Weekly Mulch: Oil Spill Could Bring Mass Extinction to the Gulf Coast

[unhappycamper]

Weekly Mulch: Oil Spill Could Bring Mass Extinction to the Gulf Coast
Friday 04 June 2010
by: Sarah Laskow | The Media Consortium

A cap placed over a severed pipe is siphoning some oil from the broken BP well in the Gulf Coast, the company said today. The company's CEO said this morning on CBS that it was possible that this fix could capture up to 90% of the oil, but that it will take 24 to 48 hours to understand how well this solution is working. Adm. Thad Allen, the former Coast Guard chief and oil spill incident commander, called the cap "only a temporary and partial fix."

Despite the capping procedure, it became clear this week that the onrush of oil from the BP Deepwater Horizon rig will not cease any time soon. Even in the best case scenario, thousands of barrels of oil will still flow into the ocean. Destruction is already spreading along the Gulf Coast, and before the oil stops leaking, species might be extinct and industries destroyed.

In the coming months—it’s not clear how many—oil will continue to pollute the Gulf of Mexico. BP and the Obama administration are talking about August as the end of this crisis, but other experts have projected that the spill could last until Christmas.

As Justin Elliott reports for TPMMuckraker, BP told the government it could handle a spill much larger than this one. In the initial exploration plan for the well, BP claimed "it was prepared to respond to a blowout flowing at 300,000 barrels per day -- as much as 25 times the rate of the current spill," Elliott writes. BP cannot, it turns out, respond to a blowout flowing less than 20,000 barrels per day, and the consequences for the Gulf communities are only beginning to emerge. The first casualty will be Gulf ecosystem and its inhabitants. The second casualty will be the livelihood of Gulf communities that have depended on fish, shrimp, and oysters for survival.

~snip~

The impact of the oil spill goes beyond those individual bodies, though. As Inter Press Service reports, environmentalists and scientists “are beginning to reckon with the reality of a massive annihilation of sea creatures and wildlife.”



unhappycamper comment: Thanks Cheney and BP! :sarcasm:

[AndyA]

1. Obama needs to get off his sorry ass and make the super secret Bush Energy Policy public.

We need to find out who was involved in those meetings. What policies were discussed. Who, what, when, where. That will answer a lot of questions.

Then, I suspect, Eric Holder will need to get off his sorry ass and file charges against those involved. There are laws in this country that prevent our elected leaders from taking advantage of the masses and abusing their authority.

Obama allowing this to remain a secret makes him guilty of the same things. Get with it, Obama.

[tavalon]

2. Honestly, I'm beginning to think that as each new President takes the office,

the CIA takes them into a room and plays the Zapruder film over and over for about 30 minutes. Then they shut it off and ask the newly minted President if he has any questions.

I'm not trying to absolve Obama, just saying that there seems to be a stronger shadow government made up of unelected individuals and corporations who like the image of a representative "democracy" more than an actual one. And they call the shots.

[AndyA]

4. I would think making a thing like that public would provide a lot of protection.

The powers that be would not want their identities revealed, as they would then have millions of armed, angry citizens, who suddenly realize the government they've been supporting has truly been working against them.

I suspect that populace would be enough to remove the powers that be from power, and restore democracy. It will just take someone with the balls to do it. I guess Obama has been castrated. So much for change we can believe in. Better than nothing, eh? :shrug:

[Mari333]

6. castrated, indeed.

[Karenina]

7. Erraaa... JFK tried that strategy.

[Karenina]

5. HALLO!

:hi:

[ladjf]

8. I'm hoping to hell that you are incorrect and fearing that you just

might be correct in your assertion about the briefing. It would explain some otherwise inexplicable decisions and actions. Nah, that couldn't possibly be the case.

[Bluenorthwest]

3. Agreed