BP Oil Leak

[cim]

Originally Posted by Fat Norid

And I'm sure you'll gladly tell me all there is to know about finding information, right?

I don't get your point. Good research practices are vital skills to have no matter what you do. Intentionally doing less than rigorous research is intellectually dishonest.

So the graph is a bit outdated. So what.

Well, since the hole in the ground keeps spewing out oil, unlike the other spills, since then it's passed every other oil spill on your map. So, uh, yeah, it's pretty bad.

[Precognition]

Originally Posted by Fat Alan

For the record I live in an area that is affected by it and its really not the bad. It SEEMS bad and yeah the beaches are fucked and fish are gonna die and what not. But there are less tourists, so driving is a lot easier and there are less bad drivers.

Yeah its gonna take some time to clean it up, but its a big operation. I actually don't blame BP for this. I mean, oil spills happen all the fucking time. Its not the first time. At least they are trying to do it themselves and accept full responsibility for it. I commend them for that. Every cloud has a silver lining, for future oil spills we will know pretty much what to do thanks to this one. Its not like its the first time we have had an oil spill, it wont be the last, so just take accept that and try to do what you can.

tl;dr version:
i dont mind the oil spill it just means less tourists
its not BP's fault they are taking responsibility and trying to fix it
this oil spill will help out for future oil spills as far as solutions

edit: also yeah how did it take this long to make a thread about it, its been going on for like 2 months? O__O;;

lololol, you realize that lack of tourism is bad for an economy?

So fish are dying and the eco-system is fucked and you're just glad you have more mobility.

[Nolie]

This whole mess is bullshit and I'm starting to get the idea that bp is leaving the cap partially open and fumbling around closing it so they can collect all the oil before there's a drilling ban on this area till it recovers.

[Norid]

Originally Posted by Fat Chris is me

I don't get your point. Good research practices are vital skills to have no matter what you do. Intentionally doing less than rigorous research is intellectually dishonest.

followed by...

Well, since the hole in the ground keeps spewing out oil, unlike the other spills, since then it's passed every other oil spill on your map. So, uh, yeah, it's pretty bad.

irony at its finest.
It *just* passed the exxon spill, has *not* passed the ixtoc spill, and is nowhere close to the gulf war spill.

but let's stop. this is pointless arguing over a point I really didn't care for.

Interesting note,
do you guys know that a proposition is being thrown around to use a nuclear warhead to seal off the leak? It's not as crude as just dropping a nuke into the gulf of mexico, but yea. It hasn't gathered much steam yet, but as more and more containment plans are failing, it seems it may be the inevitable choice.

[Vineon]

[MrIndigo]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2AAa0gd7ClM

BP Spills the Coffee.

[Alan]

Originally Posted by Fat Precognition

lololol, you realize that lack of tourism is bad for an economy?

So fish are dying and the eco-system is fucked and you're just glad you have more mobility.

Yeah, I mean we can survive without the tourism, they just "help". And I really don't think you know how annoying it is to take 45 minutes to get a job that is 15 minutes away. ~__~

Also the eco-system will recover in time, its not the fucking apocolypse.

[Precognition]

Originally Posted by Fat Alan

Yeah, I mean we can survive without the tourism, they just "help". And I really don't think you know how annoying it is to take 45 minutes to get a job that is 15 minutes away. ~__~

Also the eco-system will recover in time, its not the fucking apocolypse.

It's just funny because most people have a mindset like yours.

[Firestorm]

Originally Posted by Fat Precognition

It's just funny because most people have a mindset like yours.

I'd say "frightening" or "disappointing" over funny really.

[Buffalo_Wings]

Coming from a family that depends on the share price of BP, this is pretty horrible. My (left wing) parents are both furious at Obama, and my dad was supporting England in the world cup for the first time ever which is pretty hilarious

[Hipmonlee]

Also how much of your economy involves fishing?

Have a nice day.

[cim]

Originally Posted by Fat Norid

irony at its finest.
It *just* passed the exxon spill, has *not* passed the ixtoc spill, and is nowhere close to the gulf war spill.

I was hoping you'd catch that. :)

It's the biggest American spill, now. Forgot to type that then decided to leave it to see if someone would do the research.

Still, oil, kinda fucking terrible. BP should be ashamed, not... whatever they are now.

[Lelouch]

I haven't being paying attention to petty human concerns of late, but assuming I'm right in believing that this oil spill was an accident - that BP didn't intentionally pour profit into the sea - why does there need to be any "blame"? Why should BP be punished for an accident?

If you must "blame" someone, why not someone more relevant to the accident? For example, the captain of the ship if the accident came from faulty orders. The navigator if he made a mistake. The person in charge of storing barrels if he didn't do it properly.

[Viashino_wizard]

I think you should know something about the actual spill before you comment on it.

[Lelouch]

Unless BP did in fact pour oil into the sea deliberately, there's no need.

[Tsunami]

Their oil rig had over 700 violations. I'm pretty sure BP is to blame.

[Lelouch]

"BP" is convenient shorthand for a massive company consisting of thousands of people. When I say you should blame people more relevant, I mean the people involved in the particular leaking facility. Not BP, an intangible entity, and not its CEO.

[billymills]

Why does there need to be 'blame.'

Clean the shit up, fix the problem.

Since they're the only ones who benefit from repairing the rig, then they should pay the brunt of the costs. (If it's cost effective to repair it.)

If it's not worth the time to repair it, I certainly wouldn't allow you to invest in my country/area/whatever if you're just going to jump ship in case of a disaster.

All this leads to is BP should fix the problem. Why the fuck does it matter if they purposefully dumped it?

[Phantom_IV]

Okay, it's ridiculous to speculate that BP intentionally caused the spill or is keeping the well open/delaying to collect the oil. They're barely collecting any and they're paying for the clean-up of all of it, and I assure you it's much more expensive to clean up than to harvest. Not to mention I could see them taking a massive fine and having to reimburse a huge number of people and defend themselves from ongoing lawsuits for YEARS to come.

[cim]

Originally Posted by Fat Phantom_IV

Okay, it's ridiculous to speculate that BP intentionally caused the spill or is keeping the well open/delaying to collect the oil. They're barely collecting any and they're paying for the clean-up of all of it, and I assure you it's much more expensive to clean up than to harvest. Not to mention I could see them taking a massive fine and having to reimburse a huge number of people and defend themselves from ongoing lawsuits for YEARS to come.

Who accused BP of that?

I think it is completely fair to accuse BP of taking unnecessary risks, however.

[MetalGearSamus]

Well, I just came across this and thought I'd add it to the discussion:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/13/op...iedman.html?hp

Other then that,

Originally Posted by Fat bleed4m3

Well I don't know all about the British aspect of this, but in my opinion the real problem here is our reliance on oil. As long as we are so dependent upon oil, instances like these will keep happening.

I would hope that politicians would take events like this as an opportunity to promote alternative fuel, especially wind energy.

But that's just me.

This is pretty much my opinion on it, although I think nuclear is a more plausible alternative right now.

[MrIndigo]

Nuclear fission is the only power source that can possibly replace carbon fuels. All the 'green' power sources are not efficient enough on one scale or another (whether it's reliability, space, or time). Fission's also politically unviable, because the biproducts are useful for making nuclear weapons; although there are processes to make the leftovers essentially harmless, they are more expensive than simply selling it to someone who is less scrupulous so economically it's unlikely to last.

Hopefully, ITER will work and then we can all get clean fusion power.

[Hipmonlee]

Also uranium needs to be strip mined, which isnt really ideal..

Also one thing I thought of about the global warming debate. If all of this oil had not been pumped into the sea, almost all of it would have been burnt. IE almost all of it would have been pumped straight into the atmosphere.

Consider that that is happening to all of the oil coming out of all of the wells in all of the world.

That is one hell of a lot of carbon..

Have a nice day.

[Phantom_IV]

Who accused BP of that?

This whole mess is bullshit and I'm starting to get the idea that bp is leaving the cap partially open and fumbling around closing it so they can collect all the oil before there's a drilling ban on this area till it recovers.

Shoulda quoted in my response. I'd thought there was a second post implying such, but I was mistaken.

[foxy_eisenhower]

Form a very informed perspective, we're pretty much screwed as far as the transition from oil goes.
By British Petroleum’s own 2008 estimates, we will completely drain the world’s oil deposits in 42 years. (based on the current global rate of consumption and the estimates for the usable global oil reserves, predicting future oil finds and improvements in refinement technology)
More interesting statistics: based on the amount of oil reserves in the region and the regional rate of production, North America would last 14.8 years, compared to 78.6 for Middle East
If only forty more years of oil by the absolute most optimistic estimates (at our 2008 rates of production) isn't enough to scare you, keep in mind that's only when we refine our very last drop. Once the production of oil peaks and starts declining rapidly as reserves become more scarce, the effect on the civilized world will be catastrophic. That's in about 15-20 years, again by very optimistic estimates. In conclusion, unless we become extremely efficient with what we have left and get our act together about finding alternative sources of energy, we're going to run out of oil very quickly.
But that's where we run into MORE problems! China and India are just becoming industrialized, so they need oil prices low to stimulate growth, meaning their governments are willing to pay subsidies to get more oil at the same prices. The end result is that they are using more of the world's remaining oil up at an INCREASING rate, even past peak oil, making it really damn difficult for us to increase our efficiency enough to noticeably extend our reserves. This only makes the most difficult problem of all even more ridiculous to solve, finding something to replace oil.
I am not even joking here, every single alternative source of energy has their own set of massive problems. We're going to be forced into the least damaging option, a chain of lesser evils until we're right back to friggin coal. If anyone wants to know what's wrong with their favorite alternative fuel, ask me, because there is always something wrong with it. I'll go over what is currently the most promising idea, and then what someone brought up earlier, nuclear power.
A promising source of alternative oil is converting the abundant Canadian tar sands into crude. However, obtaining oil in this way almost requires more energy, through natural gas, than it the small amount of oil it yields. The processes required also release massive amounts of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere and pollute the oceans and other sources of water directly with nasty chemicals. Real bad ones. Alternative sources are almost always more expensive and energy extensive to produce than crude oil, even with diminishing supply, so there is basically no immediate incentive to invest in them. Once we hit peak Oil, these methods to extend the reserves of our oil will become much more attractive however, but these are all just stalling tactics that come at the cost of our environment's health. Which leads me into my last point...
There are no alternatives to replace oil as a source of power. Nuclear power has political barriers, AND only produces electricity, which introduces the problem that all of our fully electric cars suck. They just suck. Watch "Who Killed the Electric Car" for more info on that mess. America, with our long commuting distances, can't survive on electric cars without amazing advances in technology which also aren't happening. Hydrogen Fuel Cells? Very expensive, and producing the clean-burning fuel releases 2/3 of the pollution of crude. But wait, we have an abundant, cheap resource - Coal! Or not. You need a completely retarded amount of coal to produce one barrel of oil, and it releases well over 20 times the CO2 crude does along with tons of other nasty chemicals, straight into the atmosphere. Biofuels? Remember those? Ethanol runs in diesel engines, we don't even have to convert it! But we already shot down that idea, once we discovered the sheer amount of corn we would have to grow to even meet half of the current oil usage wouldn't leave us room to grow food.
The most optimistic view of the situation we’ve put ourselves in is that by supporting gradual scientific growth we may eventually produce an unexpected solution that replaces oil and solves everything. There is no easy solution to this.

Hipmonlee, your worry about extra Carbon in the air happens to be directly in conflict with the 90's documentary The Greening of Earth, which supports the idea that increased CO2 will make plants grow or some other misrepresented pseudoscience bullshit. However, their main idea, that CO2 isn't bad enough to stop using crude oil, will only get more popular as we run out of an easily available supply. I personally think Global Warming, although still important, is going to be put to the side for a while to deal with this crisis.

Oh yeah BP spilling that oil. We're screwed faster. Everybody is wasting time pointing fingers at leaders for pointing fingers at companies for pointing fingers at themselves as we very, very quickly run out of what oil we have left.