![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
BPcopalypse Day 72 links
Jun. 30th, 2010 08:01 amTedxoilspill.com: TedX Oil Spill Expedition
Independent "week-long project to document the current situation in the Gulf of Mexico". Account richly illustrated with a wealth of photos and description.
Excerpts (hat tip to![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
jwz):
"Flying from the Source directly to the coastal area of eastern Alabama, the team discovered the shocking fact: the flow of oil from the Source was a constant slick all the way to the shore of Alabama. Slow and steady, a mixture of dispersant and crude oil was yards from beach lines that had people sunbathing in beach chairs. The most shocking realization was that everyone had bits and pieces of information, but really no one had any idea where it was going, when it was going to hit and who was safe. [...]
"One of the ways BP controlled the media coverage of the oil spill was booking up virtually every available seaplane hour in the Gulf coast area. Luckily, our seaplane captain Dickie was fed up with how BP was trying to control the airways. A lucky situation arose which gave this rogue pilot complete flight clearance, even to the `Source'. Dickie and his seaplane was a rare find for the Gulf Coast during this time. [...]
"When we departed the Deepwater site and Dickie communicated to the Orion (call sign "Omaha 99") our intent, the controller came back quite quickly saying, "You've created a hell of a ruckus with your flight today. We've got flights in and out of this airspace and you've been interfering with them." We got chewed out for several minutes straight. The funny thing is that we hadn't been given any advisories or instructions by the controllers the entire time we were orbiting the site. Furthermore, there were no other flights that came or left the immediate area while we were there. We'd have photographs of them if there were. Something tells me that we weren't quite welcome there and our presence was merely tolerated. [...]
"The shed was deserted. A small sign read "Come see the truth. I will take you there. Boat trips for photographers and journalists. Call Al at..." I called Al.
""I switched to the other side. I work for BP now. Sorry, I can't take you out or talk to you."
"Apparently this isn't an isolated incident. BP's buying up every boat and every boat captain they can lay their hands on. It makes our jobs a lot harder."
----
APNewsBreak: BP Giving Financial Help To Stations
My comment: This is an indication that the consumer boycott of BP brands is having an effect. Good.
Yahoo News: BP spent roughly 0% of profit on safety research
The Lens: BP bankruptcy is a real fear
----
Unfoundedly wild & pessimistic... I hope
I think we don't really need to concoct hypothetical nightmare scenarios. Properly understood, what is verifiably known to be happening IS a nightmare scenario.
"Oil rain" catastrophe scenarios have been holding traction on the internet. Most of it I've seen seem to trace back to a story of a report said to have been by Russia's Ministry of Natural Resources in May:
EU Times article: Toxic Oil Spill Rains Warned Could Destroy North America
I don't have the expertise and data to evaluate this stuff myself, but from what I can tell it's pretty dubious.
Which is not to say that certain compounds and pollutants can't evaporate and find their way into rainwater. Despite the continuing pre-industrial folk conception of rain water as being inherently clean, pollutants in rain water has been well documented for decades (example: Acid deposition in rain, fog, and mist).
More recently there have been anecdotal accounts of oily rain from Louisiana to Tampa.
Mother Jones: Cloudy With a Chance of Tarballs?
I don't know, and given the unique scale and environment of the disaster, I'm not sure anyone else knows what the secondary environmental effects are going to be either. It seems to me that BP has already disproved the old adage that oil and water can't mix; apparently put enough oil under enough pressure mixed with enough COREXIT and you can create a long term suspended mixture not seen before.
And here's an alternative nightmare for y'all:
D.K. Matai, Huffington Post: Gulf Oil Gusher: Danger of Tsunamis From Methane?
----
Kindra Arnesen video
Video from Plaquemines Parish: Kindra Arnesen: Venice Louisiana Needs to be Evacuated
Mixed with emotional personal comments, a local eye witness account of BP doing things more for PR show than to actually work to mitigate the disaster, along with multiple anecdotal accounts of health problems -- she says the fumes are so bad in lower Plaquemines that the area should be evacuated.
Independent "week-long project to document the current situation in the Gulf of Mexico". Account richly illustrated with a wealth of photos and description.
Excerpts (hat tip to
jwz):"Flying from the Source directly to the coastal area of eastern Alabama, the team discovered the shocking fact: the flow of oil from the Source was a constant slick all the way to the shore of Alabama. Slow and steady, a mixture of dispersant and crude oil was yards from beach lines that had people sunbathing in beach chairs. The most shocking realization was that everyone had bits and pieces of information, but really no one had any idea where it was going, when it was going to hit and who was safe. [...]
"One of the ways BP controlled the media coverage of the oil spill was booking up virtually every available seaplane hour in the Gulf coast area. Luckily, our seaplane captain Dickie was fed up with how BP was trying to control the airways. A lucky situation arose which gave this rogue pilot complete flight clearance, even to the `Source'. Dickie and his seaplane was a rare find for the Gulf Coast during this time. [...]
"When we departed the Deepwater site and Dickie communicated to the Orion (call sign "Omaha 99") our intent, the controller came back quite quickly saying, "You've created a hell of a ruckus with your flight today. We've got flights in and out of this airspace and you've been interfering with them." We got chewed out for several minutes straight. The funny thing is that we hadn't been given any advisories or instructions by the controllers the entire time we were orbiting the site. Furthermore, there were no other flights that came or left the immediate area while we were there. We'd have photographs of them if there were. Something tells me that we weren't quite welcome there and our presence was merely tolerated. [...]
"The shed was deserted. A small sign read "Come see the truth. I will take you there. Boat trips for photographers and journalists. Call Al at..." I called Al.
""I switched to the other side. I work for BP now. Sorry, I can't take you out or talk to you."
"Apparently this isn't an isolated incident. BP's buying up every boat and every boat captain they can lay their hands on. It makes our jobs a lot harder."
----
APNewsBreak: BP Giving Financial Help To Stations
My comment: This is an indication that the consumer boycott of BP brands is having an effect. Good.
Yahoo News: BP spent roughly 0% of profit on safety research
The Lens: BP bankruptcy is a real fear
----
Unfoundedly wild & pessimistic... I hope
I think we don't really need to concoct hypothetical nightmare scenarios. Properly understood, what is verifiably known to be happening IS a nightmare scenario.
"Oil rain" catastrophe scenarios have been holding traction on the internet. Most of it I've seen seem to trace back to a story of a report said to have been by Russia's Ministry of Natural Resources in May:
EU Times article: Toxic Oil Spill Rains Warned Could Destroy North America
I don't have the expertise and data to evaluate this stuff myself, but from what I can tell it's pretty dubious.
Which is not to say that certain compounds and pollutants can't evaporate and find their way into rainwater. Despite the continuing pre-industrial folk conception of rain water as being inherently clean, pollutants in rain water has been well documented for decades (example: Acid deposition in rain, fog, and mist).
More recently there have been anecdotal accounts of oily rain from Louisiana to Tampa.
Mother Jones: Cloudy With a Chance of Tarballs?
I don't know, and given the unique scale and environment of the disaster, I'm not sure anyone else knows what the secondary environmental effects are going to be either. It seems to me that BP has already disproved the old adage that oil and water can't mix; apparently put enough oil under enough pressure mixed with enough COREXIT and you can create a long term suspended mixture not seen before.
And here's an alternative nightmare for y'all:
D.K. Matai, Huffington Post: Gulf Oil Gusher: Danger of Tsunamis From Methane?
----
Kindra Arnesen video
Video from Plaquemines Parish: Kindra Arnesen: Venice Louisiana Needs to be Evacuated
Mixed with emotional personal comments, a local eye witness account of BP doing things more for PR show than to actually work to mitigate the disaster, along with multiple anecdotal accounts of health problems -- she says the fumes are so bad in lower Plaquemines that the area should be evacuated.
