Disaster looms as oil slick reaches US coast

[Unbreakable]

GULF OF MEXICO - Scientists have spotted a dead sperm whale in the Gulf of Mexico, and are doing tests to see if the oil spill had anything to do with its death.

The whale was found floating 77 miles due south of the Deepwater Horizon spill site.

It is the first dead whale spotted since BP's rig exploded on April 20.

The whale was not found in oiled waters, but scientists can't yet say where or how it died.

They say its condition suggests it has been dead for several days to more than a week, and they are taking samples from it to glean information on how and where it died.


Source:
http://www.myfoxtampabay.com/dpp/news/oil_spill/dead-sperm-whale-found-in-gulf-06162010



BP will say it died of the flu, or maybe food poisoning. Who knows? But definitely not because of the oil.

 

[Busty St Clare]

One dead whale does not make a case, we have at least 2-3 whales die around here every migration season. Most because of illness or shark attack. The real test will be whether migrationg whales return next year (and the years after that). They are intelligent animals and will head to cleaner waters especially if fish stocks plumet.

 

[moonyham]

Political capital spending at its finest! Let the spill become far-reaching in its impact in order to impose another key part of his agenda: bankrupting main street while bankrolling Algore and the greenies through cap and tax legislation.

Rush Limbaugh said it years ago that, with the fall of Communism, the new Communism would be Environ’mental’ism. Once again, Rush was right!


Gulf oil pics from China news Crazy
http://www.aladding.com/newsDetail.cfm?postid=496714

People caring about our environment is bad? Sort your shit out, asshole.

 

[yoboy]

^^^ I don't think that it's that much of a stretch to suggest that it's possible that Obama will use this oil spill as a chance to preach to us all about the importance of the cap and trade bill. (the type of legislation that only serves to move manufacturing to China, where there are no environmental controls)

The fake green movement (I do believe in a lot of environmentalist causes) will not allow a disaster like this one to goto waste!

 

[Unbreakable]

I am pro-save the earth, do not litter, make your own power and all that bullshit...
But i am not Pro-Creating a Cap and Trade bill.... It is just another tax this fool wants to make us have...
tax tax tax.... print more money.... borrow more money.... print, tax tax tax... that wont solve anything....

i can bet money Obama will use this oil spill to preach that cause.... The whole global warming didn't work to pass it.... Our economy is shit, and he needs this to make money.... Cap and trade scheme is joke IMO

 

[moonyham]

I am pro-save the earth, do not litter, make your own power and all that bullshit...
But i am not Pro-Creating a Cap and Trade bill.... It is just another tax this fool wants to make us have...
tax tax tax.... print more money.... borrow more money.... print, tax tax tax... that wont solve anything....

i can bet money Obama will use this oil spill to preach that cause.... The whole global warming didn't work to pass it.... Our economy is shit, and he needs this to make money.... Cap and trade scheme is joke IMO

Dont lie. Your a fucking liar.

Your not for saving the earth. Your the same person who believes that wasting as much gas as you want and driving big wastful cars should be a RIGHT that can NEVER be taken away.

As was made clear in prior posts, you arent pro earth. Your pro-whatever-doesnt-effect-your-life. You just like to make yourself feel better by proclaiming bs, because you use plastic instead of paper or some other petty 'environmental' crap.

The ONLY way, the ONLY way to stop gas being wasted, and this works in MANY countries already, is to make it expensive to do so.

UK, the EU. These places have expensive fuel, and thus; they dont use nearly as much per person as the US. This trickles down to not only the driving(which, for a person is a major gas wasting activity) but also effects the food people buy(buying locally as its cheaper), it effects peoples perspective and respect for public transport, and generally, in ALL aspects of life, makes people waste less, and be more efficient, greener people.

 

[Volundr]

f that.

hold companies responsible from now on. fuck whatever happened in the past. we need to keep our politicians balls locked up tight so they keep the executives of these companies' balls even tighter.

i don't care what happened in the past. make bp pay out the fucking ass.

Unsurprising considering it was American companies that led to huge crises in the past including 15k deaths.

Good job ignoring the other points as well.

 

[aanallein]

Your logic sucks. Just because big companies have screwed us over in the past doesn't mean it should continue on principal. Furthermore, BP is no more a british company than it is american by any measure.

 

[yoboy]

The ONLY way, the ONLY way to stop gas being wasted, and this works in MANY countries already, is to make it expensive to do so.

UK, the EU. These places have expensive fuel, and thus; they dont use nearly as much per person as the US. This trickles down to not only the driving(which, for a person is a major gas wasting activity) but also effects the food people buy(buying locally as its cheaper), it effects peoples perspective and respect for public transport, and generally, in ALL aspects of life, makes people waste less, and be more efficient, greener people.

Moonyham: we are living in two different places. Everything in the US is so spread out that driving long distances is simply a way of life. Comparing driving habits in the UK to driving habits in the US is comparing apples and oranges.

But maybe we should make gas 7 or 8 bucks a gallon. That ought to teach those oil fatcats a lesson! Let's jack up the price of gas and force everyone to go green. Is that the British way?

I don't know why you are so in love with the nanny state in the UK. There are some Brits that I've talked with that don't want to be a part of the EU/NWO, but most of them are socialist greenies who love being disarmed slaves.

 

[xoqqiy axlotao3al]

I don't know why you are so in love with the nanny state in the UK. There are some Brits that I've talked with that don't want to be a part of the EU/NWO, but most of them are socialist greenies who love being disarmed slaves.

i want to ask something seriously.

i spent about 15 years of my life working in a variety of companies. (the rest in education settings.)

i have never in my life felt more enslaved than when working for those companies. everything i did was subject to scrutiny; there is no such thing as privacy; i was in danger of losing my job at every moment; the actual goals of the company were often obscured from the workers; i had little control over my time, my schedule, my communications, my lunches, my dinners...

i have also been a citizen of the US my whole life.

i simply want to understand why it is OK with libertarians for corporations to operate without regulations with regard to their own employees (which means they ARE slaves), but the kind of abstract "slavery" of having universal health care is horror itself.

i would be afraid to go back working for industry just because of the tremendous power imbalance between boss and worker.

i am not all that afraid, to be honest, of medicare (as opposed to private insurance for my old age diseases).

 

[Volundr]

Your logic sucks. Just because big companies have screwed us over in the past doesn't mean it should continue on principal. Furthermore, BP is no more a british company than it is american by any measure.

Good job reading? I didn't state BP is an American company, it is an international company but as you have no interest in reading my posts properly, do some research for yourself, heard of Anadarko Petroleum Corp.? or how about MOEX Offshore? Both American companies that own 35% of the Deepwater Horizon rig, so explain why BP should have to pay ALL the costs?


And how is my logic flawed? Big American companies that are vital to the American economy have time and time again wiggled their way out of crises more disastrous than this yet Obama has the hypocrisy to single out not only a company to pay £20b in costs, but incorrectly singles out a nation, when it is his own that are infinitely more to blame than Britain and perhaps equally to blame as the international company that is BP.

The lease of oil drilling rights in its coastal waters is one of the American Government's most lucrative sources of revenue, as areas of seabed are auctioned off for tens of millions of dollars a tract by the federal Mineral Management Service before they then charges 18.75 per cent royalties on the oil that is recovered. After that, both State and Federal governments will tax the gasoline. So in their greed to sell off these rigs, of which they use more than anybody else in the world, how is it in any way not America's fault?

 

[xoqqiy axlotao3al]

back to the point of the thread, i want to add that i have been feeling slightly less apocalyptic the last couple of days, because we are starting to see signs that wide numbers of people are beginning to understand what is going to be required to prevent this from being a neutron bomb in the GoM. I do believe in human ingenuity enough to think that if we take this problem seriously enough we can re-mediate it to at least some degree.

Heard an interesting report on NPR this morning about possibly re-engineering (which means partially UN-engineering) the Mississippi Delta, finally giving southern Louisiana some of the attention it desperately needs.

nobody will be happier than i am if this turns out to be a manageable disaster and New Orleans stays in business, etc.

 

[Unbreakable]

BP reportedly threatens to fire cleanup workers for using their own protective gear

The Louisiana Environmental Action Network reports that British Petroleum is threatening to fire fishermen hired to help with the oil spill cleanup for using respirators or other safety equipment that wasn't provided by the company.

But the fishermen say they're wearing their own equipment because the company hasn't provided what they need.
We have had numerous fisherman, that have been hired through BP's Master Vessel Charter Agreement to work on the oil spill response, tell us that their BP "bosses" have told them that if they use a respirator or any safety equipment not provided by BP that they would be fired.

It is only prudent that these fisherman be provided respiratory protection and encouraged to use it. Instead, they have not only NOT been provided respiratory protection, they have been threatened with being fired for using their own respiratory protection.

"It appears that, despite the obvious potential for exposure to respiratory toxins, BP does not consider respiratory protection necessary equipment," said Paul Orr, the Lower Mississippi Riverkeeper with LEAN. Orr added that for BP to prevent the workers from using their own respiratory equipment "is deeply troubling."

Hundreds of Gulf Coast fishermen have been put out of work by the ongoing oil spill that has so far led to the closure of more than 61,000 square miles of federal waters. Some have been hired by BP to attach booms to their boats in place of nets and collect the spilled oil, making them vulnerable to exposure to toxic air pollutants from the oil and the chemical dispersants being used on the slick....(cont.)

http://www.southernstudies.org/2010...kers-for-using-their-own-protective-gear.html

 

[Pander Bear]

Heard an interesting report on NPR this morning about possibly re-engineering (which means partially UN-engineering) the Mississippi Delta, finally giving southern Louisiana some of the attention it desperately needs.

I heard the same-- and ya, that's really very exciting to me I think there are some long-term plans to un-reverse the chicago river, too.

We have had numerous fisherman, that have been hired through BP's Master Vessel Charter Agreement to work on the oil spill response, tell us that their BP "bosses" have told them that if they use a respirator or any safety equipment not provided by BP that they would be fired.

According to NPR (or it might have been the economist) there is good reason for this. If you work near fresh oil, a respirator is a must, because so much of the oil is volatile. However, if you're on the beach or near the shore, where the oil is oldest, there is no need for one-- moreover, since a respirator impedes your breathing, it can cause heart attack and strokes if you stress your body too much. If these workers are employed by BP for the cleanup (they are) then BP can be liable for any accidental deaths. They are enforcing the safety regulations that are imposed on them.

More worrisome to me is the subcontractors who are selling/renting the safety equipment to their own workers.

 

[qwe]

I don't know why you are so in love with the nanny state in the UK. There are some Brits that I've talked with that don't want to be a part of the EU/NWO, but most of them are socialist greenies who love being disarmed slaves.

...

 

[aanallein]

Good job reading? I didn't state BP is an American company, it is an international company but as you have no interest in reading my posts properly, do some research for yourself, heard of Anadarko Petroleum Corp.? or how about MOEX Offshore? Both American companies that own 35% of the Deepwater Horizon rig, so explain why BP should have to pay ALL the costs?


And how is my logic flawed? Big American companies that are vital to the American economy have time and time again wiggled their way out of crises more disastrous than this yet Obama has the hypocrisy to single out not only a company to pay £20b in costs, but incorrectly singles out a nation, when it is his own that are infinitely more to blame than Britain and perhaps equally to blame as the international company that is BP.

The lease of oil drilling rights in its coastal waters is one of the American Government's most lucrative sources of revenue, as areas of seabed are auctioned off for tens of millions of dollars a tract by the federal Mineral Management Service before they then charges 18.75 per cent royalties on the oil that is recovered. After that, both State and Federal governments will tax the gasoline. So in their greed to sell off these rigs, of which they use more than anybody else in the world, how is it in any way not America's fault?

It's not "America's fault" because we're not the ones drilling. Sure we lease the land, tax the revenue, etc. but BP and their affiliates are the parties who drilled into a reserve of oil 7 miles down. BP cut corners, this has been proven, and now they are paying the price. You think they would simply accept a 20 billion dollar responsibility package if they weren't at fault?

According to congressional documents and interviews with workers on the rig when it exploded, it appears BP chose faster, cheaper techniques for drilling this well, sometimes against the advice of their sub-contractors

http://money.cnn.com/2010/06/17/news/companies/hayward_testimony/index.htm?hpt=T1

Oh and before you side with Rep. Joe Barton, R-Texas - realize that he's accepted 1.4 million in campaign contributions from the oil industry and was an executive with ARCO (now part of BP). Shameful.

 

[Volundr]

Again, ignoring history because it matters not to you.

You think they would simply accept a 20 billion dollar responsibility package if they weren't at fault?

Because they can really reject it now that their shares are falling at a ridiculous rate and their limited faults have been exposed. Mind you, a lot of the fall from power will be due to how pathetic your president is being; as per usual, when America is in domestic crisis blame another state, especially if the president himself is under a lot of pressure at the moment in time. How to manipulate an environmental disaster by barack Obama: Firstly, to dig yourself out of the hole you are currently in due to not living up to presidential promises and pissing your nation off you must be seen to be furiously patriotic and blame an outside alien force for the disaster so to absolve domestic blame, secondly, while using your ignorance to mislabel involved company, be a complete hypocrite in relation to your own nations previous 'track record' in related incidents and thirdly, win votes? America is not responsible for anything!

It's not "America's fault" because we're not the ones drilling. Sure we lease the land, tax the revenue, etc. but BP and their affiliates are the parties who drilled into a reserve of oil 7 miles down.

BP was drilling with a 35% owned American rig with American built equipment that failed?

Oh, and just out of interest, how many areas of wildlife, beaches and areas of economy do you think American companies have got a way with being unaccountable for? 10s, 100s?

Congressman Anthony Weiner, a Democrat from New York, accused him of lying. "Whenever you hear someone with a British accent talking about this on behalf of British Petroleum, they are not telling you the truth. That's the bottom line," he said on breakfast television. There has been no other British accent heard during the crisis.

More shamefully arrogant hypocrisy and ignorance by an American politician surrounding the crisis. Oh my is that surprising!

 

[Mehm]

No one I have talked to is blaming england. Where are you getting this notion?

I'm sure there are some people.......probably living in red states.......who are saying this is the fault of the British. But we already know that their grasp on international happenings is at best misguided.

 

[Volundr]

I know the people of America aren't however Obama and an uncountable number of politicians are referring to BP as British Petroleum or as a British company, or stating that it is the British that are behind the disaster, shying aware from self-blame. My quote above highlights a senator talking complete shit about the crisis.


Edit: Note that I am not annoyed due to Britain somehow entering this problem, I am annoyed that time and time again on the world stage the American government will not accept any responsibility behind disasters that they cause, yet in their self-righteousness feel they have a right to demand £20b from an international company. I bet a few Afghani's or Iraqi's wouldn't mind demanding a few trillion $ in compensation, or even the Indian victims of the previously mentioned Bhopal gas Disaster, all 15k of them, wouldn't mind their lives back or even family compensation?

 

[moonyham]

Moonyham: we are living in two different places. Everything in the US is so spread out that driving long distances is simply a way of life. Comparing driving habits in the UK to driving habits in the US is comparing apples and oranges.

But maybe we should make gas 7 or 8 bucks a gallon. That ought to teach those oil fatcats a lesson! Let's jack up the price of gas and force everyone to go green. Is that the British way?

I don't know why you are so in love with the nanny state in the UK. There are some Brits that I've talked with that don't want to be a part of the EU/NWO, but most of them are socialist greenies who love being disarmed slaves.

I see your point, but you are wrong.

In the UK and EU, you dont NEED to drive as much to do basic(neccasary) things, like buy food, buy products, and depending, getting to work.

In the US, people on average, need to drive for longer to achieve the same things. This is true, yes, but alot(i mean, all?) americans, drive ridiculous amounts unnecessarily. Ive read and heard countless times, on this board and others sources, americans talk about how they have to drive 4 hours every weekend to get back home while there college. Or drive 2 hours to get to there GF's.

You know what? YOU DONT NEED TO DO THAT. That is a fucking luxury which americans abuse. Your not going to DIE if you dont get mums roast chicken on sunday, your not going to DIE if you have a GF that is i dunno.. living in your own city?

Its just ridiculous. Americans get themselves in situations(careers, schools, relationships etc) where they then 'NEED' to drive for hours on end every fucking day.

People in the.. well, the rest of the world, have to pay hundreds of dollars to do these things because of gas being so much, so in turn, they dont get in long distance relationships, they dont apply/start careers that are 2 hour drives away, they dont unnecessarily drive back home every weekend while at college. Obviously both these(american and EU) examples dont apply to every single person, but they are for the most part, true.

Increasing taxes on gas(to like, 50% of a gallon is tax) is what alot of countries have. It helps pay for good government investments(like universal healthcare) and maintains roads and whatnot better. It also allows other taxes to be rid of or not relied so heavily upon, and helps the environment. On top of this, it does so many other good things that its impossible to list them all. The main one though, would be less dependence on foreign oil, less US money going overseas(the US sends nearly a billion a DAY out of the country for oil) and generally makes people sort there shit out.

Also, with the amount of money the US gov *should* be making off oil taxes, they could heavil invest in a very efficient and well run public transport system(think, bullet train to every state).