I know this has nothing to do with Abu Dhabi, but it has a lot to do with me.
Here is a link from the local newspaper of the town where I was born and raised.
It depicts the fouling of the local beaches from the BP petroleum leak.
Northwest Florida Daily News
I never thought I would see devastation like this in my hometown. The Northwest Florida Gulf Coast has survived many hurricanes and has bounced back. Hurricanes are natural and are nature recovers, but this oil leak is not natural and it promises to foul these sugar-white sands for years to come. Even if BP capped the leaks today, there is enough oil out there to wash up on the shores for years to come. You can't put toothpaste back in the tube. The deed is done.
Scroll down to my previous post. I took those beach photos two weeks ago because I knew the tar-ball juggernaut was on its way and they would never look unspoiled like this again.. Well it is there now in all its shit-brown glory. I wanted to capture the pristine beaches before the onslaught of goo rendered the beaches closed. They are now.
I don't know who to blame. Offshore oil wells have been in the Gulf of Mexico for decades. They have survived hurricanes almost every year during that time and not a drop of crude was spilled. Oil wells might have "just blown up" in the 1930's, but you would think they would have it figured out by now. Somebody farked up badly.
I currently live in the third most oil producing country in the world. There are hundreds of offshore oil wells out here in the Arabian (Persian) Gulf and yet not a drop of goo has washed up on the talcum powder white beaches. The water is still a pleasing aqua. They have been pumping crude and transferring it to tanker ships since the 1960's without incident.
What happened in the Gulf of Mexico? Hard to say given the state of technology to prevent such things, Someone had their back turned, Government officials or BP guys wanting to save money. The blowout preventer didn't work. Fail safe....didn't.
For the conspiracy theorists out there, the explosion occurred a few days after President Obama signed a bill for more offshore drilling. Radical environmentalists, I wish I could put it past them but they have been caught doing crazy shit in the past, like spiking trees. I even read a theory that a North Korean submarine torpedoed the rig. Maybe the tree-huggers hired a North Korean submarine to blow-up the rig. Again, they just don't blow-up on their own.
I don't give a shit at this point. All I care about is that the beaches I hold near and dear to my heart are ruined for the foreseeable future. My only comfort is that my fellow locals are pissed-off and will mobilize to intercept any more sludge that threatens the sugar-white sands of the Emerald Coast.
Wish I was there to help! I can't even bear to watch the news anymore, much less the live "Leak Cam".
Good Luck, Guys and Gals! Thanks!
Oman Travel Guide
9 years ago
Posts
3 comments:
Not sure how this is going to come out, but some thoughts on the spill from an online comment.....
From the other side of the ocean, a comment on the issue,
TC, TP and ME: http://www.mountainwings.com/past/10166.htm
I am a bit disappointed with your opening comments; although,
I do agree with your final suggestions. A lot of blame is being
placed on BP, and much of this is unfair.
I think at MountainWings you believe in fairness and justice?
BP was indeed called British Petroleum but this was when it was
a BRITISH company. Some 10 years or so it joined with an
AMERICAN company called AMOCO and changed its name to BP. This
was because around 40% of the ownership was American. Of the
remaining shares, 40% are British and the remainder from other
countries including Russia. This means that BP is equally as
much American as it is British.
I would also ask you to think on this. The oil rig was owned by
an AMERICAN company who moved to Switzerland to avoid taxes.
The company who ran the rig was a wholly owned AMERICAN
company. BP only owns the site, so why is it their fault?
If you consider that the AMERICAN companies involved in Torrey
Canyon, Amoco Cadiz, Piper Alpha and Exxon Valdez did all they
could to avoid their responsibilities, is it fair to berate a
company that did not actually cause the problem yet is still
committed to clearing up at whatever expense that which was
caused in their name?
I am not even going to think in detail about how the American
bosses behaved when thousands died at the American-owned
facility in Bhopal! You might like to note that the AMERICAN
company Transocean has been in the Texan courts trying to limit
their liability. However, the Judge refused. BP has not tried to
limit their liability in any way.
I am not a fan of oil companies in general; but as a Christian,
false witness is just not right, and the way people have behaved
in your country is no less than that. Your president seems bent
on trying to destroy BP. Just what would that do?
If BP was to take Chapter 11 then it would be the people of
America who pay for the cleanup. Are the dividends that
important? They are to the hundreds of thousands of pensioners
whose income comes from these shares held by their pension
companies.
Let me put it this way. You need a package delivered. You ask
XYZ deliveries to take it. XYZ hires a truck from 123 trucks.
The truck is badly maintained and the driver is not very
experienced. The truck hits a pot hole in the road and because
it is not in good condition, a wheel falls off. The driver hits
the gas rather than the brake, mounts the curb, hits a shop and
spills all its parcels and diesel on the road. When the police
turn up, who do you think they will blame? From the way you are
treating BP it must be you, mustn't it?
There is no doubt this is a disaster but muck slinging is not
the way to solve it. Working together is.
So please look again at what is happening and bring the
Christian compassion you profess to care about so much to what
is really happening. Because as the rhetoric bounces across the
Atlantic, tempers are rising and you should be pouring water on
the flames instead of encouraging them to grow.
~A MountainWings Original by Ray Munro-Crump, England~
I understand that BP is a global company and is as British as Jaguar and Land Rover are now. Hell, those in the know realize it is BP-AMOCO, (AMerican Oil COmpany).
Unfortunately, a lot of people just hear the British Petroleum part. I am not blaming the UK. That would be dumb on my part. BP/AMOCO was a major contributor to the Prez's campaign.
I am concerned that not much is being said on the cause of the explosion, just the results.
Maybe I am a little paranoid, but those wells just don't blow up as this one did. There are many technical safeguards to prevent this. They all failed at the same time?
I feel BP/AMOCO is just another victim in this case.
Something stinks, and it ain't only the crude.
"State of Fear" by Micheal Crighton is a good read.
Tin-foil hat off for now!
I just hope they get the leak stopped soon. I hate knowing that it's still pumping thousands of gallons into the ocean daily.
Post a Comment