Oil Spill my rear end, Let's call it what it is ....

[SargeUNN]

I keep hearing Spill and looking at the situation that exist with a sense of amazement. It is at least a leak not a spill. If your child knocks over a glass of water it is a spill, if your water pipe has a hole in it then it is a leak. The big difference: Spill has a limited amount to come out, a leak has a continuing flow. I suspect that BP called it a spill so everyone jumps on the word without thought and of course BP realizes that a spill is much less a problem than a leak or gusher. So I urge everyone to call it what it is and stop using the word spill unless you use leak and spill at least. What you think?

[SidDithers]

1. They called it a spill because that's what everyone in the industry calls it...nt

Sid

[SargeUNN]

2. yeah because it is less threatening

Think about it, which would you rather face, your bottle of water spilling or your water pipe leaking. Naturally the spill is only a limited amount you can clean up but a water pipe leaking you have a much larger issue. We are hearing spill because it gives an impression that is less threatening and even when you know it is threatening as I do, it still leads you to a false feeling it isn't as bad as thought.

[SidDithers]

14. You can call it an oil armageddon if you want...

but it won't change the fact that it will go down in history as one of the the Gulf's worst oil spills.

Sid

[Cetacea]

3. Generally when a tanker goes down, yes.

This "spill' calls for a new designation.

[SidDithers]

17. Ixtoc 1 was a blowout that gushed 140 million gallons into the Gulf of Mexico...

It had a blown wellhead, just like Deepwater Horizon. It's still called an oil spill. (second biggest oil spill in history, btw)

Frame the debate any way you want, but the term generally accepted by both the oil industry and the people responsible for cleaning up their messes, for an unintentional release is spill. Call it an enormously huge fucking potentially never-ending oil spill, if you want.

Sid

[havocmom]

4. The industry has framed the discussion with euphemisms

That media lets them get away with mislabeling is unconscionable, but not unexpected.

[Subdivisions]

5. I think it came from 'Spill, baby, spill!' Not as effective (or lyrical) as

"Leak, baby, leak!"

[Cetacea]

6. "Crippled " nuclear plant; "wounded" war vessel "limped" home

etc...

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

7. This is very, very important. Let's frame the debate. It's an oil holocaust.

Speaking truth to power.

[SPedigrees]

8. I call it a gusher. nt

[Warpy]

9. I've been using "blowout," because that's what it is.

They underestimated the pressure down there and their cheap blowout protection system failed.

"Leak" is when you've got a hole in the tank. "Spill" is when you lose the whole tank through a bigger hole.

This is a blowout.

[SargeUNN]

10. good term

I agree that is much more factual. Thanks

[spanone]

11. how about 'environmental disaster'?

[elocs]

12. I think most people understand this "spill" is not synonymous with spilling a glass of water.

So I'm not upset with the use of the word "spill".

[SargeUNN]

18. sure and remember Vietnam was not a war but Police Action

Certainly a police action generates a different feeling than War right? The spill word just gives people a sense of it isn't as bad as it is, and even those who know better like myself, a native of the area in the crisis, have to remind myself not to let the word spill give me that false sense. Words matter and if we use less impact words even those who realize it have to remind themselves not to be sucked into the false feeling a lower impact word has. The purpose of such words is designed to do just that and don't think that isn't lost to BP.

[elocs]

19. The last line of your OP: "What you think?" You asked, I answered.

That's what I think and I'm sticking to it. I'm not bent out of shape about the use of the word "spill" and I still content that most people understand what it is all about. I think Americans understand how bad it is.

Splitting hairs over the use of the word "spill" is the least of the problems with this spill.

[SidDithers]

20. If every war in history had been called a police action prior to Vietnam...

you might have a point. But then "police action" would have the same connotation as war does today.

But every unintentional oil release, including ones much worse than Deepwater Horizon, has been called an oil spill prior to now.

"Milk spill" might be an innocuous term. "Oil spill" definately isn't.

Sid

[Obamanaut]

28. Recall the Korean conflict was a police action also. Call them what

you will - death, dismemberment, mayhem, and destruction are the result.

[ashling]

13. "Leak?" Its a goddamn GUSHER!

[Octafish]

22. What ashling said.

+ 25,000 barrels a day.

[PCIntern]

15. It is not a leak...

it is a potential volcano of terrifyingly thick petrochemical which has been terrifyingly unleashed upon the sea, upon the shores, upon the atmosphere, upon the plants and animals thereof, and thus, upon mankind.

[Scuba]

16. Cheney's Chernobyl

[janx]

21. Excellent screen name. Here's a video you might enjoy:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=385x462903

[Scuba]

25. Thanks. I've dived throughout the Carib. and I'm heartbroken by this disaster.

[The_Commonist]

23. "It's not leaking, it's overflowing!"

[TexasObserver]

24. It's a well blow out that has created a gusher of oil in the sea.

It is a gusher, and should be called an oil gusher at the bottom of the gulf, because that is what it is. A spill is typically the result of a collision of seagoing vessels, with petroleum lost in the process, or it results from such a vessel running aground, as with the Valdez. It is a term for spillage from a collision, not a descriptor for crude coming out of the sea floor into the ocean.

I like your idea of correcting people with "it's not a spill, it's a gusher that has been running nonstop for weeks." If you had a toilet spewing sewage into the house nonstop for weeks, you wouldn't say "I have a spill." You'd day "OMG, there's sewage spewing nonstop into my house!"

[flyarm]

26. BP and our entire government are in major cover up mode..its all the way they phrase it don'tcha

know..they are all fucking scum bags!

And they are killing the Gulf of Mexico and quite possibly the Gulf Stream next,The Florida Keys and all the way up the Atlantic Ocean!

They are keeping a tight lid on the media ..count on that!

From someone who lives on the Gulf..

[Kablooie]

27. Call it an oil spew instead.