BP Oil spill

I do not have an ethical standpoint.

Sorry, based on my opinion that investing is equivalent to supporting a company both financially and ethically.

And no, it will barley make a scratch... as long as BP keeps making money, the majority will be happy.

Yeah, its a pretty horrible state of affairs.

Obamas "alternative energy" rhetoric is getting on my tits.

Leave Obama alone! The week before the "spill" (I hate that term as it describes a finite event and we have more of a hemorrhage) Obama's administration pushed through the first offshore wind farm in the United States. It took 9 years to get that through. 9 YEARS! And the major complaint was that it was an eyesore to the Martha's Vineyard rich folk who would no longer be able to stare out across their own expanse of unsustainably overfished stretch of Atlantic coast. Obama got no credit for this at all. I think the rhetoric, although painful at times, is needed to start getting people to change their views.

I am more inclined to blame the engineers. It isn't the oil execs or Mineral Management Service who set the limit on what is safe, it is the engineers carrying out their risk assessments. And I wholey disagree with any person who says the engineers would alter the scope of their reports to allow for unsafe activity. I think it is more a case of not fully comprehending the consequences while relying too heavily on man-made backup technology.

A good friend of mine was recently able to meet [ame="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eo_wilson"]E. O. Wilson[/ame], “the world’s most famous biological theorist since Darwin”. Ed’s take on the oil spill went something like this:

The oil spill is like the economic meltdown, we depend too much on black boxes. The complexity of our society has moved past our ability to comprehend the consequences of our actions, and it would be foolish to blame bad guys, even though they are out there, for situations that are a result of our own daily choices.***
[B][/B]
Sorry to rant on this, but I grew up in the region and have family that live in Orange Beach, Alabama. I was actually swimming in the gulf two weeks ago and you could just see the sheen on the water. My last time for years most likely...

I wasn't blaming Obama.

Good post BTW.

The Alabamians should be loving this. Just pop down to the beach with a bucket, and get rich yo!

Yeah, its a pretty horrible state of affairs.

Obamas "alternative energy" rhetoric is getting on my tits.

+1 i'm with you on that one.

Black Box Society
thats all we are these days isn't it Black Boxes running everything we do
thank god for bikes
as transparent a set of boxes as you could wish for
it's all there out in the open easy to deal with
ah simplicity
unless of course you have a pair of campy deltas

The Alabamians should be loving this. Just pop down to the beach with a bucket, and get rich yo!

I wasn't blaming Obama.

Good post BTW.

Thanks, sorry to bite your head off!

The Alabamians should be loving this. Just pop down to the beach with a bucket, and get rich yo!

Heh, I fear that more Alabamians (we call ourselves Bamers) will be popping down to their local class action lawyer's office with a bucket...

Directly it's the fault of the engineers, indirectly though it's the fault of the US Government (not Obama per se) for having such slack safety standards.

All the oil industry experts say it would never have been allowed to happen here, there had been countless warnings on the safety of that rig and nothing had been done.

So a British company, yes, but the American framework which it operated within was the real cause. Ironic huh.

I am more inclined to blame the engineers. It isn't the oil execs or Mineral Management Service who set the limit on what is safe, it is the engineers carrying out their risk assessments.

hilarious on the Beeb radio this evening, the news reader actually sounded really happy to tell us that BP were pledging lots of money to help after the leak....
am I missing something here?

Thanks, sorry to bite your head off!

Was that what you were doing????? Fucking rat.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2AAa0gd7ClM

Leave Obama alone! The week before the "spill" (I hate that term as it describes a finite event and we have more of a hemorrhage) Obama's administration pushed through the first offshore wind farm in the United States. It took 9 years to get that through. 9 YEARS! And the major complaint was that it was an eyesore to the Martha's Vineyard rich folk who would no longer be able to stare out across their own expanse of unsustainably overfished stretch of Atlantic coast. Obama got no credit for this at all. I think the rhetoric, although painful at times, is needed to start getting people to change their views.

I am more inclined to blame the engineers. It isn't the oil execs or Mineral Management Service who set the limit on what is safe, it is the engineers carrying out their risk assessments. And I wholey disagree with any person who says the engineers would alter the scope of their reports to allow for unsafe activity. I think it is more a case of not fully comprehending the consequences while relying too heavily on man-made backup technology.

A good friend of mine was recently able to meet E. O. Wilson, “the world’s most famous biological theorist since Darwin”. Ed’s take on the oil spill went something like this:

---

The oil spill is like the economic meltdown, we depend too much on black boxes. The complexity of our society has moved past our ability to comprehend the consequences of our actions, and it would be foolish to blame bad guys, even though they are out there, for situations that are a result of our own daily choices.***

Sorry to rant on this, but I grew up in the region and have family that live in Orange Beach, Alabama. I was actually swimming in the gulf two weeks ago and you could just see the sheen on the water. My last time for years most likely...

Sorry- you left out why the wind farm was a good thing?

Its not a bad thing, is it?

Leave Obama alone!

Sorry to rant on this, but I grew up in the region and have family that live in Orange Beach, Alabama.

I wasn't blaming Obama.

I blame Alobama.

Sorry if I've missed something. (Like the seriousness of the situation.)

grotesquely beautiful

hilarious on the Beeb radio this evening, the news reader actually sounded really happy to tell us that BP were pledging lots of money to help after the leak....
am I missing something here?

Predictably, according to the Daily Express, this money is being taken from THE POCKETS OF BRITISH PENSIONERS !

there's an idea for BP, block the leaks with the fluff and boiled sweets from the pockets of the nations pensioners.........its about as sensible as half the ideas they've had so far.

there's an idea for BP, block the leaks with the fluff and boiled sweets from the pockets of the nations pensioners.........its about as sensible as half the ideas they've had so far.

Sounds like a good enough idea, I would o.k it with the science science squabling thread before going ahead with it though.

grotesquely beautiful

That's a good way of putting it, but I actually find it really, really frightening. :(

as has been stated before BP are still not 100% liable
two other oil companies haliburton and XXXXXX ? were the makers and installers of the rig itself and the saftey valve
the inquest into what actually happened is underway
i always thought in america you were innocent until proven guilty but so much has happened recently to complete dispell that rumour ( guantanamo / abu grahib / iraq / afgahnistan )

and listening to question time last night
one person raised the issue of bhopal where the victims are still in court 20 years on trying to get compensation from an american company who polluted / didn't do the safety bit... exxon valdez where it took 15 years for the americans to cough up the compensation
the niger delta american companies are spilling as much as is being spilt in the gulf daily but somehow a blind eye is being turned to that issue
contradictory / blinkered american politics.... really fucked up
yet they jump down BP's throats

!!!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2AAa0gd7ClM

cough. repost.

plus....

I think it should be nuked, ala Soviet Union...
They used to nuke oil spills, and it works great.*

discuss.

• this may not actually be 100% true.