Gulf Coast officials want helpers, but no amount of helpers can undo the damage

[SoCalDem]

there are just some events that cannot be undone.

A person can be resuscitated in some circumstances, but at a point, they are just dead, and no amount of CPR will revive them.. This is the same case as the oil disaster. It's DONE, and all the mops & bags of hair & all the people who go there to wash birds cannot undo the damage or clean up the mess.

There's the obligatory woulda-coulda-shoulda, but in the end, it just is what it is. A super rich company who could do what it wanted , did what it wanted, and everyone on the receiving end of the tides just has to accept what comes their way.

ANY location on a coast with tides, is always vulnerable to what goes on at sea. If it's a ship that breaks up, and fouls the coast, it's a finite incident, and has an end to it, even if some damage is long lasting, but when you are wandering around poking holes into the earth's crust, miles down, sooner or later a massive mess is bound to happen.

I am so very sad for the people there and the innocent wildlife, but I am also upset at the people (Carville comes to mind) who rush to the microphones and lambaste "the government" for not doing enough.. In fact FORMER administrations did TOO much coddling and acquiescing to Big Oil, and they did too LITTLE when it cam to making sure the public was a safe as it could have been.

Short of moving the fishermen somewhere else and abandoning the marshland to let mother nature handle it, I don't really see what else can be done. Oil pollutes and is toxic, and it sticks around for a very long time, and what's still "out there" WILL be coming in. You cannot stop the tides..

Decades after the Valdez, there is still oil just under those "cleaned" rocks, and under the sand. The lucky wildlife moved elsewhere... the unlucky ones died.

The same will happen in Louisiana and possibly Mississippi , Alabama and Florida...no matter how many people come there to help.

There IS NO WAY to "handle" a disaster like this. If Obama came on tv daily, hopping mad and cursing, it would not change things.. If he came on tv and cried every day.. If he went there and washed pelicans. it would not change anything.

The damage was done when BP screwed up...NO the bigger damage was done when Cheney gave the Oilies carte blanche to do what they wanted, where they wanted and when they wanted.

These companies have contracts and they have waivers given them by our government, and no one in Louisiana cared much about that BEFORE the screw up. Of course now everyone cares, but it's too late.

Frustration, anxiety and even despair are companions to the disaster, but those feelings do not change anything.

Louisianans will have to live with the mess, as best they can, and set out to make sure their next politicians are better than the ones they have now, but the oil will still linger, no matter what they do.

This was totally "preventable" and yet was also totally predictable.

The only way to prevent it, is to NOT ALLOW offshore drilling AT ALL.. but if you do, there is no way to NOT have oil disasters..someday..

[NNN0LHI]

1. We need to be thankful this didn't happen where millions of humans depended on the water to live on

Republicans were really pushing to drill for oil in the Great Lakes. Imagine some kooks wanting to drill for oil under your source of drinking water for a minute.

Thanking my lucky stars that we beat the bastards back on that one so far. Its a never ending battle though.

This is really bad. But it could have been a lot worse if we had let big oil have there way up here.

Don

[Angry Dragon]

4. I could be way off here but

I think there are millions of humans that depend on the water that will be and is being destroyed in the Gulf.

People are losing their livelihood, health issues as yet to be determined how great, less food supply equals higher costs for everyone, strain on safety nets, the list goes on and on all through the country. This murder of part of the Gulf of Mexico effects everyone and we will never know the true cost of this.

People forget that everything on this planet is inter-connected. Something happens on the other side of the world has an effect on all living creatures, and not just humans. The effect is great or small, but an effect just the same.

Drinking water is just a part of the equation. You kill an eco-system in the gulf, how much does that effect the food chain in all bodies of water?? No one knows and we will not find out until there are no more fish in the seas.

[maryf]

7. +1 nt

[dixiegrrrrl]

2. And the same stupid thinking is behind the nuclear plants, too.

Nothing is ever a problem.... until it becomes a problem.

[KharmaTrain]

3. I Wish The Damage Was Done...

The oil still gushes...and this mess could spread far wider. We're in truly unchartered waters...the damage won't be truly understood until the flow is capped and a real clean-up and adjustment can begin.

Right now there's more emotion than clear thinking as the anger continues to build. It's directed in many directions as residents along the Gulf Coast watch, helplessly, as this slow motion disaster creeps closer and pollutes their lives. The uncertainty is as much a source of frustration as the danger of such a catastrophe was always known but no one took the possibility seriously until the oil started to gush.

The short-term damage is starting to add up...and its not certain how much will endure or for how long. In time the Gulf will recover and so should the eco-system, but those who rely on fishing will face years of uncertainty; especially after the cameras go off and the corporates drag settlements out in the courts.

The basic issue is this country's on-going addiction to oil...and how its been a source of so much destruction in our lifetimes. People haven't connected the two...maybe this disaster will start to drive the point home. Maybe, just maybe, it will turn the tide and put pressure on the politicians to create incentives for alternative energy and break its own addiction to big oil money.

Cheers...

[cwydro]

5. I don't think we have seen even a fraction of the damage yet,

you are right.

This is a horror and a crime.

As we post, that oil keeps gushing...

[BeFree]

6. Eh?

Anything to protect Obama, eh?

We'll sell the gulf and all it's dependents as long as Obama stays clean?

Obama has been in government for what, 8 years? How 'bout Biden and all the others?

The GOVERNMENT failed.

The GOVERNMENT failed to do everything it could to keep BP from causing this disaster.

The GOVERNMENT allowed BP to bank an extra few minutes of profit by allowing BP to do a rush job while drilling.

Who the fuck are we supposed to get mad at, if not the BP GOVERNMENT that failed?

Don't offer me empty platitudes, offer me solutions.

You might start here: Mitigation.