It is really sad to see Gulf residents cleaning their beaches when the effort is so fucking futile.

[Stinky The Clown]

They go out and clean daily. The oil gets hauled off. They work hard. They defy the feds to do it (to hear some of them tell it).

But why? Surely they know that the oil will be there again tomorrow, and the day after that. And the day after that, until the spew is stopped and water clears itself - if it ever even does.

I understand the impulse to do this. I really do. I would be there myself if I lived in that area. But it is so cruel in some ways. Until that oil stops, this is a mostly pointless effort, isn't it?

[sandnsea]

1. Their states need to call in the NG

They've been authorized.

[Stinky The Clown]

2. But what would that solve/accomplish?

Each day you can remove all the oil and the next day it is all back again.

It seems to me that the cleaning of the beaches is pointless until this ends.

[sandnsea]

6. They could let it turn to asphalt n/t

[Stinky The Clown]

8. I wasn't arguing .....

I just know what cleaning does, really, until the source is stopped.

[sandnsea]

10. I think every ounce that is cleaned up today

Is an ounce that isn't there to spread through the rest of the environment, including the air and rain down around the world.

I mean honestly, first people bitch because there isn't enough cleaning up -- and now they bitch because it's a wasted effort to clean up??

[Swamp Rat]

3. We'd rather die with out boots on

[noamnety]

4. I understand the need to keep cleaning

Don't clean today's oil and more will be back tomorrow - or clean today's oil and more will be back tomorrow. Even when we can see things aren't helping, if we have a choice of one bad option and another worse option, we tend to pick the lesser of two evils. Pointless or not, when the other option is worse, what are we supposed to do?

[GoddessOfGuinness]

5. I could say the same about my house...

Even when things seem futile, it's good to cling to hope.

[lunatica]

7. It a response to the psychological need to 'do something'

And lots of people can't wrap their minds around the enormity of it. They think they can keep cleaning it until it gets stopped and that way they can save something. It's very hard to understand the vastness of the destruction going on.

Hell! People still don't understand why people can't go down to the gusher. They simply have no concept of the crushing pressures at that depth. Not even our best submarines can go down that far.

[Stinky The Clown]

9. I think that's a lot of it.

[Gin]

11. reminds me of housework.....only worse