Thread: Gulf oil spill (if it can be called that)

I can't believe they didn't install an acoustic shutoff valve because they deemed it 'too expensive.' Sure, it costs $500,000, but the whole dadgum oil rig costs over $500,000,000! In other words, the cost of the shutoff valve is 0.1% of the cost of the entire oil rig, and yet it could have stopped this spill.

The only thing spewing faster than the oil is the political posturing, the finger pointing and the blame-shifting.

In the end, we can only point the finger at ourselves.

it makes me sick, it makes me want to cry. my mom and i talk about this frequently. the gulf area has so much tourism and an unique ecosystem. what a blackeye for the u.s., big dummies! they should stop all the drilling and go electric. we don't have to go a million miles an hour all the time.
i feel sad for the fisherman and their families. for the wildlife dying, and those to come. tragedy. tragedy.

You have a point there p3375, Blame shifting and finger pointing doesn't really solve anything but makes matters worse. Aquatic life is being threatened and imagine those who depend on fish as their stable food. The poor dolphins, whales, eels, squids, octopuses, sea horses, sharks etc.Geez what a disaster. Imagine all of these animals floating on top of the water and some washed on sea shores. And you what also scares me? we might also go through the same thing and be like that one day if Global warming increases.

Its bad, but its by quite a bit not the worst spill - even in the gulf. Unfortunately all energy sources have some major disadvantage. Lillilavender: electric doesn't solve the problem - you need to generate the electricity. At the moment the practical choices for large scale power generation are: Coal (worst for global warming), Oil (spills and still bad for global warming), Nuclear (weapons proliferation risk), Hydroelectric (need to dam beautiful rivers), Wind (uses a tremendous amount of land - > 1000 of the 400' tall giant windmills for the same power as one normal power plant). Solar is too expensive and very dirty to make the solar cells. Wave, tide, etc can't generate much power unless you cover entire coastlines.

Originally Posted by Tex

I can't believe they didn't install an acoustic shutoff valve because they deemed it 'too expensive.' Sure, it costs $500,000, but the whole dadgum oil rig costs over $500,000,000! In other words, the cost of the shutoff valve is 0.1% of the cost of the entire oil rig, and yet it could have stopped this spill.

All about greed and money. It's sickening.

Originally Posted by sourpuss

All about greed and money. It's sickening.

Unfortunately this entire world is run by greed - the love of money and power.

BP is now planning to replace the valve/fitting...why just now?!!