Wednesday, 30 June 2010
Tuesday, 29 June 2010
Gulf oil disaster: Pensacola Beach (click to see all 22 photos) | Reporting with a camera
Gulf oil disaster: Pensacola Beach (click to see all 22 photos) | Reporting with a camera
Gulf oil disaster: Pensacola Beach
Gulf oil disaster: Pensacola Beach
(click to see all 22 photos)
Deepwater Horizon exploded about 11 p.m. on April 20 and later sank. Visit our special report page for the latest reports on the gulf oil disaster.
The tide came in Tuesday night, under a moon almost full, and when the sun came up and the water retreated there it was: a broken band of oil about 5 feet wide and 8 miles long.
It looked like tobacco spit and smelled foreign, and it pooled in yesterday's footprints as far as you could see. State officials called it the worst show of crude on shore from the gusher 120 miles away. READ THE STORY: Oil blankets Pensacola Beach.
Times photos by Edmund Fountain
Monday, 28 June 2010
Saturday, 26 June 2010
Friday, 25 June 2010
People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA): The animal rights organization
People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA): The animal rights organization
PETA is calling on the attorneys general of the Gulf Coast states to file charges of cruelty to animals.
PETA is calling on the attorneys general of the Gulf Coast states to file charges of cruelty to animals.
Thursday, 24 June 2010
Wednesday, 23 June 2010
Tuesday, 22 June 2010
Monday, 21 June 2010
Sunday, 20 June 2010
There's no oil slicks here, Tony:
White House blasts BP boss as he watches yacht race 4,500 miles away from Gulf disaster
B.P. SHOW US THE MUDLOGS!
By geologist, Chris Landau
Reasons for the mudlogs
1) A mudlog is a schematic cross sectional drawing of the lithology (rock type) of the well that has been bored. Without looking at the mudlogs and e-logs, we are all navigating blind. They are the forensic tool that you use to discover what happened. The mudlog is your map and your compass and your guiding star.
Do not burn the oil on the sea in the Gulf of Mexico. Do not drill other wells into the existing B P well.
These actions will burn people, boats and property. Wind gusts will blow the flames out of control. The heat from the flames will create their own winds. This is just making a bad situation worse. Is there nobody handling this situation that is thinking of the consequences of their actions?
ChrisLandau (geologist) Follow the link to more articles
opednews.com
June 11, 2010
http://www.opednews.com/articles/B-P-Halliburton-and-Trans-by-Chris-Landau-100611-452.html
B.P, Halliburton and Transocean have unleashed Armageddon and now there is no stopping it. Senator Bill Nelson has told us how bad it is.
This is our worst nightmare. The oil industry has killed the Gulf of Mexico.
My worst fears have been realized. If this link is true and the oil is coming through the sea floor, they have either blown out the formation or blown out the cement (which we know they did anyway to get the blowout to occur).
I’m beginning to realize why they have not wanted to close the valves on the cap. The more they close it, the more oil is going to come up through the sea floor, next to the well casing.
I listed 12 points in my attached article. The really big concern here is that their directional wells are now pointless. They are GUARANTEED to fail because you cannot pump mud or cement into a blown-out well. It just does not set with oil and gas roaring past.
The next biggest concern is that they have to get 8 new wells in immediately to relieve the background oil and gas pressure. The oil is going to start coming up at an ever increasing rate along the casing and theblowout preventer.The oil and gas is going to act as a high pressurepressure washer and erode away all the sandstone and mudstone.There is nothing they can do about it.
This is also the end of B.P. The claims will go on forever.
What these guys do not understand is that it is much worse than they think. Here is the reason why.
They need to date the oil to find out how old the oil is. The rock formation might be 30 to 200 million years old here. I do not know and have not looked at under sea maps.
The oil is either old oil, say, almost as old as the formation, or they have drilled into a massive active fault zone that is reducing carbon dioxide to methane. If it is high in hydrogen sulfide, it is reducing calcareous sediments to oil and more natural gas in the presence of salt solutions.
Now they are providing more saltwater, so via the Wurtz Synthesis more oil is going to be created than natural gas. The methane is going to be converted to ethane, propane, butane, pentane and other long-chain organic compounds.
You see, if oil is being made now, at a very rapid rate in this area, the pressure is never, ever going to drop off along the casing and the oil is going to flow into the gulf forever. The only hope to reduce the pressure will be by sinking more new wells into this area and try and drain off the oil and gas as quickly as it is being made.
You see oil is basically inorganic. It is not made from dead squashed plankton. It is not a fossil fuel. It is an inorganic chemical compound reduced from calcareous sediments and carbon dioxide and methane gas.
My peer-reviewed published papers using chemical and thermodynamic equations show how this occurs. The link to the papers is available below.
Of course although I was published by The American Institute of Professional Geologists in 2009 and the Association of Environmentaland Engineering Geologists in 2008, it does not mean that my theories are accepted by the majority of geologists.
It will probably take 50 years, as with the theory of Continental Drift, to get accepted by geologists in general. Maybe this disaster will shave off 20 years. Things evolve slowly in geology!
We can only hope it is old oil. We can only date oil back 100 000 years by carbon dating, but that is fine. We need to know if this oil is 10 to 100 years old and if its age is changing as it escapes. Is the escaping oil getting older or younger? So we need to start dating the oil on a weekly basis to see what is happening.
I volunteer for the job.
One last point that the public does not understand. It is not about deep water drilling where the problems have arisen. It is about high pressure oil and gas drilling that creates the problems.
These zones can be found on land as well as at sea and can start from as little as 10000 feet, not the 20000 of this well. These high pressure wells have always been a problem.
Of the millions of wells drilled, there are thousands of these ticking time bomb, high-pressure wells in existence and new ones are being drilled every day. New risks are being taken daily.
The world has to make a concerted effort to get off oil. It is killing us.
I hope I have not been too technical, but the matter is grave.
This is the video showing Senator Nelson reporting the oil is coming up through the sea floor.
ChrisLandau (geologist) Follow the link to more articles
Chris Landau: B.P., Halliburton and Transocean Have Unleashed Armageddon and Now There is No Stopping It
By Chris Landauopednews.com
June 11, 2010
http://www.opednews.com/articles/B-P-Halliburton-and-Trans-by-Chris-Landau-100611-452.html
B.P, Halliburton and Transocean have unleashed Armageddon and now there is no stopping it. Senator Bill Nelson has told us how bad it is.
This is our worst nightmare. The oil industry has killed the Gulf of Mexico.
My worst fears have been realized. If this link is true and the oil is coming through the sea floor, they have either blown out the formation or blown out the cement (which we know they did anyway to get the blowout to occur).
I’m beginning to realize why they have not wanted to close the valves on the cap. The more they close it, the more oil is going to come up through the sea floor, next to the well casing.
I listed 12 points in my attached article. The really big concern here is that their directional wells are now pointless. They are GUARANTEED to fail because you cannot pump mud or cement into a blown-out well. It just does not set with oil and gas roaring past.
The next biggest concern is that they have to get 8 new wells in immediately to relieve the background oil and gas pressure. The oil is going to start coming up at an ever increasing rate along the casing and theblowout preventer.The oil and gas is going to act as a high pressurepressure washer and erode away all the sandstone and mudstone.There is nothing they can do about it.
This is also the end of B.P. The claims will go on forever.
What these guys do not understand is that it is much worse than they think. Here is the reason why.
They need to date the oil to find out how old the oil is. The rock formation might be 30 to 200 million years old here. I do not know and have not looked at under sea maps.
The oil is either old oil, say, almost as old as the formation, or they have drilled into a massive active fault zone that is reducing carbon dioxide to methane. If it is high in hydrogen sulfide, it is reducing calcareous sediments to oil and more natural gas in the presence of salt solutions.
Now they are providing more saltwater, so via the Wurtz Synthesis more oil is going to be created than natural gas. The methane is going to be converted to ethane, propane, butane, pentane and other long-chain organic compounds.
You see, if oil is being made now, at a very rapid rate in this area, the pressure is never, ever going to drop off along the casing and the oil is going to flow into the gulf forever. The only hope to reduce the pressure will be by sinking more new wells into this area and try and drain off the oil and gas as quickly as it is being made.
You see oil is basically inorganic. It is not made from dead squashed plankton. It is not a fossil fuel. It is an inorganic chemical compound reduced from calcareous sediments and carbon dioxide and methane gas.
My peer-reviewed published papers using chemical and thermodynamic equations show how this occurs. The link to the papers is available below.
Of course although I was published by The American Institute of Professional Geologists in 2009 and the Association of Environmentaland Engineering Geologists in 2008, it does not mean that my theories are accepted by the majority of geologists.
It will probably take 50 years, as with the theory of Continental Drift, to get accepted by geologists in general. Maybe this disaster will shave off 20 years. Things evolve slowly in geology!
We can only hope it is old oil. We can only date oil back 100 000 years by carbon dating, but that is fine. We need to know if this oil is 10 to 100 years old and if its age is changing as it escapes. Is the escaping oil getting older or younger? So we need to start dating the oil on a weekly basis to see what is happening.
I volunteer for the job.
One last point that the public does not understand. It is not about deep water drilling where the problems have arisen. It is about high pressure oil and gas drilling that creates the problems.
These zones can be found on land as well as at sea and can start from as little as 10000 feet, not the 20000 of this well. These high pressure wells have always been a problem.
Of the millions of wells drilled, there are thousands of these ticking time bomb, high-pressure wells in existence and new ones are being drilled every day. New risks are being taken daily.
The world has to make a concerted effort to get off oil. It is killing us.
I hope I have not been too technical, but the matter is grave.
This is the video showing Senator Nelson reporting the oil is coming up through the sea floor.
Elected Officials Bought Off by the Oil and Gas Lobby:
Power Without Petroleum
Elected Officials Bought Off by the Oil and Gas Lobby:
- Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-LA) has taken $363,950
- Gov. Bobby Jindal (R-LA) has taken more than $200,000
- Gov. Haley Barbour (R-MS) has taken $1.8 million
- Rudy Giuliani (R-NY) has taken $609,358
- Sen. David Vitter (R-LA) has taken $385,500
- Rep. Joe Barton (R-TX) has taken $1,448,380
- Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) has taken $426,989
- Gov. Rick Perry (R-TX) has taken $16.7 million
- The 2008 McCain/Palin campaign took $2.4 million
Check Out How Much BP has been spending:
- In 2009, BP’s Lobby spent $16 million
- In the first quarter of 2010, BP’s Lobby spent $3.5 million
The entire Oil & Gas Lobby:
- In 2009, the entire Oil & Gas Lobby spent $174 MILLION
Since this "mishap" BP has has 26 events for congress ---- Rep Markey at the end of the hearing told us in his summation that the American people get 'nada' for the mineral rights in the Gulf or anywhere else from any oil company! Surprised! Not more than I am.
A Deadly Bubble + A Tsunami
Coast to Coast -- with Richard Hoagland -- Please listen to
what he has to say -- Ben Nelson has spoken about this problem + it was circuitously talked about
it this morning 06.20. on Meet the Press, there are many small fissures on the sea bed floor
where they have been detected by a ROV. See video down page.
The well is one mile under water then they drilled down four + one half miles to the oil ---
Follow this link: to Brasscheck for both parts of the interview
It is posted further down on the blog under Fantasia,
what he has to say -- Ben Nelson has spoken about this problem + it was circuitously talked about
it this morning 06.20. on Meet the Press, there are many small fissures on the sea bed floor
where they have been detected by a ROV. See video down page.
The well is one mile under water then they drilled down four + one half miles to the oil ---
Follow this link: to Brasscheck for both parts of the interview
It is posted further down on the blog under Fantasia,
Saturday, 19 June 2010
Guardian: Nigeria's agony dwarfs the Gulf oil spill. The US and Europe ignore it
The Deepwater Horizon disaster caused headlines around the world, yet the people who live in the Niger delta have had to live with environmental catastrophes for decades
Guardian:
BP hives off 'toxic' Gulf spill operation to dilute anti-British feeling in US
Chief executive Tony Hayward hands responsibility for clean-up to American as new containment cap is placed on top of leak
"Tony Hayward will no longer be managing the day-to-day operations of the Gulf cleanup effort." ?
So what's new? Nothing has changed!!!
So what's new? Nothing has changed!!!
BP CEO Hayward still in control of Gulf oil spill response?
(CNN) -- BP is clarifying comments Chairman Carl-Henric Svanberg made Friday in a broadcast interview, that BP Chief Executive Officer Tony Hayward will relinquish control over the company's daily operations in the Gulf of Mexico.
The Energy Non-Crisis by Lindsey Williams
Hear Reverend Lindsey Williams tell the real TRUTH about Alaskan oil and gas on YouTube.
The Energy Non-Crisis is available for sale here
+ here including reviews at Amazon
Hear Reverend Lindsey Williams tell the real TRUTH about Alaskan oil and gas on YouTube.
+ here including reviews at Amazon
Goldman Harvard Recruit Pledges to Do No Harm, Fights for Oath
Goldman Harvard Recruit Pledges to Do No Harm, Fights for Oath
I am re-posting this article now that we have got rid of Haywood +
now have Dudley -- Please read his bio ! Nothing is going to change
this is a culture unto itself + they are immersed in it -- its all they
know.
This has been an on going issue for many years, what is oil?
The debate over oil's origin has been going on since the 19th century.
From the start, there were those who contended that oil is primordial
- that it dates back to Earth's origin - or that it is made through an
inorganic process, while others argued that it was produced from the
decay of living organisms (primarily oceanic plankton) that proliferated
millions of years ago during relatively brief periods of global warming
and were buried under ocean sediment in fortuitous circumstances.
Read this article The Abiotic Oil Controversy
Now try this: its Fantasia with the volume turned up Part one + please listen to
Part two.
I am re-posting this article now that we have got rid of Haywood +
now have Dudley -- Please read his bio ! Nothing is going to change
this is a culture unto itself + they are immersed in it -- its all they
know.
This has been an on going issue for many years, what is oil?
The debate over oil's origin has been going on since the 19th century.
From the start, there were those who contended that oil is primordial
- that it dates back to Earth's origin - or that it is made through an
inorganic process, while others argued that it was produced from the
decay of living organisms (primarily oceanic plankton) that proliferated
millions of years ago during relatively brief periods of global warming
and were buried under ocean sediment in fortuitous circumstances.
Read this article The Abiotic Oil Controversy
Now try this: its Fantasia with the volume turned up Part one + please listen to
Part two.
Friday, 18 June 2010
It is rumored that Tony Hayward, CEO of BP, sold a third of his shares of stock in the company on March 17th. He proceeded to pay off the mortgage on his mansion. Is this the behavior of a CEO who is about to open up the deepest and most lucrative well in modern history or the behavior of someone with inside information about just how badly the drilling was going?
Thursday, 17 June 2010
Wednesday, 16 June 2010
Gulf oil disaster: a trillion-dollar corporate crime
15 June 2010
The oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico is a corporate crime whose magnitude almost defies comprehension. The eventual cost—combining damage to complex Gulf and coastal ecosystems, wiping out of the fishing and tourism industries, and long-term health consequences for the population of the region—is likely to total over $1 trillion.The explosion that destroyed the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig, killed 11 workers and began the massive and continuing flow of oil was not an “accident,” but the product of willful corporate cost-cutting and negligence. Further evidence of this fact was provided Monday in documents released by the House Energy and Commerce Committee. One document was an email from a BP engineer, Brian Morel, on April 14, six days before the explosion, in which he described the rig as a “nightmare well which has everyone all over the place.”
An accompanying letter from the committee detailed decisions made by BP officials during the days leading up to the disaster. “The common feature of these five decisions is that they posed a trade-off between cost and well safety,” the letter said. “Time after time, it appears that BP made decisions that increased the risk of a blowout to save the company time or expense.”
In this context, the much-publicized demand by the Obama administration and congressional Democrats, that BP establish an escrow fund of about $20 billion from which compensation would be paid to fishermen, seafood processors and others robbed of their livelihood by the disaster, is a fraud.
The $20 billion fund would represent only two quarterly dividend payments for BP. This is likely to be portrayed as a “compromise,” in which the oil company agrees to suspend dividend payments, partially or wholly, for a few months, as a public relations gesture while the Gulf crisis dominates the headlines.
This amounts to an effective amnesty to the giant oil company, and a back-door bailout, since any compensation above the escrow fund amount would become the responsibility of local, state and federal governments, i.e., like the cost of the Wall Street bailout, it would come at the expense of the working class.
The scale of the Gulf oil disaster is so enormous that for any serious estimate of the real costs in terms of cleanup, compensation and long-term repair of damage, the bidding starts at a trillion dollars and rises rapidly upwards.
An estimate published by Earth Economics, an environmental group, found that the Mississippi River Delta in Louisiana alone had an economic value of between $330 billion and $1.3 trillion, based on benefits provided like water supply, water flow regulation, hurricane protection, food production, raw materials production, recreational value, carbon sequestration, atmospheric composition regulation, waste treatment, aesthetic value and habitat value.
Besides Louisiana, however, oil from the BP spill is now washing ashore on the coastline of Mississippi, Alabama and the Florida panhandle. Vast plumes of undersea oil have been detected in the deep waters of the Gulf of Mexico, beyond the continental shelf, where the destructive impact on ocean ecosystems and the food chain is incalculable.
Even the lower-range figure for the Mississippi Delta exceeds the $189 billion market capitalization of BP. In other words, the resources of even one of the largest oil companies are entirely inadequate, either to stop the leak itself or to remedy the damage.
The next few days will be dominated by a series of actions aimed at presenting the Obama administration as a critic and opponent of BP, and Obama himself as an advocate of those whose livelihood and way of life are now threatened. These include Obama’s fourth trip to the Gulf Coast, followed by his nationally televised address from the Oval Office Tuesday night, a White House meeting with top BP officials Wednesday, and an appearance before congressional committees Thursday by BP CEO Tony Hayward. These are essentially media events, aimed at concealing, not exposing, the true causes of the Gulf oil disaster.
While the magnitude of the disaster and all its ramifications may be incomprehensible, the sources of this latest crisis are clear. The behavior of BP and the impulses that drive its policies are not fundamentally different from any other major corporation. Until the next horrific catastrophe, BP is only the most notorious face of the international corporate elite that has smashed up the world economy, destroyed the jobs and living standards of hundreds of millions of working people, and now threatens to do permanent damage to the planet itself.
The Gulf oil disaster, coming in the midst of a deepening worldwide economic crisis, further discredits the profit system in the eyes of working people around the globe. It demonstrates the true nature of the capitalist “free market,” which represents freedom for the capitalists to profit at the expense of the vast majority of humanity, and to the detriment of nature itself.
Any serious exposure of the role played by BP in this disaster implicitly raises the question of a socialist alternative to the filth and criminality of the profit system. The oil industry has richly benefited from the offensive mounted by the financial aristocracy over the past three decades to scrap all limitations on the market, including safety and environmental regulation. BP is not an exception, but rather the latest example of the prevailing trend, following in the footsteps of AIG, Goldman Sachs, Lehman Brothers, Enron, Exxon Mobil, Union Carbide and a myriad of other corporate criminals.
The answer to this blatant corporate criminality is to make the capitalists pay for the crisis, not the working people of the Gulf Coast. As a first step, the assets of BP should be summarily seized to provide compensation for those suffering economic losses, and to finance further efforts to stop the flow of oil and clean up the damage.
The oil industry as a whole should be nationalized—placed under public ownership and democratic control—both to provide the additional resources required to offset the cost of the disaster, and to prevent any further such catastrophes on the hundreds of other offshore wells already in production in the Gulf.
It goes without saying that the Democratic Party and the Republican Party are implacably and unalterably opposed to such a policy. Both parties defend the profit system and the “right” of the giant corporations to own and control the means of production. Both agree that the needs of working people must be subordinated to what the “market”—i.e., the capitalist class—can afford.
The only way to break the stranglehold of the giant corporations and banks is to build a mass revolutionary movement of the American and international working class, the most powerful social force on the planet.
Working people and youth in the United States and around the world must draw the necessary political conclusions from the catastrophes produced by the profit system. The conditions that created this disaster can only be eliminated through the fight for socialism. We urge all those who agree with this program to make the decision to join and build the SEP.
Patrick Martin
Chris Matthews, Keith Olbermann and Howard Fineman react to President Obama's Oval Office Address on the oil spill. Here are the highlights of what the trio said:
Olbermann: "It was a great speech if you were on another planet for the last 57 days."
Matthews compared Obama to Carter.
Olbermann: "Nothing specific at all was said."
Matthews: "No direction."
Howard Fineman: "He wasn't specific enough."
Olbermann: "I don't think he aimed low, I don't think he aimed at all. It's startling."
Howard Fineman: Obama should be acting like a "commander-in-chief."
Matthews: Ludicrous that he keeps saying [Secretary of Energy] Chu has a Nobel prize. "I'll barf if he does it one more time."
Matthews: "A lot of meritocracy, a lot of blue ribbon talk."
Olbermann: "It was a great speech if you were on another planet for the last 57 days."
Matthews compared Obama to Carter.
Olbermann: "Nothing specific at all was said."
Matthews: "No direction."
Howard Fineman: "He wasn't specific enough."
Olbermann: "I don't think he aimed low, I don't think he aimed at all. It's startling."
Howard Fineman: Obama should be acting like a "commander-in-chief."
Matthews: Ludicrous that he keeps saying [Secretary of Energy] Chu has a Nobel prize. "I'll barf if he does it one more time."
Matthews: "A lot of meritocracy, a lot of blue ribbon talk."
Tuesday, 15 June 2010
Published on Saturday, June 12, 2010 by CommonDreams.org
British Petroluem, Imagination, and Nuclear Catastrophe
by David KriegerBefore the catastrophic British Petroleum oil gush in the Gulf of Mexico, there were environmentalists who warned that offshore drilling was fraught with risk - risk of exactly the type of environmental damage that is occurring. They were mocked by people who chanted slogans such as "Drill, baby, drill." Now it is clear that the "Drill, baby, drill" crowd was foolish and greedy. The economic wellbeing of people in and around the Gulf coast has been badly damaged and, for some, destroyed altogether. Aquatic and estuary life, in the Gulf and beyond, has fallen victim to an environmental disaster that was foreseeable with a modicum of vision and imagination.
Albert Einstein reached the conclusion that "Imagination is more important than knowledge." He said that "knowledge is limited to all we now know and understand, while imagination embraces the entire world, and all there ever will be to know and understand." Let us try applying our imaginations to nuclear weapons and nuclear war. Here are some scenarios:
Scenario 1: Al Qaeda does what most commentators believed to be impossible. They obtain nuclear materials for several nuclear weapons and hire scientists to construct crude nuclear weapons. These weapons are detonated in London, New York and Paris within hours of each other. Millions would lie dead and injured. Around the world stock markets would freefall. Before the terrorist nuclear attacks, the people who warned against such a possibility were mocked.
Scenario 2: Nuclear deterrence fails dramatically, and India and Pakistan engage in a nuclear war over Kashmir. The hundred or so nuclear warheads that detonate on Indian and Pakistani cities leave millions dead and lower global temperatures so as to significantly shrink the size of agricultural areas in which food can be grown. Crop failures leave hundreds of millions more people to starve to death. Before the war, the people who warned against such a possibility were mocked.
Scenario 3: A nuclear war begins with an accidental launch of a nuclear-armed missile by Russia, followed by a retaliatory strike by the US, which brings further retaliation from Russia, leading to still more from the US. Before the accidental launch, few people believed that such a cataclysmic accident and its retaliatory follow up were possible. In its aftermath, the scenario seems far too feasible. People now realize that the failsafe devices to prevent accidental launches could fail, but those who foresaw this danger and warned about it earlier were mocked.
Scenario 4: North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il launches a nuclear attack that destroys US military bases on the Japanese island of Okinawa. He threatens to destroy the Japanese city of Kyoto and Seoul, South Korea unless he receives the development assistance he says was promised to him by the United States. Those who argued throughout the Nuclear Age that continued possession of nuclear weapons by the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council would result in nuclear proliferation and the weapons falling into the hands of irrational leaders were mocked.
There are many scenarios possible for the onset of nuclear war and there remain many justifications for nuclear weapons. Leaders of nuclear weapon states argue that these weapons are only for nuclear deterrence, that is, to prevent war by threatening nuclear retaliation. They don't foresee the potential failure of nuclear deterrence, even though they recognize the cataclysmic consequences of failure. They believe that nuclear weapons bolster a country's prestige and give it greater power in the international system. They proudly display their nuclear weapons and test their missile delivery systems. Those who argue that nuclear deterrence could fail catastrophically are mocked.
Political and military leaders have failed to honor the proposition that in every complex system in which humans are involved, system failure is a possibility. They have dismissed the idea of system failure leading to nuclear annihilation. Scientists spoke out about this shortsightedness, but they were mocked. Former high-level policymakers spoke out about the dangers, and they, too, were mocked. Even some former military leaders spoke out against the dangers of reliance on nuclear weapons, and they were mocked. The survivors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, who witnessed the horrors of the atomic bombs firsthand, have told their stories in an attempt to awaken people to the danger of nuclear weapons, but their voices are soft and few people in high places have listened to them.
Civil society organizations from throughout the world have called out for a commitment to an urgent plan for the elimination of nuclear weapons, and they also have been mocked. But, like the survivors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, they continue to speak out because it is the right thing to do. Nuclear weapons can end life on Earth as we know it. They can destroy civilization. In a major nuclear war, they could bring the human species and most complex forms of life to extinction. Even in a smaller nuclear war or accident, they could destroy cities and countries.
As the oil from the British Petroleum failure in the Gulf of Mexico continues to destroy the ocean and surrounding environment, it is perhaps too late to ask ourselves whether offshore drilling is worth the risk. Clearly it is not. It is still not too late, however, to raise the question of whether continued reliance on nuclear weapons is worth the risk to humanity and to future generations.
David Krieger is president of the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation [1] (www.wagingpeace.org [1]), an organization that has worked since 1982 to educate and advocate for a world free of nuclear weapons.
Thursday, 10 June 2010
Wednesday, 9 June 2010
Monday, 7 June 2010
Poll: BP Oil Spill Rated Worse Than Hurricane Katrina; Most Americans Favor Pursuit of Criminal Charges According to ABC News and Washington Post Poll - ABC News
Poll: BP Oil Spill Rated Worse Than Hurricane Katrina; Most Americans Favor Pursuit of Criminal Charges According to ABC News and Washington Post Poll - ABC News
By more than a 2-to-1 margin, Americans support the pursuit of criminal charges in the nation's worst oil spill , with increasing numbers calling it a major environmental disaster. Eight in 10 criticize the way BP's handled it – and more people give the federal government's response a negative rating than did the response to Hurricane Katrina.
By more than a 2-to-1 margin, Americans support the pursuit of criminal charges in the nation's worst oil spill , with increasing numbers calling it a major environmental disaster. Eight in 10 criticize the way BP's handled it – and more people give the federal government's response a negative rating than did the response to Hurricane Katrina.
Caught in the oil - The Big Picture - Boston.com
Caught in the oil - The Big Picture - Boston.com
Really disturbing pictures -- of Pelicans in the oil
A short entry - AP Photographer Charlie Riedel just filed the following images of seabirds caught in the oil slick on a beach on Louisiana's East Grand Terre Island. As BP engineers continue their efforts to cap the underwater flow of oil, landfall is becoming more frequent, and the effects more evident. (8 photos total)
Really disturbing pictures -- of Pelicans in the oil
A short entry - AP Photographer Charlie Riedel just filed the following images of seabirds caught in the oil slick on a beach on Louisiana's East Grand Terre Island. As BP engineers continue their efforts to cap the underwater flow of oil, landfall is becoming more frequent, and the effects more evident. (8 photos total)
Saturday, 5 June 2010
Diving Into the Gulf's Toxic Soup - ABC News
Diving Into the Gulf's Toxic Soup - ABC News
Cousteau Jr.:
Cousteau Jr.:
'This Is a Nightmare... a Nightmare'
Philippe Cousteau Jr. and Sam Champion take hazmat dive into Gulf's oily waters.
Friday, 4 June 2010
Wednesday, 2 June 2010
Oil spill creates huge undersea 'dead zones' - Americas, World - The Independent
Oil spill creates huge undersea 'dead zones' - Americas, World - The Independent
Marine biologists say the timing of this underwater contamination could not be more catastrophic. "This is when all the animals are reproducing and hatching, so the damage at this depth will be much worse," said Dr Larry McKinney, director of the Harte Research Institute for Gulf of Mexico Studies in Texas. "We're not talking about adults on the surface; it will impact on the young – and potentially a generational life cycle."
This could wipe out more precarious species. "Bluefin tuna spawn just south of the oil spill and they spawn only in the Gulf. If they were to go through the area at a critical time, that's one instance where a plume could destroy a whole species."
What happens next to these suspended clouds worries scientists. Nobody knows how long it will take them to reach the surface and come towards the shore (if they ever do).
Dr Peter Roopnarine, an invertebrate zoologist and geologist at the California Academy of Sciences, is conducting tests on molluscs. He fears a second wave of wetland damage from these sub-surface plumes. "The organisms we're working with are in shallow sub-tidal waters and in the salt marshes, so we won't get immediate results from a plume. But we could end up seeing two disasters on shore, because the plume will eventually work its way there."
With no confirmation that BP's attempts to stop the flow of oil have succeeded, the damage is likely to get worse. If this "top kill" method of plugging the hole with concrete and mud fails, then the only option left is a relief well, which will take until August at the earliest to become operational. In the meantime, the surrounding ocean will become deadlier every day that passes. And even if the plug works, it may well be too late. As Dr McKinney pointed out: "At the depth that these plumes are at, the sea will be toxic for God knows how long."
BP-bashing Americans could jeopardise British pensions. They should remember 1988 – Telegraph Blogs
BP-bashing Americans could jeopardise British pensions. They should remember 1988 – Telegraph Blogs
Blogger comment
Henry Cave Devine on Jun 1st, 2010 at 6:08 pm
Gulf of Mexico oil spill: BP and Hayward fight for their survival - Telegraph
Gulf of Mexico oil spill: BP and Hayward fight for their survival - Telegraph
I have put up this post as an epitaph to the greedy selfish self centered shallow
sons of capitalism -- not one post has any thought or concern about the damage
that has been done to our economy or the environment the sea and animal life
and the cost to the fishermen and woman and the people who make their livelihood
from the sea. And of course the simple pleasure of being able to look at it in its pristine
beauty!
Clearly these people have no soul.
I have put up this post as an epitaph to the greedy selfish self centered shallow
sons of capitalism -- not one post has any thought or concern about the damage
that has been done to our economy or the environment the sea and animal life
and the cost to the fishermen and woman and the people who make their livelihood
from the sea. And of course the simple pleasure of being able to look at it in its pristine
beauty!
Clearly these people have no soul.
Feds open criminal probe of Gulf oil spill | World news | guardian.co.uk
Feds open criminal probe of Gulf oil spill | World news | guardian.co.uk
Associated Press Writers= PORT FOURCHON, La. (AP) — Attorney General Eric Holder said Tuesday that federal authorities
have opened criminal and civil investigations into the nation's worst oil spill, and BP lost billions in market value when shares
dropped in the first trading day since the company failed yet again to plug the gusher.
Investors presumably realized the best chance to stop the leak was months away and there was no end in sight to the cleanup.
As BP settled in for the long-term, Holder announced the criminal probe, though he would not specify the companies or individuals
that might be targeted.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
It has all been couched under the guise of many public causes including “protecting America’s energy security” which may amount to one of the largest long-term outright frauds ever carried out by American government. But because it’s the US government and they are the ultimate “Teflon Don’s” nothing of any consequence will occur to punish them… with the exception of Obama whose name and image is now severely damaged probably beyond recovery.
All this taken into account BP was running the project and subcontracted to its industry partners. BP and the others have a potential joint and several liability on this disaster but BP was the lead: full stop. It does not help matters that BP has a long term reputation in the US oil patch for sloppy sometimes dangerous work and that BP chose partners at least one of whom has a similarly poor reputation, both with evidence to support the poor reputations. BP also ruined Amoco subsequent to acquisition and succeeded in dismantling one of Americas finest energy companies and finest companies in general.
You also need to remmeber that BP is essentially an agglomeration of outsourcing and sub-outsourcing far more extensive than the rest of the energy companies. John Brown cut costs by doing this but “extreme” outsourcing” can also result in loss of quality and control over time, and this is what has happened in this disaster situation. Yes, they have had substantial profits but now the cost of acquiring those profits will come back to haunt them.
The affected states of Texas, Louisiana and Florida have a right to not only litigate against BP and the others but to sieze assets to assure performance under cleanup operations. The Environmental Protection Agency has wide sweeping rights to litigate in what amounts to their own court system. Don’t expect the White House nor previous administrations to assume any financial liability: all they will do is the ceremonial “falling on their swords” that Obama has done. But that’s meaningless when it comes to fixing the problem no matter who falls on their swords, and the same governmental corruption will continue (particularly the Congress and governmental agencies)… and in the end it will cost BP many billions of dollars to correct the effects of this event. All the swords will be pointed at BP and the hands will be scraping every pocket that BP has going forward for the next decade or so.