It seems like this is being treated as no big deal by many here. No...it ain't the end of the world and it will be cleaned up but it is one hell of a disaster over the near term (and I mean a number of years...not months).
Ixtoc I was TWO to FIVE times as bad as the current 210,000 gallons per day estimated for this blowout so it will take approximately TWO months for the current situation to equal the Exxon Valdez spill and two YEARS to equal the Ixtoc spill.
Now consider this...the Ixtoc rig was in 164ft. of water and could be reached by divers. This is a MILE down.
It took TEN months to cap the Ixtoc well even though access was relatively easy. In ten months we will have the equivilent of 5 Exxon Valdez spills off the coast of our most prodigious shrimping and fishing grounds and ruining Florida beaches and perhaps even impacting east coast beaches due to the currents.
No need to be DUmmies about this...but this is one of th worst environmental disasters we've ever had and the damage to both the coast and the people who make their livelihood there will be felt for years to come. It will also impact energy policy negatively.
BP needs to be held fully accountable financially for this...but the focus should be on getting the well capped off ASAP and then finding out what went wrong and what will prevent this from happening again.
I'm guessing you didn't see my post from the other thread...
I wonder if the DUmmies realize how many "oil spills" are caused NATURALLY???
http://www.wisegeek.com/what-causes-oil-spills.htm
Oh, and this is gonna REALLY make their ****ing heads explode...
http://oceanworld.tamu.edu/resources/oceanography-book/oilspills.htm
Average annual contribution to oil in the ocean (1990-1999) from major sources of petroleum in kilotonnes.
From Oil In The Sea, Ocean Studies Board and Marine Board of the National Academy of Sciences (2003).
Mods, please feel free to post this in the Political Ammunition thread as well. That's right, camaraderie, that slow drip from your engine is 10 times WORSE for the environment than all the tanker groundings, wellhead blowouts, and seaborne pipeline leaks COMBINED.
