Catastrophic Oil Spill In The Gulf Of Mexico....
 

This is terrible. Its probably worse than the Exxon-Valdez oil spill that happened many years ago. The marshlands in Louisiana are very delicate as well as the ecosystem in the gulf. This will hurt the fishing industry as well. I hope that a solution will be found soon. Right now, millions of barrels of oil are leaking into the ocean, contaminating EVERYTHING. Read about it more here:

BP plan deemed major spill from Gulf well unlikely | General Headlines | Comcast.net

Or check out Cnn.com for more.

I know! Been all over the news for the past week. Terrible! :( And yet... it wasn't really anyone's fault this time. The reef incident, for example, could've been prevented. But with this, the thing just sank.

I heard about that...this is really terrible !
I know it's not anyone fault ....but then again a lot of animals will die and even an ecosystem is at peril because of the way we live...this is very sad :'(

I've been watching this the last couple of days, waiting to see what the impact on the coastline is. I was too angry about it to post, or really do anything beyond rant in the shoutbox with a couple people about it. Next week is my last week of required work before I am off for the summer and my travels. I have no travel plans until the end of June though, so if they need volunteers to help with wildlife rescue, I will most likely be making the 1,000 mile drive to the Gulf Coast to help.

As for it not being anyone's fault, sorry, but I can't swallow that. It is humanity's fault, the earth did not grow an oil rig. It is every person's fault in the world who uses oil, myself most definitely included.

Well this is gonna be a real mess no matter what. It's estimated that 5,000 barrels per day (about 200,000 gallons) is being released to form an oil slick that's easily visible from space now. Multiple fail safes, well, failed and now it's gonna be a real B**** to cap this thing. The gulf coast has some of the most beautiful white sand beaches and aqua blue water you can imagine. I've vacationed there and it's sad knowing what this oil spill going to do to it:(

But it's not just the gulf coast that's in danger, it's also the east coast of Florida. If this slick gets into the gulf stream current (which it's not to far away from) it's gonna go up the other side, and possibly the eastern seaboard will see the effects of this spill. I actually used to live a few miles north of Jax, Fl so this kinda hits home for me:'( I feel sorry for the wildlife and environment that's suffering right now. As well as the people who make a living in the tourism and fishing industry, especially in this almost non-existent economy.

That's good to hear, unless there's a miracle a MASSIVE clean up effort is going to take place. I'm actually going to be in N. Florida in early June for a month and would gladly help with any clean up efforts (if my travel plans don't fall through) It would be nice if we could get members of ToS in that region to help with any clean up efforts.

?

...I don't follow that logic.

Well, if you don't see what I mean, I doubt there's really any point in elaborating. This is not a natural event, it is caused by us.

No... I see what you mean, but I don't follow the logic.

It's like saying I dropped a glass plate and made a mess that spread glass everywhere that people would later step on and hurt themselves.

...Which would mean we shouldn't even be using glass plates in the first place. See what it can do if you make a mistake with them? You dropped the plate by accident; we should've never invented them. We need more plastic and paper plates to prevent such harmful effects if they're dropped. Glass plates should be banned. Accidents are no excuse for such a dangerous object to exist. It isn't a natural event, it was caused by us.

...Yeah.

I understand his meaning. If you and I and the rest of humanity did not 'need' to put gas in our cars (example of the many uses of oil), then the oil platform would not need to be built. It was only built because their is a perceived need for the oil it pumps. Because we need it, we are contributing to this disaster.

I love this kind of logic. Really.

:P

Spock would be proud!:)

Actually it is someones fault. Namely BP. Why? Because the US government wanted to make restrictions that would allow the construction of such a deep sea drilling platform only if certain measurements would be undertaken to prevent exactly such a disaster. Why they did not put these safetly measures in place? Because BP fueled massive amounts of funding into lobbyist work to prevent such a regulation and they succeeded. That is why I blame BP to the fullest extent for what has happened. Not for the disaster, but for the results of it! And even the American President seems to think along that line, at least he wants BP to pay for all expenses that are required due to the spill (not that even 14 billion $$ could really truely clean up the damage this does) :(

OMG - I just heard on the news, that the main hole will probably not be closed for several MONTHS. Can you imagine what happens if the amount of spillage continues as it is now for several months during storm and hurricane season?!?

Worst man made disaster in the history of the world. Entire gulf becomes dead.

BP needs to get their ***** moving and stop the damn leak earlier than that. If they can't then they need help from military tech. I don't think the gov realizes how serious this is for the biological and economic systems in the Gulf.