Gulf of Mexico mess
The BP Disaster Illustrates The Problem is Oil, The Solution Is to Break Our Addiction
May 26, 2010 by Christine
It's time we kick the fossil fuel habit – melting ice caps, global weather weirding, and now the BP oil catastrophe in the Gulf of Mexico make this clear. And then there's the economy, which, according to our esteemed Prime Minister Stephen Harper, trumps everything, as if there isn't a planet to live on when we're finished extracting resources like we were liquidating a business! With all due respect, Mr. Harper, it's time to start fighting climate change now while we still have an economy to fight it with!
The Daily Kos put it this way:
[Louisiana Governor] Jindal probably likes the sound of his voice when he says he has a solution to dealing with this leak, but the fact that his solution is such utter nonsense underscores this one central, immutable fact: oil is dangerous, and there's no way to make it safe. Yes, we're addicted to it. No, we're not going to stop using it overnight. But we must break that addiction. And if don't learn that lesson from this tragedy, we're going to be taught it again, and again. And each time the consequences will keep on getting worse.
Click here to read the full Daily Kos post.
Here is a video on how badly BP has dealt with the protecting the Gulf coast after the disaster – with a warning, there is very crude language in this video but many of us feel that kind of outrage when we see the @!!@@ mess in the Gulf – all done in the name of making an almighty dollar!
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vx8kMXufu3w]
"Conservative Economics, The Windmill Technique, and Climate Change". Father Theo's Blog.Wordpress.com
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Click here to go to the Live Oil Spill Camera.
Categories addiction, big oil, catastrophe, climate action, climate change, drill baby drill, economic cost, energy, environment, pollution, risk management, Sustainability, threatTags booming, BP, clean up, Gulf of Mexico mess, oilLeave a comment
We Have Better Choices Than "Drill Baby Drill"
"The earth is not dying, it is being killed, and those who are killing it have names and addresses." Utah Phillips
"The magnitude and the potential for ecological damage is probably more great than anything we've ever seen in the Gulf of Mexico." Nancy Rabalais, a scientist who heads the Louisiana Universities Marine Consortium, on the BP/Transocean oil rig explosion. Click here for more information on the impact of the spill on the Gulf's ecosystem on Think Progress's "The BP Oil Spill's Toll on Gulf Coast Wildlife: All Bets Are Off." To get a sense of the magnitude of the disaster, click here to go to The Atlantic for "If You Think You have a Sense of the Oil Spill's Scale" which allows you to overlay a scaled representation of the Deepwater Horizon spill onto a Google Earth view of any city or region you choose.
The catastrophe in the Gulf of Mexico shows clearly what our fossil fuel addiction is doing to our planet (if climate change and widespread loss of biodiversity isn't obvious enough!). This could be a pivotal moment, however, when we finally turn from our addiction to filthy fuel and embrace clean energy. There are much better ways for us to get our energy – but Big Oil & Gas don't want to wean themselves off their addiction to billions and billions of dollars in profit every year, so they are very invested in the status quo (and don't forget we, the taxpayers, subsidize these companies to the tune of $500 billion dollars a year!). But there is a cleaner, greener way!
"I'd put my money on the sun and solar energy. What a source of power! I hope we don't have to wait 'til oil and coal run out before we tackle that." Thomas Edison
"The world's deserts can supply energy for every conceivable demand by humankind." Dr. Gerhard Knies
"Rather than continuing to base our economy on a finite supply of dead things, we can base it on sources that are practically infinite and eternal: the sun, the moon and the Earth's inner fire." Van Jones
From "Friends of The Earth":
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5MWWjpF-Pbg&feature=player_embedded]
Categories big oil, big polluters, catastrophe, climate action, climate change, energy, environment, oil and gas industries, pollution, risk management, SustainabilityTags big oil & gas, Gulf of Mexico mess, renewable energyLeave a comment
Spill Baby Spill, Kill Baby Kill
May 4, 2010 by Christine
More horrifying news and pictures pour in from the out of control oil volcano erupting in the Gulf of Mexico. From The Huffington Post, "When Will It End?":
Another week of oil pouring from the seafloor. That is the best-case scenario for the Gulf Coast, where dead sea turtles washed ashore and a massive rust-colored slick continued to swell from an uncontrolled gusher spewing into the water.
…"I've been in Pensacola and I am very, very concerned about this filth in the Gulf of Mexico," Florida Gov. Charlie Crist said at a fundraiser for his U.S. Senate campaign Sunday night. "It's not a spill, it's a flow. Envision sort of an underground volcano of oil and it keeps spewing over 200,000 gallons every single day, if not more."
Fishermen from the mouth of the Mississippi River to the Florida Panhandle got the news that more than 6,800 square miles of federal fishing areas were closed, fracturing their livelihood for at least 10 days and likely more just as the prime spring season was kicking in. The slick also was precariously close to a key shipping lane that feeds goods and materials to the interior of the U.S. by the Mississippi River.
Click here to read the full story.
From Climate Progress, "Shocking Allegations Against BP":
At least one worker who was on the oil rig at the time of the explosion on April 20, and who handled company records for BP, said the rig had been drilling deeper than 22,000 feet, even though the company's federal permit allowed it to go only 18,000 to 20,000 feet deep, the lawyers said.
If only we had listened to Dr. Seuss, who warned us back in 1971, where we were heading with our wanton destruction and disregard for the balance of nature in The Lorax. You judge for yourself:
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GECJcW2Ifm4]
Categories big polluters, catastrophe, climate action, drill baby drill, environment, oil and gas industries, risk managementTags big oil, BP, Gulf of Mexico messLeave a comment