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MisterE
Social climber
Across Town From Easy Street
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Topic Author's Original Post - Apr 30, 2010 - 11:32am PT
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Things are looking pretty grim....
link to article
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Norwegian
Trad climber
Placerville, California
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Apr 30, 2010 - 11:34am PT
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it's my fault.
for driving.
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hoipolloi
climber
A friends backyard with the neighbors wifi
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Apr 30, 2010 - 11:49am PT
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From another article:
Cade Thomas, a fishing guide in Venice, worried that his livelihood will be destroyed. He said he did not know whether to blame the Coast Guard, the federal government or oil company BP.
“They lied to us. They came out and said it was leaking 1,000 barrels when I think they knew it was more. And they weren’t proactive,” he said. “As soon as it blew up, they should have started wrapping it with booms.”
I don't think you can say "I drive a car, its my fault," but this is one of those things that makes you wonder why, when oil companies record the profits they do, they have not reinvested some of that money to figure out how to quickly deal with a spill like this.
The whole thing is just hard to read about, it's so sad, and it is going to be so devastating by the time it is all done...
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Reeotch
Trad climber
Kayenta, AZ
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Apr 30, 2010 - 12:20pm PT
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Yet another wake-up call.
Will we just hit the snooze button again?
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apogee
climber
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Apr 30, 2010 - 12:44pm PT
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The irony of the timing of this disaster is astounding- Obama steps out of his supposed lefty ideology and supports the idea of domestic drilling, and within a couple of weeks a Exxon-Valdez level environmental disaster happens. The GOP's 'Drill, Baby, Drill' voices have been pretty quiet lately...
This is truly a tragedy, but as the US shifts to other sources of power, we are still going to use fossil fuels during the transition. Importing 4/5 of our oil from other places in the world where we are 'insulated' from the environmental impacts that extraction creates just seems incredibly hypocritical and irresponsible. If we're gonna use oil, we should be getting it from our own backyards first, while figuring out less impactful energy sources, and emphasizing efficiencies. Sad as this disaster is, maybe it will create a tangible example of the impacts of our choices for fossil fuels. You can bet that if this same disaster happened in the Middle East somwhere, it would have been virtually ignored.
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Chaz
Trad climber
greater Boss Angeles area
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Apr 30, 2010 - 12:44pm PT
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Beats going to war for it, I guess.
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healyje
Trad climber
Portland, Oregon
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Apr 30, 2010 - 02:49pm PT
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...will pay...
As if anyone paying anything makes a difference to the damage done. But you have to love the timing, just as Obama signs off on offshore drilling. Once this one sinks in just think about how excited all the midatlantic and southern states are going to be about drilling off their shores; governors will be rushing to authorize it off their beaches.
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Crillz
Trad climber
Seattle, WA
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Apr 30, 2010 - 02:56pm PT
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My arss they'll pay.
Wasn't one estimate close to $1 billion for total clean up?
Haha. Yeah right. BP shelling out that dough. Paleeeze.
Some little piss-ant subsidiary or something will spend a few mil and then go out of business.
It's not "will" pay, it's we'll pay.
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hb81
climber
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Apr 30, 2010 - 03:09pm PT
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this is one of those things that makes you wonder why, when oil companies record the profits they do, they have not reinvested some of that money to figure out how to quickly deal with a spill like this.
Because they don't give a f*ck. They may make it look like they really care about such things and do everything to prevent them but in reality they don't. I work as a contractor for Shell, BP, Exxon and others and they're all the same. In the end all they are interested in is $$$$$$.
Maybe this catastrophe will cost them quite a bit but for them it's probably just a drop in the ocean. (sorry for the bad pun)
One thing about the article:
He estimates that the concentration of these asphaltic components could be as high as 50 percent in this oil spill, while in other types of crude oil it might be as low as 1 or 2 percent.
"That is bad, bad news, because this oil is going to be very slow to degrade," Overton said today.
I'm not too sure whether this is really a bad thing. If it really contains 50% asphaltenes then it might just get solid and sink to the bottom and sit there forever doing nothing. Might do less damage there than on the shore.
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High Fructose Corn Spirit
Gym climber
Full Silos of Iowa
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Apr 30, 2010 - 03:17pm PT
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This morning's news is that Obama's now halted the lift on the offshore drilling. Shows you how capricious political leadership is in America.
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Mighty Hiker
climber
Vancouver, B.C.
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Apr 30, 2010 - 09:01pm PT
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It sounds like we're just seeing the start of a disaster. One which incidentally underscores the need for federal regulation (and enforcement) of standards in this area, and federal resources to address the disaster. Having been (clumsily) rescued by federal intervention after hurricane Katrina in 2005, red-state Republican governor Bobby Jindal may have to watch his anti-government rhetoric for a while. As Louisiana is one of the poorest states, and relies on federal funds, you'd think it was something he didn't need to be reminded of.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/01/us/01gulf.html?hp
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apogee
climber
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Apr 30, 2010 - 09:06pm PT
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"It sounds like we're just seeing the start of a disaster."
Yes, it does- and I'm somewhat surprised it hasn't generated any discussion here on ST up to this point. The spill is now ~8 days old- this crowd is usually much more reactive to such environmental disasters. Maybe 'cuz there isn't any good climbing in the Gulf???
Politically, the delayed governmental response has resulted in talk about this event becoming 'Obama's Katrina'. There might be some fairness in that, too.
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MisterE
Social climber
Across Town From Easy Street
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Topic Author's Reply - Apr 30, 2010 - 09:11pm PT
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That coastline, all those delicate symbiotic relationships in the swamps, bayous, etc. Oh my...4.2 million gallons? Still only 1/3 of the Valdez. But such a less rugged area, it is heart-breaking already.
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couchmaster
climber
pdx
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Apr 30, 2010 - 09:13pm PT
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That's sad as hell. Now begins the speculation and crazyness.
Hey Klimmer! Did you see this?
"May 1, 2010
US Orders Blackout Over North Korean Torpedoing Of Gulf Of Mexico Oil Rig
By: Sorcha Faal, and as reported to her Western Subscribers
A grim report circulating in the Kremlin today written by Russia’s Northern Fleet is reporting that the United States has ordered a complete media blackout over North Korea’s torpedoing of the giant Deepwater Horizon oil platform owned by the World’s largest offshore drilling contractor Transocean that was built and financed by South Korea’s Hyundai Heavy Industries Co. Ltd., that has caused great loss of life, untold billions in economic damage to the South Korean economy, and an environmental catastrophe to the United States.
Most important to understand about this latest attack by North Korea against its South Korean enemy is that under the existing “laws of war” it was a permissible action as they remain in a state of war against each other due to South Korea’s refusal to sign the 1953 Armistice ending the Korean War.
To the attack itself, these reports continue, the North Korean “cargo vessel” Dai Hong Dan believed to be staffed by 17th Sniper Corps “suicide” troops left Cuba’s Empresa Terminales Mambisas de La Habana (Port of Havana) on April 18th whereupon it “severely deviated” from its intended course for Venezuela’s Puerto Cabello bringing it to within 209 kilometers (130 miles) of the Deepwater Horizon oil platform which was located 80 kilometers (50 miles) off the coast of the US State of Louisiana where it launched an SSC Sang-o Class Mini Submarine (Yugo class) estimated to have an operational range of 321 kilometers (200 miles).
On the night of April 20th the North Korean Mini Submarine manned by these “suicidal” 17th Sniper Corps soldiers attacked the Deepwater Horizon with what are believed to be 2 incendiary torpedoes causing a massive explosion and resulting in 11 workers on this giant oil rig being killed outright. Barely 48 hours later, on April 22nd , this North Korean Mini Submarine committed its final atrocity by exploding itself directly beneath the Deepwater Horizon causing this $1 Billion oil rig to sink beneath the seas and marking 2010’s celebration of Earth Day with one of the largest environmental catastrophes our World has ever seen.
To the reason for North Korea attacking the Deepwater Horizon, these reports say, was to present US President Obama with an “impossible dilemma” prior to the opening of the United Nations Review Conference of the Parties to the Treat on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) set to begin May 3rd in New York.
This “impossible dilemma” facing Obama is indeed real as the decision he is faced with is either to allow the continuation of this massive oil leak catastrophe to continue for months, or immediately stop it by the only known and proven means possible, the detonation of a thermonuclear device.
Russian Navy atomic experts in these reports state that should Obama choose the “nuclear option” the most viable weapon at his disposal is the United States B83 (Mk-83) strategic thermonuclear bomb having a variable yield (Low Kiloton Range to 1,200 Kilotons) which with its 12 foot length and 18 inch diameter, and weighing just over 2,400 pounds, is readily able to be deployed and detonated by a remote controlled mini-sub.
Should Obama choose the “nuclear option” it appears that he would be supported by the International Court of Justice who on July 8, 1996 issued an advisory opinion on the use of nuclear weapons stating that they could not conclude definitively on these weapons use in “extreme circumstances” or “self defense”.
On the other hand, if Obama chooses the “nuclear option” it would leave the UN’s nuclear conference in shambles with every Nation in the World having oil rigs off their coasts demanding an equal right to atomic weapons to protect their environment from catastrophes too, including Iran.
To whatever decision Obama makes it remains a fact that with each passing hour this environmental catastrophe grows worse. And even though Obama has ordered military SWAT teams to protect other oil rigs in the Gulf of Mexico from any further attack, and further ordered that all drilling in the Gulf of Mexico be immediately stopped, this massive oil spill has already reached the shores of America and with high waves and more bad weather forecast the likelihood of it being stopped from destroying thousands of miles of US coastland and wildlife appears unstoppable.
And not just to the environmental catastrophe that is unfolding the only devastation to be wrecked upon the United States and South Korea by this North Korean attack as the economic liabilities associated with this disaster are estimated by these Russian reports to be between $500 Billion to $1.5 Trillion, and which only a declaration of this disaster being an “act of war” would free some the World’s largest corporations from bankruptcy.
Important to note too in all of these events was that this was the second attack by North Korea on its South Korean enemy, and US ally, in a month as we had reported on in our March 28th report titled “Obama Orders ‘Immediate Stand-down’ After Deadly North Korean Attack” and which to date neither the Americans or South Korea have retaliated for and giving one senior North Korean party leader the courage to openly state that the North Korean military took “gratifying revenge” on South Korea.
And for those believing that things couldn’t get worse, they couldn’t be more mistaken as new reports coming from Japanese military sources are stating that North Korea is preparing for new launches of its 1,300 kilometer (807 miles) intermediate range ballistic “Rodong” missile which Russian Space Forces experts state is able to “deploy and detonate” an atomic electromagnetic pulse (EMP) device, and which if detonated high in the atmosphere could effectively destroy the American economy for years, if not decades, to come.
© May 1, 2010 EU and US all rights reserved
[Ed. Note: Western governments and their intelligence services actively campaign against the information found in these reports so as not to alarm their citizens about the many catastrophic Earth changes and events to come, a stance that the Sisters of Sorcha Faal strongly disagrees with in believing that it is every human beings right to know the truth. Due to our missions conflicts with that of those governments, the responses of their ‘agents’ against us has been a longstanding misinformation/misdirection campaign designed to discredit and which is addressed in the report “Who Is Sorcha Faal?”.]"
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Toker Villain
Big Wall climber
Toquerville, Utah
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Apr 30, 2010 - 09:20pm PT
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What is the best way to fasten a foil hat?
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HighDesertDJ
Trad climber
Arid-zona
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Apr 30, 2010 - 09:32pm PT
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SPILL BABY SPILL
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MisterE
Social climber
Across Town From Easy Street
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Topic Author's Reply - Apr 30, 2010 - 11:35pm PT
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LOL Couch - good one!
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couchmaster
climber
pdx
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...but the event will be remembered long after for the ensuing run on shrimp which caused shrimp prices to skyrocket and supermarket frozen shrimp shelves to be emptied nationwide based strictly on internet rumors started on a little known climbing web site which detailed a North Korean plot of destroying our shrimp beds and depriving us of our God given right as Americans to our shrimp cocktails.
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coastal_climber
Trad climber
British Columbia
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Quote from 11th Hour:
"What if we choose to eradicate ourselves from this Earth, by whatever means? The Earth goes nowehere. And in time, it will regenerate, and all the lakes will be pristine. The rivers, the waters, the mountains, everything will be green again. It'll be peaceful. There may not be people, but the Earth will regenerate. And you know why? - Because the Earth has all the time in the world and we don't. So I think that's where we're at, right now."
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WBraun
climber
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That's a dumb quote.
It's based on just plain fantasy guessing. "What if"
"What if" ..... you can put anything you want behind that .....
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