So, not to get all political or anything, but more because I'm concerned and because I haven't heard a really substantial update recently on this whole Gulf of Mexico Oil situation, I tried to dig around for some figures. What I uncovered surprised me, and it may surprise you. I believe what we have here bears all the earmarks of a hush-up. I hasten to add - some of my figures may be wrong! So if anybody out there can correct me on the hard statistic, and provide a link to a reputable source for the real statistic, I'd sure love the assistance! We need to work together to shove aside these lies we've been told. To get to the truth.
Anyway, so in the course of trying to dig for figures, I quite by accident discovered that apparently the gulf has 3,000 barrels of oil seep into it every day naturally. Just welling up from the nooks and crevices. This disturbed me greatly. Is this okay with us? Maybe it's a good thing this whole spill happened, since it appears to have brought a few other unsavory facts to light that Big Oil maybe doesn't want you to know about.
Now, we all heard the initial estimates from people as to how much oil was gushing out in this spill. Some said 20,000 gallons a day, then others said "No way - it's only like 1,000 barrels a day." But it turns out it was almost 60,000 gallons a day, by the final days of the spill! A shocking amount of oil! That amount of oil could feed the entire starving nation of Antarctica for more than twelve years, if their digestive systems were capable of processing crude oil as a nutrient. Or even just the barrels themselves! If the barrels themselves could be eaten, if the oil could be packed and shipped in edible barrels, the barrels alone would be a bonanza of potential nutrition that was just wasted. Dumped into the waters of the gulf, for the fishes to chow down on. God damn it, humanity!!
60,000 gallons of oil a day. Now here's where my investigative background comes in. I was able to determine that 60,000 gallons, divided by 42 gallons per barrel, comes out to 1,429 barrels a day gushing out into the Gulf during this spill. That's per day. And if we again divide that 1,429 barrels by 42, we will see that we get only 35.5. Now this is a much more manageable number! But that wouldn't be barrels, anymore. It would be 42ths of a barrel. So let's stick with 1,429. As we know from our history studies, 1,492 is the year Columbus founded the Americas. Coincidence?
I was also able to find out that they were finally able to plug that dang thing by July 15th or thereabouts. Some say September 19th.
Now, if my figures are correct, from what I can tell, since July 15th more than twice as much oil has leaked into the Gulf since they capped the spill than all of the oil that was spilled during the spill!
And what's being done about it? And what's being done about it? A total hush-up!
EDIT: sorry, turns out I mixed up gallons and barrels at some point back up there during the math. Investigation is my strong suit; math - less so. So our conclusion here is that we've actually got much less of a problem than I thought. It will take about four years for as much oil to leak out naturally as came out in the spill's 3 months. Four years puts us at 2014.
This is a five-alarm reprieve, people. Four years - that gives us time. Time to throw money at the problem. Time to study it. Time to avert the catastrophe before (four years from now) it becomes a reality.
This spill was a wake-up call. So if you hit the snooze button now...that's on you, dude.
4 comments:
"And what's being done about it? And what's being done about it? A total hush-up!"
I can totally picture Peter Garrett spitting that line out furiously, vein in his temple throbbing, back in the day circa 1982-1990.
Peter Garrett, man, I still respect that guy to this day. He's so tall and bald, with such lanky, wild dance moves!
This article provides a pretty solid update on the restoration side of things.
It sounds like there's some good heads involved and they're being very particular, transparent and deliberate with how they set up the funding distribution. Hopefully it won't be too long before the actual work can begin.
Good News for the Gulf: Why the Largest Environmental Settlement in U.S. History Won’t Get Wasted
They're coming out with a movie, too: Deepwater Horizon, which apparently focuses on Marky Mark and his family. I bet he dies, although that could be just pessimism on my part. It looks pretty good. Suspense and danger combined!
But I'm still a little curious as to the scope of the disaster. Any way you look at it, it seems like more oil has spilled into the gulf since without that rig there than spilled into it during the disaster. Perhaps it's just a question of how fast? Clearly the ecosystem can manage the natural leakage.
Anyhow, when there's an equipment fail on that scale costing human lives and overwhelming the biosphere's ability to absorb the overflow, it's only right that the company be made to pay. I kind of like how they describe the plan - it's not a big pork-barrel wishlist laying out specific projects, it just describes how individual projects are to be vetted and greenlit. Taking the actual decisionmaking out of the approval process, and investing it in trustworthy hands. Now that could go two ways. Hopefully it means the committee in charge gets to make disinterested decisions on what most needs doing for the ecosystem's sake, without a lot of interference from vested bureaucrats trying to pull this or that amount of project money into boondoggles that benefit their district. Other possibility, though, is that they've all already got their hands in with the committee, and the process that unfolds supposedly without their outside influence will in practice, unfold without scrutiny.
Pork barrel politics will be the death of us, Mel. Let's hope they do this one right.
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