UPDATED: May 28, 2010
BP oil spill disaster: The end of life as we know it in the Gulf of Mexico
Even if the well that is spewing crude recklessly into the Gulf of Mexico were capped tomorrow, the damage is already done. Hundreds of thousands of animals are going to die. The fishing industry will be devastated for a generation.
However, this underwater funnel of oil is not going to stop tomorrow. NBC news reports that BP suspects it may go on for months. At the current rate of 200,000 gallons a day, this catastrophe is immeasurable. No one has ever seen anything like it.
Now we know better. The oil has been flowing at almost a million gallons a day.
Much of what we have come to depend on the Gulf of Mexico for is not likely to recover in our lifetime.
It has been a generation since the Exxon Valdez accident poisoned the pristine shores of Prince William Sound in 1989. “A team of scientists at the University of North Carolina found that the effects are lasting far longer than expected.The team estimates some shoreline Arctic habitats may take up to 30 years to recover.”
As the oil slick moves closer to shore, we will begin to see pictures of what the Deepwater Horizon explosion has done to our world. Sludge covered birds will die before our eyes as they gasp for breath under layers of black goo. The corpses of fish, dolphins, whales and other wildlife will line our shores and beaches.
These images will travel throughout the world and become part of our global history. This is what our quest for crude will show us in the days ahead.
For all the power the United States has, she is weak against this foe. We are just waiting for the pictures to prove it.
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Comments (25)
Lets drill baby drill, not stall baby stall. Former governor of Alaska Sarah Palin
she couldn't be wrong, could she? I thought she was the expert.
Sad - So very sad. And we are so very responsible.
I certainly do not agree or disagree with these comments
Where did you get the fact that there are 200,000 gallons being spilled into the gulf per day? The last numbers I heard were closer to 5,000 gallons. I do not disagree with the fact that this is a major problem and completely caused by us. I am just wondering about your figures.
That's 5000 barrels a day moran
Please provide the source for your "facts", your article seems a bit exaggerated. I had read 23k gallons a day, not 5k or 200k, and at that time it was contained and they were planning to burn it off so that it would never reach land. The oil isn't going to contaminate the water much since it floats on top of it. If oil is driven onto the land it will be a real tragedy. Maybe you should focus your efforts on getting word out that there is something that can be done rather than wail and tear your hair over what hasn't yet happened. Until the green weenies allow us to have nuclear power, or stop adding restrictions to coal, there will be an ever increasing need for petro products to fuel our world. Nothing else is yet capable of producing enough energy to keep us moving. The total of all the waste from fission ever made is the US can fit into a school gymnasium, and they have developed ways to harness the minimal radioactivity left in that to generate even more electricity.
Before any of you denounce anything the OP is saying I would likely doubt any of you are from Louisiana. The above facts have been updated and stated in the Louisiana newapapers down here several times(ex. www.nola.com ) Residents in outlying areas are already smelling and seeing the oil. Add on top of the normal water currents the fact that weather updates from the weather channel for days now predict immenent flooding due to overly high tides washing in that will further help mobilize the oil into the marshes, this will truly be disasterous.
5000 barrels per day.
55 gallons per barrel.
That's 275,000 gallons per day.
Those of you who were wide-eyed and frothing about the price of oil and bleating things like "Drill Baby Drill" now get to add mewling about the price of seafood to your repertoire of wharrgarble. Don't forget to blame the Mooslim Soshalist, either.
THIS is the inherent risk of drilling for oil in our coastal waters. It is not a matter of IF a major oil spill will devastate the coastal shoreline; it is a matter of WHEN. We refuse to invest in clean energy. The President is panned for suggesting it. Lies are made up and propagated for the sole purpose of torpedoing legislation that would expand clean energy research. You have people like Danny who want to burn more coal and create more nuclear waste, all the while minimizing their deadly effects. People who refuse to understand the cesspool we are creating around ourselves, even when their noses are shoved in it. Drill Baby Drill is the mantra they chant. Behold mans hubris. Behold our undoing.
I know that people spin things but.....They have not stopped the leak and it continues to dump oil into the ocean, right? Burning the oil and best estimates could get optimistically 10%, right? It has reached LA's coast, right? I'm not sure how any sane person can say that the problem is exaggerated. It will be years before the coast line even begins to recover and it will get worse before it gets better. Even hinting that the "left wing" environmental zealots are creating catastrophe out of nothing makes my blood boil. Once again, there is no viable exit strategy - we do not have the technology to "fix" it. It would seem that this would be a circumstance where you should know how to stop the oil flow in case of an accident before you ever built the first rig.
everybody that likes gulf shrimp, better buy up as much as you can as soon as you can....you might not see it again for a generation or 2.
THANKS SARAH! "Off shore drilling is really safe (wink, wink)"
A little melodramatic, are we?
Jeremy says:
"A little melodramatic, are we?"
I guess you are the only person in the nation that hasn't seen the photos.
Why did Obama wait so long to do something about this!!! This thing has been spreading for 9 FREAKING days and all he did was have meetings!?!?
I like how people don't know that the USA is not the only country drilling in the gulf, China, Russia... If we stop, no one will follow our footsteps. All they have to do is make sure they are in international waters. So yes Drill baby drill, because if we don't they will.
Offshore oil drilling is vital for our economy. You will be surprised to learn that most of our oil is coming from the middle east. If you want to be free from the islamic terrorists it is important for offshore drilling. Once in a while there is an accidental oil spill such as this one in the gulf of mexico and everyone has a knee jerk reaction to stop drilling because some birds got oil on their feathers or the fish had to swim to another part of the vast ocean. You will support offshore drilling efforts and enjoy the freedom and security provided by offshore drilling efforts to keep our nation safe from the terrorists!
Offshore oil drilling is vital for our economy. You will be surprised to learn that most of our oil is coming from the middle east. If you want to be free from the islamic terrorists it is important for offshore drilling. Once in a while there is an accidental oil spill such as this one in the gulf of mexico and everyone has a knee jerk reaction to stop drilling because some birds got oil on their feathers or the fish had to swim to another part of the vast ocean. You will support offshore drilling efforts and enjoy the freedom and security provided by offshore drilling efforts to keep our nation safe from the terrorists!
As usual they're lying through their teeth.
The oil is erupting at ten times the rate 'they' say it is.
People like Fred are going to permanently ruin our world. People like Fred are going to be the end of our prosperity and maybe get us all killed.
This is really sad but donating to organizations is all we can do
Environmental mismanagement will continue escalating on a global scale. Anger, hate and discord will fuel loss of universal control from the very top world leadership down to within family members.
Damage to this earths seasonal eco-cycle on this 8,000 miles diameter globe will continue to devastate the relatively balanced eco-systems, more frequently and much more profoundly. Relative exponential increase in polluting and consequential sickness and deaths of all types of life-forms will mushroom quickly.
Living things can not eat technology nor drink liquids from technological byproducts, and live. Living things eat living things and drink complex organic filtered fluids. Increased desperation of living things will cause more ravenous hostility and neighbor killing neighbor will escalate out of control at all levels of life-forms.
The Gulf Oil Spill will saturate the entire Gulf region and further weaken the Atlantic ecosystems of aquatic and flying creatures. Dead zones will expand in all oceans. Winds of every kind and magnitude will carry and mix toxins from sea levels to above mountain tops.
Global climate changes and temperatures will change their span. Survival safety nets will rupture and coexisting species will become unbalanced and endanger their compatibility. Their distorted symbiotic relationships will speed their demise.
World commerce will have major international setbacks. Hate will dominate fear of impending growing economic calamities. Killer instincts will billow in all creatures and survival instinct will cause massive ruthless slaughter on a global scale.
Out of necessities world leaders will form pseudo-alliances of world peace. But they will not quiet the anxieties of the masses. Necessities of life will increase at every level and anarchy will loom just below the level of human
Oh Well time to move out of Florida.
thanx amerikkka for the self-implosion (sic....sick); we don't need to send anymore as you have teeaaahhrorized yourselves. Add in some good ole southern kkkhristianity and Armageddon (did ya think all this abuse and self-fulfilling prophecy wouldn't have consequence?) and wez all bout' to be 'soithern-fried' (sic....sick!)
You people talk a lot of smack about the oil industry, but I bet you all drive cars fueled by the gasoline that industry provides
if oil's a proble, then you are part of that problem
sod off, swampy
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