Oil spill to eclipse Exxon Valdez

Discussion in 'News and Current Events' started by Kyoji, Apr 29, 2010.

  1. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/36800673/ns/us_news-environment/
    http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100430/ap_on_bi_ge/us_louisiana_oil_rig_explosion_284
    http://www.cnn.com/2010/US/04/28/louisiana.oil.rig.fire/index.html
    http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/Ec...ing-slick-reaches-louisiana/story?id=10499012

    The spill was both bigger and closer than imagined — five times larger than first estimated, with the leading edge just three miles from the Louisiana shore. Authorities said it could reach the Mississippi River delta by Thursday night.

    "It is of grave concern," David Kennedy of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, told The Associated Press. "I am frightened. This is a very, very big thing. And the efforts that are going to be required to do anything about it, especially if it continues on, are just mind-boggling."

    The oil slick could become the nation's worst environmental disaster in decades, threatening hundreds of species of fish, birds and other wildlife along the Gulf Coast, one of the world's richest seafood grounds, teeming with shrimp, oysters and other marine life.

    The leak from the ocean floor proved to be far bigger than initially reported, contributing to a growing sense among many in Louisiana that the government failed them again, just as it did during Hurricane Katrina. President Barack Obama dispatched Cabinet officials to deal with the crisis.

    Cade Thomas, a fishing guide in Venice, worried that his livelihood will be destroyed. He said he did not know whether to blame the Coast Guard, the federal government or oil company BP PLC.

    "They lied to us. They came out and said it was leaking 1,000 barrels when I think they knew it was more. And they weren't proactive," he said. "As soon as it blew up, they should have started wrapping it with booms."
    The Coast Guard worked with BP, which operated the oil rig that exploded and sank last week, to deploy floating booms, skimmers and chemical dispersants, and set controlled fires to burn the oil off the water's surface.

    The Coast Guard urged the company to formally request more resources from the Defense Department. A BP executive said the corporation would "take help from anyone."

    Government officials said the blown-out well 40 miles offshore is spewing five times as much oil into the water as originally estimated — about 5,000 barrels, or 200,000 gallons, a day.

    At that rate, the spill could easily eclipse the worst oil spill in U.S. history — the 11 million gallons that leaked from the grounded tanker Exxon Valdez in Alaska's Prince William Sound in 1989 — in the three months it could take to drill a relief well and plug the gushing well 5,000 feet underwater on the sea floor.
     
  2. Dang thats a lot of oil!
     
  3. I seen this on the news.. on how they clean it up... by sectioning off pools and setting it on fire?
    You would think by now, we would have a better way of cleaning it up. cant they just suck it up and filter out the water? so at least we save the oil, and keep from "burning" it? I can't imagine burning it is very good for the atmosphere
     
  4. Vapor

    Vapor Tera Troll

    Definitely not good :eek:
     
  5. Vhex

    Vhex Guest

    I live in Louisianna and this does suck. I can see prices on seafood going WAY UP really really soon. It's a shame that the couple things we have good are threatend like this and especially, the one thing I really like the shores.
     
  6. FliggenMan

    FliggenMan Veteran

    i am so sick of fossil fuels. i think im gonna start researching on ways to cut down because i just cant take reading about this kind of thing anymore. i dont think i want fuel companies' business for much longer.
     
  7. Reinier

    Reinier Veteran

    Its amazing at who try tried to point the blame at as well.
     
  8. video games!!!
     
  9. Kellexx

    Kellexx Guest

    Video games are definitely to blame for oil spills. We didn't have oil spills before video games were invented!
     
  10. next time u drive ur car plz remember what fulls that my friend, if ur such a "green" person and dont want them in business, dont Heat ur house, walk everywhere and dont go on a airplane ride.
     
  11. you can still hate things AND be a hipocrit. For example, if you hate oil and you are an oil executive you can still hate oil

    For example...

    I hate oil, but I like myself more than I hate oil so

    me > oil
    random big buisness < hatred for oil

    so I can still hate oil, I just love myself more than my hate for oil.

    tldr - xami can make a new italian sauce called nubsauce. xD <3
     
    Last edited: May 2, 2010

  12. <3 oil, makes my motorcycle go fast:D vroom vroom

    but if there is something cheaper that can make my moto go faster i will use it
     

  13. lol..is that a psychological checksum for ego?

    This is a terrible tragedy...with one upside for florida. It shows they cannot safely drill for oil as they have been claiming. That safety valve they had been tauting...failed.
    This is going to hit LA. hard...and then the rest of us will feel this in the wallet.
    Im really curious as to how this accident happened...did someone try to cut costs?...rush the job and take shortcuts?....equiptment failure?
     
  14. Its quite delicious if I may say so myself
     
  15. Obama allowed offshore drilling...a few days later...boom!
     
  16. FliggenMan

    FliggenMan Veteran

    Hey now, all i did was make a resolution. I never claimed i was a "green" person and pretty sure everything i said was in regard to my own future. In other words, I was expressing my disappointment with myself as much as anything else: that's why I said I'm going to research ways to cut back. (like investing in a hybrid/electric car... and i might just not heat my house! even though its my parents house lol so i might have to persuade them... but yea when i get my new apartment i might try and just stick to blankets and sweatshirts in the colder months).
     
  17. december 21st 2012 here we come!
     
  18. the nut cases are coming out over this..
    this
    http://mediamatters.org/mmtv/201004290038
    who can blame him? I mean, it's clearly a small step from spiking trees to blowing up oil rigs. And to radical environmentalists, the destruction of the Gulf is a small price to pay to save the Gulf from destruction :rolleyes:

    ...the following just blew my mind..it is so outrageous..

     
    Last edited: May 16, 2010
  19. Seven

    Seven Guest

    Just wondering, is it more outrageous than the people who claim that Bush planned and executed 9/11?? Nutcases are nutcases, don't really take a side in the irrationality war.