BP Oil Spill: pictures speak a thousand words...

...some words which cannot be repeated here.

All photographs courtesy of AP Photo/Charlie Riedel. 

http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2010/06/caught_in_the_oil.html

All photographs courtesy of AP Photo/Charlie Riedel.

http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2010/06/caught_in_the_oil.html

the 36-day anniversary since BP was caught "black-handed"

The British Petroleum oil spill has officially marked its 36th day of continuous oil plaguing the Gulf of Mexico. New estimates confirm that at least 6 million gallons of oil have already spread throughout the gulf, and with no new successful attempts at plugging the leak, BP is on its way to defeating the Exxon Valdez spill of 1989 in which 11 million gallons of oil were spilled off the Alaskan coast.

While BP remains in charge of the cleanup, protesters and critics continue to pressure the Obama administration to take over the operation. BP Chief Officer Doug Settles defended their efforts on Monday, "I don't think anyone else could do better than we are. I know that that's frustrating to hear and our performance, to this point, I wish was better...I don't actually believe anyone could do any better, unfortunately." Many government officials tend to agree, saying that they simply do not have the technology BP has to stop the leak. "They can fire BP and take it over but the truth is, the federal government probably doesn't have the capacity to do that," Republican Sen. Lamar Alexander of Tennessee included last Sunday.

Some of the attempts that have been or are being made to stop the spill.

In Louisiana, Governor Bobby Jindal grows impatient, and prepares to go to prison if federal authorities interfere with their private attempts to stop the oil from reaching inland marshes. Currently, they are attempting to create sand berms, or manmade islands to protect their coast from further damage. However, environmentalists criticize that these berms can do more bad than good and will create additional ecological problems in the future, such as coastal erosion and changes in currents.

In the meantime, local fishermen sit idle unsure of what to do. They wonder if they are allowed to or even can continue with their livelihood, whether they are going to be asked to assist with the implementation of protective booms (as BP said they were going to do), or how long they are going to live off of BP's assistant checks which do not even count for a third of what a normal fishing trip brings in.

As tensions rise, the heat towards BP is even felt on the popular social networking website Twitter. A satirical user account named @BPGlobalPR continues to "tweet" political mockery such as, "The good news: Mermaids are real. The bad news: They are now extinct," and “If we had a dollar for every complaint about this oil spill, it wouldn’t compare to our current fortune. Oil is a lucrative industry!” The fake account now has nearly four times as many followers as the actual BP account @BP_America which posts updates on procedures, video clips, and photos.

BP's next trial to plug the leak is called "top kill" and involves pumping a thick fluid called "drilling mud" directly at the leak. This has never been attempted for underwater leaks before and at 5000 feet below the surface, officials can only hope that this will diminish the flow enough to pump cement into the seal. If this doesn't successfully stop the flow, the next step is to try a "junk shot" which is literally plugging the leak with garbage like ropes and tires in addition to the drilling mud.

Meanwhile, veterinarians provide care to local wildlife and volunteers continue to try to clean up the oil that washes up onto the beaches. But the oil just keeps on coming.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704113504575264243263073602.html?mod=WSJ_hps_LEFTTopStories
http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/2010/0524/BP-oil-spill-pushes-Louisiana-to-desperate-massive-berm-plan
http://news.blogs.cnn.com/2010/05/25/day-36-whats-happening-with-the-gulf-oil-spill/
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/business/7020580.html
http://blogs.wsj.com/digits/2010/05/24/fake-bp-twitter-account-draws-followers-with-oil-spill-satire/http://www.cnn.com/2010/US/05/24/faq.top.kill.bp/index.html?hpt=T1
http://www.cnn.com/2010/POLITICS/05/24/oil.spill.government/index.html?hpt=T1>
http://www.csmonitor.com/From-the-news-wires/2010/0520/BP-admits-more-oil-is-spilling-into-Gulf-than-estimated
http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/fake-bp-twitter-account-mocks-oil-spill-pr/story?id=10737669

drowning in oil

There are a lot of risks when it comes to offshore drilling. From endangering people in a high risk job to endangering the environment if a serious accident occurs, offshore drilling is still legal and on the rise since the Obama administration opened up more shores for drilling two weeks ago.

In this incident specifically, the British Petroleum Company was drilling in the Gulf of Mexico when an improperly capped oil well exploded and killed 11 people last week. Since that day on April 20th, the well continues to feed the ocean roughly 5000 gallons of toxic oil per day. Not only did they lack proper safety precautions but they also don't have a clue how to stop the oil in case of an emergency. As of yesterday the spill has covered nearly 4000 square miles of the ocean's surface.

Offshore drilling would increase domestic production and supporters argue that this would significantly lower the price at the pumps. But at what cost? This could just be another case of one step forward, two steps back. We'd have more gasoline at better prices, but would we be hindering the technological development of hydrogen and electric vehicles while increasing the impact on the environment with carbon emissions and oil spills? There is also no saying how much lower the gas prices would be, if they would change at all.

Perhaps if people had more of an emotional connection to marine life this debate wouldn't be happening. Unfortunately the image of a Gannet drenched in oil doesn't have nearly same poignancy of a puppy or kitten drenched in oil. And certainly it's not poignant enough to turn back time on this issue by disallowing offshore drilling in the first place.

http://www.oilism.com/oil/2007/12/28/the-biggest-oil-spills-in-history/
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/environment/article7113915.ece
http://watchingthewatchers.org/indepth/1357122/obama-decides-go-ahead-offshore
http://fotosa.ru/stock_photo/Balance/p_2913668.jpg