'This Scares Everybody' Says BP: Top Kill Fails, Imperils Gulf...

[babylonsister]

'This Scares Everybody' Says BP: Top Kill Fails, Imperils Gulf; 'There Are No Solar Spills'

by Juan Cole


British Petroleum's attempt to plug the petroleum gusher a mile beneath the Gulf of Mexico through a "top kill," pumping mud into the oil pipeline in hopes of plugging it up, has failed, according to Chief Operating Officer Doug Suttles.

The LAT quotes him as saying, chillingly, at a news conference Saturday in Robert, LA, "After three full days, we have been unable to overcome the flow from the well, so we now believe it is time to move on to another option . . . This scares everybody - the fact that we can't make this well stop flowing or the fact that we haven't succeeded so far."

Worse, the best estimates of independent scientists for the amount of petroleum being released daily is now north, possibly well north, of 25,000 barrels a day.

To put this rate in perspective, it should be noted that oil companies routinely invest substantial resources to get fields going in places such as the Philippines, Indonesia and Iraqi Kurdistan that pump 7,000 to 15,000 barrels of petroleum a day.

Every 1000 Americans consume roughly 68 barrels a day of petroleum. This statistic means that what is gushing up from the BP well equals the daily amount of oil used by 367,000 Americans per day, that is, by cities the size of St. Louis or Minneapolis. Imagine all the cars and trucks filling up in such major cities every day, and the buildings using heating oil, and imagine taking all that oil and gasoline and dumping it in the Gulf of Mexico. Every day.

more...

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2010/05/30-3

[wtmusic]

1. Nuclear power, electric cars. Enough of this shit. nt

[NNN0LHI]

6. What do we do with the nuclear waste just keep stacking it up?

[kestrel91316]

8. Funny, they never even bother to respond to that persistent question........

[wtmusic]

9. Even if we did "just keep stacking it up"

we'd be better off, doncha think? :eyes:

[NNN0LHI]

11. The propaganda had me believing deep water drilling was safe

So you can't really go by what I think.

What do you think?

And Happy Memorial Day to you.

Don

[wtmusic]

13. Happy Memorial Day to you too, Don

if "happy" is appropriate (I'm happy that there were those willing to sacrifice their lives for what was right, whether they were Americans or not).

I never anticipated a disaster of this magnitude could result from deep-water drilling either. Chernobyl proved that nuclear materials can be deadly, and some of them are deadly for a very long time. But if WHO stats are accurate that 5,500 die every day from the effects of air pollution, and about 500 every day from the effects of global warming, the relative dangers of nuclear energy pale in comparison to those of fossil fuels, even before oil spills are part of the picture.

Highly recommended reading: Storms of my Grandchildren, by NASA climatologist James Hansen. In a nutshell: burning fossil fuels is sentencing the Earth to death by a thousand cuts.

[NNN0LHI]

16. Thank you much

My concern with nuclear is pretty much the same as with deep water drilling. Its safe ... until it isn't.

We sure are in a mess aren't we?

Don

[MadMaddie]

2. I have a question? What is the success rate of the top kill

method in oil spills? I can't remember where I heard or read it but I want to say that the success rate was poor.

So if that's the case, I ask my second question why were Americans and the government so enamoured with a method that has failed many times in the past in more shallow water?

Just askin....

[tavalon]

4. Because they needed to look like they were doing something

They knew from the get go that the only thing that would work would be a relief well and that was going to require two months to do. They knew we wouldn't stand for them doing nothing but working on a relief well, so the rest of this was to look busy.

I figured that out after the top hat fiasco.

[amborin]

5. someone on TOD said TK has less than 1% chance, and then only on land and for largely depleted depos

deposits, w/ vastly less upward pressure; TK had never been done in water; this was largely for show, as you said

[tavalon]

7. I'm quite pissed at BP but I've known for weeks that until a relief well was drilled,

nothing substantial could be done about the leak and I also knew that, for PRs sake, all of these things had to be done, failure be damned. I was worried that one of the faux fixes might make things worse. Benign looking busy when there isn't anything to be done is, well, benign. Doing something that makes things worse is bad.

[MadMaddie]

17. I had a feeling that was the case.

[Kablooie]

3. I'm beginning to get the feeling that we are at a true turning point.

I always knew it would take a horrible disaster to turn the world around and this one may be it.
People will not change because of a potential disaster, they only change after the disaster has hit.

I sure hope this will do it. We need a major rethink of our society. If America manages to actually
change things, the rest of the world will begin to follow. Heck, most of the rest of the world seems
like they've been wanting to go a new direction for some time now.

We aren't there yet but the disaster of this thing is only beginning. The horrific effects,
both economic and physical will grow for months -- or years -- or possibly even decades.

The GOP had better get out of the way or they will be run over.

[PurityOfEssence]

10. That means it's more than a million gallons a day

Instinct says that both sides will avoid this issue, knowing that it's a non-winner.

This is horrible. It's a microcosm of the global warming peril: this is a HUGE life altering calamity, involving untold repercussions throughout our environment, yet people are largely unaware or offhanded about it. Once again, it's a disturbing moment when watching one's fellow man.

I find it nauseating and vulgar to discuss the economic results of this, since the crime against our fellow species and our own is so horrendous, but it needs to be said: this will cause widespread economic ruin as well.

It would be nice to think that the Republicans could be tagged with this and forced to suffer for the flippant and cocksure deregulation and worshiping of corporations, but they won't. Hopefully, some blowhards will say snotty and minimizing things like Barbour and Limbaugh have and they'll pay for them when the obvious and undeniable reality washes ashore, but this is small comfort.

May your hopes be fulfilled and we somehow grow up as a people about this, but my heart is sick right now, and I see little good to come from this.

[misanthrope]

15. If history is any indicator...

...this will change nothing.

[cwydro]

12. I just want to cry.

An equivalent amount of tears...and still it won't be enough.

[City Lights]

14. I feel sick...

:puke: :-( :cry: