulf Coast environment for decades to come.
Sherri
Debbie,
Let me correct the facts about the bigger and better levee system money. Louisiana didn’t receive money to design or build the levee system. We received federal money to maintain the levees after they were built, which was squandered at times on things having nothing to do with the levees.
The Army Corp of Engineers designed and built the levee system. They under-designed the levee wall pilings. They were built to design specs, but those specs were way off. Pilings were sunk to 17-25 feet into the mud/silt. Unfortunately, that is like putting pilings in Jello. There is no solid ground until you get about 50 feet down. The replacement levee wall pilings are now sunk to 65 feet. The problem is the old walls that didn’t fail still have pilings driven to only 17-25 feet.
It is time to fix the problems and worry about blame and finger-pointing later. We know it was Transocean’s rig and we know BP was leasing it. We know who to go after later.
It is very sad that every place we turn, moral values have been ignored and greed has come before the needs of the many. It’s true on Wall Street, at big banks, medical care, Congress, the Senate, and even the Presidency (depending on who is in office).
We the people have to start voting for people who will make good policy and have rigorous intellectual and moral debates before making those policies. Until rigor returns to our two-party system, we’re in trouble systemically.
Thanks for writing,
Sherri
Very nice, Sherri.
Though I’m not a big fan of politics, I’m also a former resident of Louisiana (lived in Slidell for a couple of years)… and the beauty of wetlands (in fact, I’ll go ahead and call it a swamp… the bayou… and it’s still beautiful) is unquestionable, but like much natural beauty, it is under-appreciated.
I love the idea of wind and solar power, but the only people I know who have it had to lay down $20,000.00 to set it up. The only utility they pay now is water (which I estimate is about a $200.00 monthly savings in Colorado Springs), which will easily pay back their investment in less than ten years, but I don’t know too many people that can invest that kind of money.
I guess the question becomes, how do we make it economically viable for more people?
Of course, there is no intelligent movement without awareness of position… I’m glad you’re pointing out the ‘what and why’ of the current events… thank you!
keep smiling,
Benjamin
.-= Benjamin´s last blog ..Guest Post at AnmolMehta.com… =-.
Benjamin,
Thanks for commenting. Right now, the cost of wind and solar are relatively high. But I predict within the next couple of years the prices for solar panels and small wind turbines will decrease dramatically.
I’m not suggesting everyone cover their whole roof with solar panels and put up an expensive wind turbine to start. A single 4×8 foot solar panel and a 20 inch wind turbine on the back of a garage would only cost about $1000 and could be used initially to run specific things, like a ceiling fan in the garage or the deck lighting outside in the evening. Hooking the systems into the house electrical system would require more money to hire an electrician to do it, but might be worth lowering the electric bill tens of dollars a month to start out.
As costs decrease, more panels could be added to the back of a roof, and a bigger blade could be put on a wind turbine. I’m suggesting a gradual move for individual households. If someone can afford the big kahuna thing up front, great. But most people will go the gradual route, including replacing old windows and doors, and adding insulation to conserve on the energy they currently use. Then they’ll add their own power generation as money permits.
I think the federal government will provide more tax incentives to add these kinds of home improvements soon. They already have tax deductions for energy efficiency home improvements and buying hybrid and electric cars. I think those deductions will expand as we push toward a greener energy economy.
My upcoming post will have some fantastic video and photos of Jon Lafitte National Park with lots of baby alligators swimming through the still pristine freshwater estuary of the Barataria Preserve a few miles south of the New Orleans flood protection system. It’s a pretty good distance from the open water and we can hope and pray high tides and storms don’t bring oil-tainted water into those areas. I hope you’ll come back and have a look at the unique beauty of our wetlands. Most people don’t appreciate them. Heck, most people have never seen anything like them before, let alone understand how vital they are to Louisiana and our way of life.
Sherri
This is a truly superb post which outlines all the facts about the disaster. I hate the feeling of powerlessness that we have when we sit and watch all the events unfolding, as a result of corporate greed and irresponsibility.
It’s only when the large corproations have decimated our world and there are no natural resources left that this kind of thing will be resolved. That is a tough, short-sighted way to learn a lesson.
I think this blog is a really valuable reminder of how we need to take more care of our beautiful environment, and it’s good to get an in-depth account of what is taking place.
Jen x
While it’s true that one always needs to be prepared, but never quite knows for what , the “BP Oil Disaster” – just like the financial system collapse 18 months ago – is made worse when seen against the backdrop of the partisan bickering those supposed to govern engage in instead. To say it was preventable would be the understatement of the year, but by the same token, couldn’t we also have prevented the collapse of government? I doubt (seriously) the Tea Party will be the solution, but it’s easy to see how the BP Oil Disaster, with its dramatic impact on the environment, will be “oil in the fire” also for … continued partisan bickering in and out of Washington.
.-= Beat Schindler´s last blog ..What A Babyful World =-.
Tragic – people’s hearts are breaking with the weight of not knowing what to do to help and to stop each new mess. We’re reaping the harvest of one bad decision after another.
.-= Cheryl from thatgirlisfunny´s last blog ..Hug Soldiers and Veterans Today – Feel Young from the Inside Out =-.
Why did Goldman Sachs sell 44% of its investment in BP on March 31st, 2010, 20 days before the deepwater oil rig explosion took place in the Gulf of Mexico? Lucky move? Click on my name for the official data from March 31st.
I read a news report recently saying that there have been bigger spills before but the ecology has recovered. Not really a great bit of information, but at least a little something to hang some hope on.
The whole situation is just awful, and the thought of hurricanes distributing the oil further is horrifying. I pray that the leak is stopped and cleanup efforts go faster and more smoothly than could ever have been anticipated.
.-= Amy LeForge´s last blog ..We Owe So Much =-.
Jen,
Thank you for your comment. It is horrible to feel powerless, and I have to wonder when corporations, especially big oil companies, will start walking their talk about environmental responsibility and safety.
I was an industrial chemist for 17 years. I know first hand that safety and environmental responsibility can and do slow down profits a little bit, but in the long run, they save lives and make our world a better place to live and a place we can be proud to leave our children. It also leads to less profit loss from catastrophic accidents, injuries, deaths, and environmental remediation.
At the plant I worked at, we had a superb safety record, 2.1 million work-hours without a lost-time injury and no deaths for many years before that. It came about because of the rigorous commitment of all of us who worked there to do what it took to prevent lost time accidents and serious injuries. It meant reporting every small incident, even paper cuts and slips on coffee spills in the hall. The reason for that is there is a pyramid of incidents. A certain number of very minor incidents leads to a not-so-minor incident or near miss. A certain number of incidents and near misses leads to an OSHA reportable incident. A certain number of OSHA reportable incidents leads to a lost-time injury. A certain number of lost-time injuries leads to a death. The statistics are very clear, and if you don’t get a handle on the very minor things, they will eventually lead to a major disaster and death.
All it takes is one plant manager or CEO or area manager who is willing to cut a corner to start a chain reaction to disaster. After our long record of millions of work-hours without a lost-time injury, we got a new plant manager. He came from one of our other plants that was known for major accidents, injuries and employee deaths. A few months after this guy took charge, the rigorous safety oversight and effort had been relaxed and new employees to the plant were not part of the previous safety first culture.
A very young chemical engineer (22 years old, I think) was working on a reaction in the pilot plant building and decided to increase the input of one reactant to move things along. His very experienced lab assistant advised against it, but the young engineer hadn’t learned to listen to those with experience yet. His experimental plan had not been reviewed in detail by the engineer overseeing his work, and any changes to the reaction had not been approved. But the kid went ahead and sped up adding the reactant anyway. A few minutes later the pressure in his reactor went out of control and the reactor exploded. It blew a hole in each wall of the pilot plant building and caused a severe fire that thankfully burned itself out quickly.
The lab assistant had seen the pressure increasing rapidly on the gauge and told the engineer to run while he was running. The lab assistant made it out to the escape stairs with some scratches and bruises after being knocked to his knees during the explosion. The young engineer hadn’t run. He was injured with second and third degree burns to his neck and hands, where ever his Nomex coveralls and hard hat weren’t covering him. He was also in severe shock.
He didn’t sustain the worst injuries. A lab assistant walking by the building when the reactor exploded had an entire wall of cement blocks suddenly blown on top of him. He had one leg broken in 2 places, the other broken in one place, a broken arm and broken ribs. He was 9 months from retirement and spent his last months of work in the hospital and physical therapy. He made a full recovery, thank God.
But the whole thing was preventable had the culture of safety first been at the forefront of that young engineer’s mind. He would have checked with his lead engineer about his reaction plans and he would not have made changes without discussion and approval.
Safety and environmental responsibility take real leadership and a true commitment by everyone to implement the systems that make industrial workplaces safe. Some companies do a lot better than others, but I’ve experienced the chemical industry is a lot better at it than the oil industry.
Oil drilling can be done safely and oil spills can be cleaned up a lot better than we know how to do it today. It will take a very big commitment from the entire oil industry to spend some of their largest corporate profits in the world to develop modern technologies to prevent what happened, fund oil spill cleanup research, and change the culture so that a roustabout can overrule a rig manager when it comes to the safety of drilling procedures. No one should be allowed to change a procedure from safe to less safe to save time or money. The risk is too great.
I hope you will visit again soon. I will be posting new video of wetlands, how they work to protect land and what this oil spill is really like up close.
Sherri
Beat,
Thanks for reading and commenting. I don’t see all these things as so much partisan as just plain short-sighted. The financial meltdown was preventable and so are major oil rig incidents. Almost all accidents and major meltdowns are preventable, but it takes a lot of forethought and careful stewardship over long periods of time to make things work and keep them working.
The financial industry started being deregulated by the Reagan administration and our first hint of real trouble was the failure of the savings and loans. Then we had the late 1980′s major stock market crash. In 1999, the vital Glass-Steagel act was repealed by the Clinton administration. After that, it was only a matter of time before a major financial and economic meltdown would occur. Prior to the Reagan administration, the financial protection legislation put in place during the Great Depression allowed our financial systems to run smoothly for decades without a single incident the system wasn’t prepared to handle, like the FDIC taking over a failed bank.
Please see the reply I wrote to Jen’s comment for a story about safety and environmental responsibility. The BP disaster was preventable and demonstrates a gross disregard for human life, safety and the environment in the pursuit of more profits.
Partisanship in the government is a distraction to what really needs to be done. Regulation that works to prevent major systems disasters is good regulation. Ideological arguments against “big government” and too much regulation are unfounded when we experience first hand what happens when the right amount of regulation isn’t in place. Good regulation holds the private sector accountable before serious problems happen. Good regulation prevents disasters.
I don’t really care which party is harping at who about partisan B.S. I want my government to make good policies and regulations to protect the people and the environment first against the unbelievable profits the few reap from raping the land, the sea and the people. The Bush administration sacked a huge amount of oversight and regulation of big business in all sectors. They happened to be Republican. Thirty-five years ago Republicans wouldn’t have come within 100 yards of the stupidity of the previous administration. It’s not about parties, its about good government that makes good policy and takes responsibility for protecting the people, the environment, the country and ultimately the world.
I don’t believe the Tea Party is the answer either. They seem to have given up on the age of enlightenment and live frighteningly fact-free. They are ideological instead of looking at reality and basing their ideas, actions and beliefs in hard facts. The Tea Party has no solutions for any of the severe problems the Obama administration inherited. Their ideology has no answers for any of our problems. It must be nice to live in a fantasy bubble, and I believe that’s what they do.
Sherri
Cheryl,
Amen. You’re right. We reap what we sow. I hope everyone searches their soul and thinks about that every time they enter a voting booth.
What we have to do is get a handle on the problems and stop letting all these messes happen. It will take a lot of work, good policy, real debate and leadership to fix all this stuff. I hope our government and legal system are up to the task.
Sherri
Amy,
The oil has been gushing at an average (conservative) rate of about 12,000 barrels per day for 45 days now. This has become the worst oil spill in history. The environment can recover depending on what we do to clean up the oil, but in this case the amount of oil will not only affect the Gulf of Mexico for decades to come, it is already showing up in the Florida Keys, and will make its way up the Atlantic coast, across the Atlantic and will show up on coasts in northern Europe, including Great Britain.
What is so bad about oil coating the Louisiana wetlands is once the vegetation dies, the soil and sand wash out to sea and land becomes open ocean. That spells worse than disaster for New Orleans and south Louisiana because there is less of a natural barrier between storm surges and populated areas. The oil killing the plants causes much more rapid erosion of barrier islands and wetlands.
Erosion has accounted for hundreds to thousands of square miles of land loss in south Louisiana over the past 400 years, and the past 60 years in particular since the beginning of oil drilling in the wetlands and along the Gulf Coast. New Orleans is a few hundred miles closer to the Gulf than it was when it was first founded. Even with greatly improved flood protection, every square mile of land loss makes New Orleans more vulnerable to destruction from hurricanes.
We need research for better spill prevention technology, a real commitment to safety and environmental responsibility and major investments of money and labor from big oil to rebuild the wetlands and barrier islands lost because of the oil industry. Barrier islands can be artificially built and wetlands can be rebuilt by taking cuttings of plants from healthy marsh and planting them along barrier islands and back toward the existing wetlands. It will take a lot of work and money, but it can and must be done soon or south Louisiana may disappear from the Earth.
Sherri
Laurence,
Interesting question. I doubt they knew there would be an explosion. We know they happen, but they happen a lot less frequently than we successfully drill wells and cap them. I think they just got lucky.
Personally, I would invest in ExxonMobil rather than BP. Their financial and operational records are far more solid and they have even bigger profits than BP.
I think Goldman Sachs just got lucky.
Sherri
Why oh why don’t ‘they’ get it. this is nothing about blame right now. This is about pulling together every resource from every place available and getting it under control. The long term damage will be much more painful than the short term financial loss or the blame game. Lets get on with damage control. Excellent article
.-= Michelle Vandepas´s last blog ..Doug Stevenson – Storytelling in Business =-.
Thanks Michelle. There isn’t time to point fingers right now, and there won’t be time for quite awhile. Those hands need to be cleaning up oil and tending absorbent boom. Other hands need to be stopping the leak as fast as possible.
Holding BP responsible is ultimately required for the principle of justice. But justice won’t regrow wetlands, restore extinct species, or protect populations from hurricanes.
Thanks for sharing this. I find the whole thing so disturbing I try not to even think about it. You have a nice outlet here and have done a nice job with it.
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[...] Hurricane Katrina Pictures » BP Gulf of Mexico Oil Disaster [...]
plase protect Gulf of Mexico from Oil Pollution
Please save Atlantic Ocean
Please save our Seafood
plase protect marine environment
Please save the world
please save the humaity
please save our LIFE !
M.Sc in Seafood Biochemistry
Dr. Amr M. Nasef
PH.D in Marine Ecology
M.Sc in Seafood
Cairo – Egypt
dr.amr.nasef@hotmail.com
BP should have consider the future effects of this disaster.
Great post!
I was’nt sure I would like this site since it was about Hurricane Katrina Pictures » BP Gulf of Mexico Oil Disaster but I was wrong and thought it was cool and found it on Bing . Thanks and I’ll be back as you update.
The oil spill is nothing to laugh at but I just saw a kid wearing a t-shirt that cracked me up. BP – We’re bring oil to America’s shores. I died laughing because BP’s billion dollar image change to their new sunflower logo is forever going to be associated with the worst environmental disaster to strike America. Check out the shirt here – http://bit.ly/bJAuTb