The BP Oil Spill in the Gulf of Mexico
May 2, 2010 - By Bobby Solomon - Category: Life
Reading the news about the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico is something that’s been bumming me out lately, so I felt like touching on it a bit. As I sat down to write about it I thought I’d check out Huffington Post and as of writing this the current headline reads, FISHING BANNED FROM LOUISIANA TO FLORIDA. That’s how huge and uncontrollable this situation is.
Honestly I feel worst for the people of the region, and then of course the wildlife we’re totally fucking over. I just feel so angry at BP and the politicians that made this mess possible. I guess in the larger scale of things we should be mad at ourselves at our dependence on oil, but I’d say that it’s primarily BP and politicians. If they had only put in better backups to prevent something like this occurring, well, I wouldn’t be writing this and things would be peachy keen.
The photos above are from The Boston Globe’s The Big Picture and can help you visualize just how horrible things are looking. President Obama says that BP will be footing the entire bill for the cleanup operation, but I’d still suggest boycotting any BP related locations around the world.
Bobby
Comments
If you've got something to say, keep it positive.As much as this whole situation absolutely sucks, the fact of the matter is that over here in the UK, BP account for a huge portion of fuel supplies, so any boycott of their products would probably do our economy a lot of harm, especially after the hundreds of millions of pounds lost by Airlines during the Volcano.
Nobody wants to see a disaster of this magnitude occur, but the media is quick to jump on any situation with “select” information. How often have you made a mistake even after making back-up plans and considering all of the errors that could occur? Obviously there was an error along the way here, but how many rigs and operations are taking place all over the world and consider the time span of all this then equate the number of mistakes that have occurred before jumping to conclusions about boycotting. Everyone would love to boycott “big business” every time that they make a mistake, but nobody wants to put away their car, their computers that are fabricated from petroleum products and everything else in this world that we rely on. The individuals or companies that have any involvement with the disaster should whole-heartedly be held responsible for taking all measures and costs involved with this in their own hands, but boycotting one company is a overly drastic. Lets boycott all muslims because a group of terrorists attacked America….does that sound familiar? It goes both ways.
A shame indeed, the natural imprications of this mess is quite huge, here in Mexico we’re so pending of the news ’cause it might affect the mexican beaches as well. Clayton Cobitt is being covering this oil spill on his tumblelog http://bit.ly/cmQCPW
This whole thing is only getting worse. The dead sea turtles that washed up are a bad sign.
Considering marine ecosystems, especially coral reefs, are the most complex and fragile on earth, this could end up being horrendous for those of us who love nature. Even one species dying could throw off the balance of the reefs.
We really need to take better care of our oceans. People tend to forget that they provide a huge chuck of our planet’s oxygen. They’ve actually been producing less because of all the shit we’re pumping into the air, so we really shouldn’t be speeding up the process.
I’m still in shock. I live in Pensacola and it’s slowly creeping towards me. The beaches wil only be white for so long. The entire tourism industry (about 40% of the yearly income for Florida comes from it’s beaches) is probably going to collapse. I never really expected this to happen.
I find this entire situation disgusting.
As you said, I can’t believe better back up/emergency plans had not been thought out.
It’s really all very sad. And something that could have been prevented.
ASSHOLES!
Bobby, I respect you heaps but you just said some inaccurate stuff there – the rig wasn’t even run by or operated by Brits, its a Swiss rig operated by Americans! BP are actually one of the cleaner and more progressive fuel companies out there.
@Luke – Ditto Mr. Luke but you’re squarely wrong. They subcontracted the company to pump the oil for them. Why would they be footing the bill to clean up the mess if they weren’t involved?
http://priceofoil.org/2010/05/04/bp-%E2%80%9Cthis-was-not-our-accident%E2%80%9D/
And anyhow, they changed their name from ‘British Petroleum’ to ‘Beyond Petroleum’ years ago… how ironic.
Ha good call, I wasn’t saying they’re not involved! I know they’re ultimately responsible just like you would be if you ran a company and an employee individually did a crap job on your behalf – it just seems a bit harsh to drop all the blame at the feet of BP without stating the full story.
Think they should bite the bullet and change their name to ‘Bad Press’?
This just makes me sick!!!!!!!!
Bobby, I support the entire concept of the disaster cleanup being responsible for all those parties that were accountable, but like Luke said, its not just BP. He is entirely right that BP owns the “lease” of the land, and pays a chartered rate per day for Transocean to RUN and OPERATE the rig. Just like ships that are transporting oil and everything else, most major oil tankers are run by a company and then their services get chartered out to individual companies as their use is needed. I personally know one of the guys that was blown off that rig and fortunate enough to survive it, but he doesnt work for BP. This should be a slap in OUR face, to wake up and make changes. STOP relying on so much oil not by stopping your use, thats impractical, but by making minor changes in our day to day lives. Less plastic bottles, bag and so forth which are all petroleum by-products, but boycotting one company is absurd.
By the way, they changed their name to “Beyond Petroleum” because they have ventured into other energy resources. They have one of the largest LNG fleets in the world, which is extremely safe and clean, but we arent seeming to harness this power yet.