We Need To Stop Calling This An Oil "Spill."

[stopbush]

It isn't a spill. It's an erupting volcano.

You might spill a glass of water on your kitchen floor. This is more like leaving the tap open to the kitchen sink and having no way to turn off the water - no faucet handles, no main line shut off, no shut off at the city water supply.

Calling it a spill lessens the impact of the disaster. It's like calling assholes who toss their garbage on the neighbors' lawns "litterbugs."

It's more like a geyser that never stops.

[stray cat]

1. oil instead of bubbling up out of the ocean floor naturally is flowing out non-stop

but you are right it is not a spill - its just unable to be capped off.

ScienceDaily (Feb. 20, 2009) — About half of the oil in the ocean bubbles up naturally from the seafloor, with Earth giving it up freely like it was of no value. Likewise, NASA satellites collect thousands of images and 1.5 terrabytes of data every year, but some of it gets passed over because no one thinks there is a use for it.

[Xipe Totec]

2. It's an MFU

Major Fuck UP.

[tekisui]

3. And, it could flow around Florida and up the East coast in a few weeks.

[Warpy]

4. It's a blowout

and it was bound to happen sooner or later, but I think everybody on all sides of the drilling issue was hoping it wouldn't be nearly this bad.

[Ruby the Liberal]

5. "spill" indicates limited capacity

This is unprecedented.

[CLANG]

12. This has a limited capacity. I think I heard less than 100 million barrels.

It's still not what I'd call a spill though. It's more like severing a main artery in your body. The blood will eventually stop flowing, but not until after you are dead.

[ThomWV]

19. Not always

Think about the "spillway" that powers a waterwheel, the supply of water, which is the the "capacity" of the spillway is assumed to be unlimitd; that and I believe the word "spill" when used as a noun refers to that water.

[liberal N proud]

6. Catastrophe comes to mind

[Shandris]

9. Yah, this is the word I was thinking of too.

Even 'crisis' is FAR too weak for an event of this magnitude. If they can't figure out how to shut off that volcano it's going to flow until the whole damn POCKET they were drilling for is empty (!). Who KNOWS how much oil is really down there? This is a catastrophe that will have economic repercussions for a very long time to come if it isn't brought to heel damn soon. The loss of fish, coastal wildlife, endangered species, flora, not to mention possible water table infection?! The potential is staggering... :cry:

[jus_the_facts]

7. F....U.....B....A.....R....:

FUCKED UP BEYOND ALL RECOGNITION! :argh:

[DesertRat]

8. k&r

[Scuba]

16. when you install a toilet...

...a stop cap is required. Thanks to Michael Feldman of public radio's What Do You Know.

[skeptical cynic]

10. "Spill" is a catch-all term

Regulators and responders think of this sort of event as a "discharge."

In the State of Alaska, the state version of the federal Spill Prevention, Control and Countermeasure Plan (SPCC Plan) is called an "Oil Discharge, Prevention and Contingency Plan," and on paper is more rigorous than federal requirements. How aggressively the ODPCPs are enforced is a matter of who is in office and how industry-friendly the appointed heads of state agencies are.

Louisiana is known in the oil industry to be a soft target where regulation is concerned.

[bridgit]

11. "erupting volcano", check!

:thumbsup:


edit for: erupting volcano

[Quantess]

13. It is a complete disaster.

[flamingdem]

14. horrifying:{ nt

[Cessna Invesco Palin]

15. We need to stop having pointless terminology arguments over every damn thing that happens. n/t

[ThomWV]

20. Yes we do, or at least someone has to

And the reason is that words must have distinct meaning. If they don't then we can be told anything and brought to believe anything my manipulation of our emotions rather than appeal to our reason. So yes, every little word matters.

[Caretha]

17. Spill is definitely not correct

I talked to a good friend of mine who is a specialist in the oil industry (30 + years) for a major oil company. I'll try to explain the best way I can in layman terms what he told me.

He said when you tap into an oil reserve pocket that the pressure underneath is immense. Depending on the size of the pocket and how much gas, oil & etc. there is in the reserve, that there is no way to know how long or how much oil will escape if they can't cap it. He also said it is more like a geyser vs. a 'leak'.


edited for clarity, I hope. :)

[lostnfound]

18. This catastrophe is a good reason why resource industries should be nationalized

Particularly oil. Currently, it's private profit, public risk. Just think: If properly built, oil coming out of this geyser would be all BP's profit. Their contractor screws up, and it all belongs to us..spread all over our beaches, wetlands, fishing grounds, wildlife.
It's not destroying nature just for the shareholder's grandkids, but for all of our grandkids.

[truedelphi]

30. + 1. n/t

[Sparkly]

21. Agree, and I was just saying yesterday I didn't like the word "accident."

"Accident" implies things were functioning until some kind of "oops" occurred.

Stinky said it's still an accident, since it means something happened that wasn't intended. But this was its own event -- I'm not aware of a moment of "oops." So I'm still looking for a better word than "accident."

[gov for sale]

22. agree; just like those who concieved new "drill here drill now" perhaps mistaken

Buying expired milk is a mistake... destroying our coast is a f'n catastrophe! Time to put on your big boy/girl pants and say to the nation we seriously f'ed up on that policy decision... and we are going to fix this catastrophic policy mistake immediately. And if those who delivered this new craptastic drill policy are too cozy with big oil and pride, send them packing and find people who are driven by the peoples interest; as opposed to their own interest and the interest of big oil.

[Kablooie]

23. LA Times did a survey to see if this changed people's minds about drilling.

An overwhelming majority said no. We need to keep drilling.

Bill Kristol today said it doesn't change a thing.
It's an unfortunate accident but we need to keep drilling to supply our oil.

[meow mix]

24. give it awhile..

a lot of shock and dismay is yet to come..

[gov for sale]

25. +1... Big oil will soon discover the difference between Prince William Sound and Gulf Coast

Prediction: lawsuits soon crush BP (and/or their insurers?) and others... The coastline that is about to be destroyed is more than just fishing communities and wetlands; it is also the vacation and retirement homes of our wealthy and influential. This disaster will soon be taking a huge dump on the investments and lifestyles of folks that either know the system, or know folks who know the system... folks that can and will mobilize and put together the funding for multi-year suits. I bet environmental attorneys all over the country have been racking up the wireless minutes ever since the news hit the wire. Big BIG settlements in the coming years.... It's one thing to dump on the environment and working man... it's another thing entirely to dump on communities heavily populated by the wealthy and influential. :eyes: Look for lots lots more press, media, photo ops, documentaries, celeb's, celeb attorneys... I predict the largest circus of the new millennium.

[Mother Smuckers]

26. Yes, I brought that up the other day but it didn't get much notice from me a newbie

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x8254386

[truedelphi]

27. I thought that we were out of oil? Where is all this massive amount of oil

Coming from?

Was it being stockpiled for some reason?

As most people have portrayed and interpreted America's end of "peak oil" to mean not only that we were no longer producing record amounts but that we had no significant oil reserves anywhere, then where the heck is this all coming from?

And why was it not being pulled out of the ground in a manner that would have allowed us to use it?

[Qutzupalotl]

28. This was out of reach for a long time

if I'm understanding the reports correctly. The oil was under a mile of ocean and over five miles of rock -- about the limits of what is now possible to get to. The oil was under tremendous pressure, which might have been a factor in the explosion and certainly is in the gushing. Apparently BP was not prepared to handle that kind of built-up pressure, and had planned to extract it using conventional means, which were not up to the task.

I believe the statements are accurate that say that the world's known cheap, easily extracted oil has already been used up. We're left with things like tar sands and these extremely deep and difficult-to-get-to sites. Right now, I'm mourning the loss of ocean and shore life as well as the loss of a decent stopgap energy source, which would have helped enormously in the transition to cleaner fuels. We're kinda fucked, and of course the environment is even more fucked.

[truedelphi]

29. You say:

I believe the statements are accurate that say that the world's known cheap, easily extracted oil has already been used up. We're left with things like tar sands and these extremely deep and difficult-to-get-to sites. Right now, I'm mourning the loss of ocean and shore life as well as the loss of a decent stopgap energy source, which would have helped enormously in the transition to cleaner fuels. We're kinda fucked, and of course the environment is even more fucked.

And that does sound about right.

And thank you for the pressure theory - that too explains a great deal.

[librechik]

31. like calling waterboarding a splash

same people making up the language, I fear.