From Jenna Orkin
Note: Please see posts below this one for vital updates on Collapsenet, where this blog will appear in the near future.
Headlines
Matt Simmons on Gulf Spill
"It really is a catastrophe," Simmons said. "I don't think they're going to be able to put the leak out until the reservoir depletes. It's just too technically challenging."
He said BP's cleanup costs could ruin the company.
"They're going to have to clean up the Gulf of Mexico," he said.
JO comment: Would someone explain why dispersal is being touted as a solution? Isn't that like spreading the peas around on your plate so you don't have to eat them or, in this case, clean them up? Perhaps the only thing the Gulf spill has going for it is that it's all in one place. If you disperse it, the contamination ratio of one part per million kicks in for real.
N. Korea Accused by Russia of Causing Explosion
Leaking Oil Well Lacked Safeguard Device - WSJ
British fish stocks drop 94%
Economy
World markets tumble as contagion fears take hold
Is Perfect Financial Storm Brewing Overseas?
Huge Violent Riots In Greece, 20 People Trapped Inside Burning Athens Bank
Greek Protests Over Financial Bailout Leave Three Dead, Buildings Burning
Greek Bailout Legislation As An Enabling Act
European Credit Default Swaps Hit New Highs, As Leaders Fail To Halt Spread Of Greece Disease
UK: Mortgage lending plummets by 83% - from Rice Farmer
Iran's economic woes loom
Voter unrest sparks rash of primary challenges
Greenland Oil Rush Looms as Exxon Eyes Cairn's $400 Million Arctic Wager
Outrage in the mining industry as Australia proposes 40 per cent tax
NYC: Paterson Offers Choice: Furloughs or Shutdown
Fresno California Mayor Declares "Fiscal Emergency"
Terror/Intelligence/Media
Lie-Detection Brain Scan Could Get Courtroom Debut
China urges tough Internet laws targeting 'overseas' forces
'Smart dust' aims to monitor everything - from Rice Farmer
JO comment:
Is it time to talk to the Taliban?
Newsweek Is Up for Sale
Environment
Fall in fish stocks far worse than feared, study shows
Fisherman have to work 17 times harder to catch fish than they did in the 19th century
Dead Zones in the Oceans Worldwide - from Vantage Point
Google buys wind farms
Arkansas county experiences its first recorded earthquake
Tennessee Flooding
Opinion: Survey shows U.S. mortality worse than Albania, Tunisia, Chile
And...
Egypt suffering hashish shortage
PLEASE SEE POSTS BELOW FOR COLLAPSENET INFO
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17 comments:
source for 1ppm contamination ratio? "they" put in monitoring wells to measure mtbd/other pollutants leaking from area gas stations throughout my west coast city almost a decade ago. no word from monitoring team on where to find results when they come out and re-test the wells in person. (i think they're 60' down - groundwater)
Here's BP's official page-
http://www.bp.com/productlanding.do?categoryId=40&contentId=7061696
"The potential rewards may justify the cost of Arctic drilling: Greenland’s waters could hold 50 billion barrels of crude and gas, the U.S. Geological Survey estimates, enough to meet Europe’s energy demand for almost two years."
ALMOST TWO YEARS. And Europe uses only a fraction of the world's daily supply. So Greenland waters COULD supply a few months more oil for the world. Of course, the operation COULD blowout a well and damage another sensitive ecosystem.
Have these monkeys learned NOTHING?
Many people are calling the N.Korea/Deepwater Horizon article a hoax.
Here's a good related link. http://www.abovetopsecret.com/forum/thread304918/pg1
I'm skeptical myself, as detonating a thermonuclear device underwater wouldn't really have much useful effect that I can see. For reference, here's a video of an underwater nuke going off:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=16heorrfsgY&feature=related
Besides potential radiation damage (and poisoning) to life in the gulf, it could send shockwaves throughout the region that could endanger other drilling operations, throw vapourized water (and contaminants) sky-high, etc. etc...
And MAYBE it would somehow seal off the wellhead... by melting it or something?
I've only just finished my second year in Engineering Physics, so maybe there's something that Kremlin's nuke engineers are getting that I'm not, but the story certainly seems contentious, if not fishy, to me.
Former Bear Stearns boss Jimmy Cayne blames conspiracy for bank's collapse.
In reading the article quoting Matt Simmons, along with the article that gamedog gave us the link to in the last thread, it's pretty scary to think that this oil spill may just need to bleed itself all the way out to depletion in order for it to stop. And when you combine this with the mention that the reservoir the spill is emanating from may contain 50 million barrels of oil, we're looking at one of the most massive nightmares imaginable.
In comparison, the incident involving the Exxon Valdez in Alaska involved a spill of an estimated 250,000 barrels of oil in total.
Re:N. Korea Accused by Russia of Causing Explosion.
I can't believe this got reposted 41k times! (according to google) anyone know the original source? Now that might be interesting!
We're expected to believe a minisub launched from a cargo vessel, went 130 miles on a suicide mission, launched 2 incendiary torpedoes, then waited two days before it blew it's self up under the rig?
Why would anyone recently invent an "incendiary torpedo"? Just to blow a rig up? Because, for sure, no such thing exists.
Timing was pretty good too eh, they waited until the rig crew were washing out the cutting mud with sea water. Some sophisticated torpedo too eh, that can cause a blowout seen by eyewitnesses, then ignite it's self making it look like a gas explosion, just as the emergency genny kicked in!
then they wait under a burning rig for two days before blowing themselves up... and the only option now is to nuke the hole...lol I'm stopping now, this is getting far too silly!
Jenna,
When I was going for my BS degree in Chemical Engineering a couple of lifetimes ago, the rule of thumb was "The solution to pollution is dilution". That's why smoke stacks were built way up in the air.
This arcane mind set is still in force as you can see by the efforts to "clean up" the "spill" by utilizing increasing amounts of dispersants both on the water's surface and now deep underwater.
Mankind's faith that technology is the solution (and not the cause??)to all problems will be truely tested and shown to be a bad mistake by this event.
The Gulf will utimately be filled with crude oil residue. Currents will take it out around the Keys and into the main Gulfstream headed north.
We've screwed up bad this time. It's not nice to go punching deep holes in Gaia. She's really pissed now!
ps What potential consequences are there from releasing a huge amount of pressure and volume from a resevoir deep underground. Will not adjustments be made elsewhere in the form of earth movement, collapse, etc. (read huge earthquakes)???
namaste
I wonder if this dome thing there thinking of putting over the oil leak in the gulf of Mexico is going to work
Have to agree with some others on the blog -- charging for collapsenet will drastically reduce its impact. What kind of a "lifeboat" charges people to get in?
Theoildrum has experts contributing all the time, and still manages to make articles and discussions freely available to all. Same with many other peak oil/collapse preparedness sites.
I just watched MCR's video titled "What is CollapseNet?" while Beta testing the CollapseNet Web site. I must say that it felt unbelievably warm and reassuring to have MCR talking to me from the heart one-on-one in watching the video. During the video he summarized all that we're faced with around both collapse and the role that he wants CollapseNet to play around it. It reminded me of what I'd always heard about FDR (former U.S. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt) and the "fireside chats" he used to hold on the radio for American families, but this time it's all being done on video.
I'm already getting a heartwarming feeling about all that CollapseNet will become, and I recommend that this one video be released to everyone for them to see, when deciding if CollapseNet is something they definitely want to become a part of.
IMO millions of people will not want to survive collapse.
Instead of the elite thinking up ways of killing us off indiscriminately why don’t they, as in Nevil Shutes’ novel ‘On The Beach’, give them (free of charge) a pain free termination pill.
Oh, and an airtight wooden box would not go amiss, it would save those left having to deal with the remains (not to mention an explosion in the fly population).
Macabre?
I don’t think so.
If you really cannot cope with a world that is sooo radically different to what you know or want, then surely you should be allowed the dignity of making the choice, between slowly starving to death or a quick painless passing.
Those who want to survive, albeit in changed circumstances, will need to plan and work to survive, and many will make that choice too.
Harsh though it may seem, I have no time for whiners, passive masses or those always looking for others to sustain them (children, or course, are exempt from my scorn).
If you don’t have the intelligence to see what is coming, or if you do, but prefer to deny it, putting your trust in others to fix the problem, then when the time comes take the pill.
Gulf oil spill: The Halliburton connection
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/greenspace/2010/04/gulf-oil-spill-the-halliburton-connection.html
I have been a long time reader and strong believer of what this blog has and will potentially achieve in the future, but I don't usually post anything in the comments because some other poster has usually covered my side of a story.
In this case I would have to agree with some of the replies here about the concept of charging for Collapsenet. If you are charging for the service, at least have it open to everyone like unfortunate souls as I, or perhaps even tiered membership levels?
Although I have not posted until now, I struggle to understand why I wouldn't be extended the same preference as others that post on here more regularly. It's only fair isn't it?
"Father, we pray for a prevailing north wind," he said, "to drive that oil slick southward."
Just when I thought I'd heard it all...
I just watched the film Collapse and I wanted to say a huge thank you for your great effort and work. I wish there were more people in this world who would understand what happens around us. I wish there were more people in Latvia (that's where I live) who would not think about money but other values. Yet, it seems to me that only the individuals with brain and logical thinking see, hear, observe and do something about it. At least I am glad that God gave me a head for thinking.
All the best to you both,
Ilze
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