This, is an emotional picture.
A delicious blue crab, ruined by the BP oil spill. Thanks, asshats!
Now, from a more rational standpoint, I was wondering with my pops one day about the actual scope of the oil spill.
The media has done their best to paint an ecological apocalypse - hey, it drives ratings, so I get it - but part of me always thought: "Isn't there a KAJILLION gallons of water in the gulf to begin with?"
Well, the AP does a good job of putting the oil spill into perspective.
This stat, blew me away: the oil spill right now, wouldn't even fill the Superdome 1/7th of the way up!
Now that doesn't mean it's GOOD. Or that we should send home the oil skimmers and stop laying boom. It doesn't mean BP's CEO can go yachting or Obama can go golfing.
Oh wait, never mind that last sentence.
But the larger point, is that the Gulf of Mexico will recover. The Minerals Management Service should get its governmental ass kicked. Drilling will and should resume in the gulf. We'll hose off as many pelicans as we can, and move forward.
Yeah, this is awful. But never underestimate the power of the media to overhype something.
Obama will drag this out as long as possible. Takes our minds off the unemployment lines and bad economy.
ReplyDeleteThis is just another disaster, natural or otherwise, that was created or exploited to get our minds off of the dying money based economy.
ReplyDeleteoddly enough, I heard that without ANY oil rigs down there at all, there wouldn't be very much marine life as there aren't any natural coral reefs. The rigs provide that.
ReplyDeleteI have three comments
ReplyDelete1) Till, I don't exactly think demonstrating your complete lack of competence in dealing with the situation distracts people from the administrations inability to get the economy going. It just further proves that you are inept.
2) It is the fact the oil spilled would only fill X amount of the Super Dome, the issue is that it disperse with the water to impact the environment to ecologically impact the Gulf. The better way to look at it is the amount of water that contains the oil to better understand the scope and breadth of the situation i.e. how many SuperDomes would be filled by the oil and water combined
3) Obama is in way over his head much like the rest of his term because the US, not me, elected a guy that 4 years before becoming President's achievement on record was voting "present" in the Illinois state legislature.
Let's say you have an above-ground 18' round swimming pool. It holds 7600 gallons of water. How much crude oil would you want to dump into it before you decide that it's become "polluted?" A thimble, a pint, a quart, a gallon? If you're like me, you'd probably say NONE. But, since this is NOT a pool, I guess it's OK to just say "these things happen."
ReplyDeleteCzabe,
ReplyDeleteI agree with about 95% of your commentary on most topics, but I have to say you are missing the mark on this one.
While it's true that if concentrated the oil wouldn't fill the Superdome, when it is spread out and mixed with the water at a rate that is still harmful, it has a significant effect.
The website http://www.ifitwasmyhome.com/ shows how big the spill is and how much area is affected and allows you to superimpose the spill on an area of your choosing to demonstrate its size in understandable and viewable terms. I suggest giving that site a look before saying this isn't that big a deal.
I live in New Orleans and the marine life doesn't need oil rigs to survive our in the Gulf. Larger fish live near the rigs but the smaller fish and shrimp live in the marsh. Marine life lives in the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans without reefs.
ReplyDeleteThe oil company's in the 60's cut up the marsh creating canals to get to there rigs. Because of this the coast is washing away, but that is another problem for another time.
BP has destroyed the lifes of these fisherman for many years. What is someone to do who has caught shrimp all their life and now the shrimp is covered in oil? If BP doesn't compensate these people they will be on Welfare and social security and the US tax payers will be paying for them to live.
The associated press article does mention that the reservoir holds another 2 Billion gallons of oil. It has taken +/- 60 days and they are still not close to having this thing under control. BP is a bunch of idiots who could care less about the enviroment and the citizens of the Gulf Coast.
One more thing - I'm on team elephant and never support the donkey's.
Czabe - Check out this info on a previous oil spill in Mexico. My understanding is that in a few years the fishing industry was back to normal.
ReplyDeletehttp://news.discovery.com/earth/gulf-oil-spill-ixtoc.html
+1 to not having any natural reefs in the northern gulf. However the absolutely tiny amount of structure oil rigs provide doesn't really have an impact or outweigh the environmental dangers. Just my opinion though.
ReplyDeleteThis old earth has a way of healing fast. They need to get this thing stopped NOW but it will heal quicker than the 'experts' predict, it always does.
ReplyDeleteI come here for the funny and earnest sports opinion and news. But I'm not a fan of the half-assed, rightwing view-of-the-day. Yeah, we'll just wash off a few pelicans and all will be ok, so long as we build more rigs so the fish can live. Ridiculous. Oh, and the sand will just soak up the oil, so no big deal. Quit summarizing Limbaugh rants for your blog.
ReplyDeleteJerry, spoken like a true kool-aid drinker.
ReplyDelete