Fire Earth

Earth is fighting to stay alive. Mass dieoffs, triggered by anthropogenic assault and fallout of planetary defense systems offsetting the impact, could begin anytime!

Posts Tagged ‘gulf oil spill’

Gulf Oil Spill Disaster – Expecting Different Results

Posted by feww on May 11, 2010

Doing the Same thing Over and Expecting Different Results?

BP Keen to Be Seen Doing Something, Regardless of End Result

BP executives and their counterparts from Transocean Ltd and Halliburton Co, will appear before Senate panels investigating the disaster. It’s not known whether DOI and MMS personnel as well as certain senators and congressmen who rubber stamped BP drilling  would ever be questioned.

The session, at any rate, is expected to be highly theatrical, staged to appease the people.


A euphemistic, watered-down 72-Hour Trajectory Map of the Oil Spill in the Gulf? Is it our imagination, or NOAA making the maps look less life-threatening? Click image to enlarge.

Small “top hat”

BP says it aims to lower a small “top hat” dome, the size of an oil barrel, over the leak and siphon up the oil from the leak to a tanker 1.5km (~ 1 mile) above the sea floor.  The original massive metal box, the “big top hat” was too big and that’s why it failed to work.

“There will be less seawater in the smaller dome and therefore less likelihood of hydrate formation,” BP CEO, Tony Hayward, told reporters at in Houston.

Fire-Earth says unless the “top hat” can couple [leech] onto the point(s) at which the leaks are occurring , so as to prevent any build up of crystallized gas hydrates in the vicinity, it’s unlikely to work, and could run into all kinds of additional complication.

In other words, for any “solution” to work, it should be able to siphon up more than 95 percent of the oil that is being leaked, or it’s unlikely to succeed. 

Pointing the Finger of blame

A BP executive is blaming Transocean for the blowout because the blowout preventer, designed to prevent the an oil leak, failed to work.

Transocean in turn is blaming Haliburton,  a third company involved. It says the blowout preventer did not cause the leak, but two other failures occurred, the well’s  cover and the cement that was used to seal it.

Halliburton had reportedly finished cementing the well-cover less than a day before the explosion occurred, which also killed 11 people, the said BP executives says in a written testimony to the Senate investigating panel.

What about other deepwater drilling in the Gulf?

Meanwhile federal inspectors completed examining 30 deepwater drilling rigs prospecting for oil in the Gulf of Mexico, but reported no safety problems, Reuters said.

“Throughout our inspections, no deepwater facilities have been shut-in due to safety concerns,” said John Romero, spokesman for Minerals Management Service (MMS), the Department of Interior branch responsible [sic] for offshore drilling safety .

Romero told Reuters that his department at MMS  will soon begin inspecting 47 deepwater production platforms that are already pumping crude oil commercially.

“These inspections may take up to a month to complete,” he said.

Dispersant Sink

There’s now nearly as much dispersant sprayed over the Gulf of Mexico as that awful orange-colored fire retardant chemical over the state of California. The problem is the dispersant used in the Gulf is even deadlier than the fire-retardant.


A U.S. Air Force chemical dispersing C-130 aircraft drops an oil dispersing chemical into the Gulf of Mexico as part of the Deepwater Horizon Response effort, May 5, 2010. U.S. Air Force Photo by Tech. Sgt. Adrian Cadiz.

Recent Documents

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Posted in Deepwater Horizon, environment, gulf of mexico, gulf of mexico oil leak, Gulf of Mexico oil Spill | Tagged: , , , , | 3 Comments »

Gulf of Mexico: One Barrel Away from Collapse

Posted by feww on May 9, 2010

New Setback in Containing Gulf Oil Spill

BP, has encountered problems with the containment dome while trying to place it on the ruptured wellhead.

BP’s Exploration and Production CEO, Doug Suttles, said the 98-ton steel-and-concrete dome developed a problem [they hadn’t thought about,] forcing the technicians to remove the box as gas hydrates, ice-like crystals, began accumulating inside it clogging its opening.

Gas hydrates are formed when gas and water mix at low temperature and under high pressure on the sea floor. [The ruptured wellhead is located about 1.5km (5,000) feet under water.]

“I wouldn’t say it has failed yet,” said Doug Suttles. “What I would say is what we attempted to do last night didn’t work.”

Meanwhile, the damaged well continues to spew a minimum of 5,000 barrels, possibly up to 25,000 barrels, of crude oil  into the Gulf each and every day.

What If the Oil Leak Goes On?

The question many are asking is, what if the spill goes on for any length of time?

FIRE-Earth and EDRO Moderators believe the devastation would be apocalyptic in scale.  Below is a brief summary of multiple disasters that you should expect:

Water Quality

The quality of seawater in the Gulf of Mexico would deteriorate rapidly. It would become the most polluted water body in the world in a very short time.  The Gulf would become a dead zone, permanently.

Food Production

Most of the marine creatures in the Gulf of Mexico will perish. Any species that might evade death, would be too contaminated for human or animal consumption.

Air Quality

The air quality in the region would worsen dramatically, turning the Gulf states into one of the most polluted regions in the world.

Temperatures

The average temperatures in the region would rise rapidly by 3ºC to as much as 8ºC depending on a number of additional factors.

Life Expectancy

Many people would perish as a result of the pollution caused by the oil leak. Many babies would be born with severe respiratory depression or other serious deformities.

Regional Collapse

Collapse of the Gulf states will begin, as most of the population move away from the Gulf heading in all directions. Civil conflict would erupt.

Collapse of the U.S., Canada and Mexico

The collapse of Gulf states, and other areas on the Atlantic and Pacific coasts, would result in large numbers of people moving north and into Canada, with others moving southwest and into Mexico. The next phase in the regional collapse of NAFTA countries, an irreversible downward spiral, would follow.

The Time Scale

Your world could disappear as fast as a flash of lightning!

Recent News Releases:

Tar balls found on Dauphin Island beach. Shoreline assessment teams recovered tar balls Saturday from the beach on Dauphin Island, Ala. The tar balls, ranging in size from dimes to golf balls, were recovered and sent to a lab for further analysis. Deepwater Horizon Response

Press Release: Stop Flights Over Wildlife Refuge. Due to heightened interest in the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, media aircraft have been conducting low flights and landings on Breton National Wildlife Refuge’s Chandeleur Islands. These flights and landings threaten the very birds that the media are covering and that the public is concerned about.  Federal regulation prohibits flights and landings that disturb wildlife on refuges.

Trajectory Forecast – Mississippi Canyon 252
NOAA/NOS/OR&R  Estimate for: 0600 CDT, Tuesday, 5/11/10
Date Prepared: 1200 CDT, Saturday, 5/08/10


This forecast is based on the NWS spot forecast from Saturday, May 8 AM. Currents were obtained from the NOAA Gulf of Mexico, West Florida Shelf/USF, Texas  A&M/TGLO, NAVO/NRL models, and HFR measurements. The model was initialized from satellite imagery, analysis provided by NOAA/NESDIS obtained Saturday morning, and Saturday AM overflight observations. The leading edge may contain tarballs that are not readily observable from the imagery (hence not included in the model initialization). NOAA is a U.S. Govt agency and its image and news products are NOT copyrighted. Click image to enlarge.

Oil Leak Forecast

On May 1, 2010, Fire-Earth forecast at least 10 more major oil spills worldwide between May 2010 and December 2011, with the probability of 5 of those events occurring in and around America.

Oil Slick in Gulf of Mexico


Click image to enlarge. Eighteen days after the Deepwater Horizon accident, an oil slick lingered in the Gulf of Mexico, off the coasts of Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama. MODIS on NASA’s Terra satellite captured this natural-color image on May 8, 2010. Oil is discernible in two areas—a serpentine slick near the Mississippi Delta, and a large round slick south of the Mississippi-Alabama border. Image and caption: NASA E/O. [Edited by Fire-Earth for brevity.] Download large image (823 KB, JPEG).

Florida Class Action Filed in BP Oil Spill Disaster

Gulf Actions Spill Counsel (GASP), a national team of attorneys, allege multiple failures by BP, Halliburton and other Defendants in their lawsuit filed Friday.  Similar lawsuits are planned for Texas, Alabama and Mississippi, as the devastation from the oil rig disaster continues to grow.

“Oil continues to flow into the gulf, and with it an environmental nightmare,” said Dr. Howard, who most recently played a leading role in coordinating a national team of more than 40 law firms in the Toyota sudden acceleration lawsuits. “This unmitigated horror threatens to destroy one of the most beautiful marine, coastal and estuarine environments in the world.”

Castro Angle

Fidel Castro, Former Cuban leader, called the ecological disaster caused by the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico a testament to how powerless the governments are against the multinational corporations.

“The ecological disaster which occurred in the Gulf of Mexico shows how little governments can do against those who control financial capital,” Castro said in his article published by Cuban media. “The hateful tyranny imposed on the world.”

Castro said the US and European and multinationals are the powers “who decide the fate of peoples [through] the economy in our globalized world.”

Although President Obama is not responsible for the “current threats to the survival of the human being imposed on the world by imperialism, [he] ignores reality and cannot or does not want to deal with real issues. He lives in a dream world,” Castro said.

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Posted in Deepwater Horizon, gulf of mexico oil leak, Gulf of Mexico oil Spill, Gulf of Mexico oil Spill satellite photo, Gulf of Mexio | Tagged: , , , , | 2 Comments »

‘I Hate BP, Bog Oil, Obama, US Lawmakers, Oil Lobby!’

Posted by feww on May 2, 2010

Image of the Day:

Oil Covered Northern Gannet Isn’t Amused

How would you feel if your air, water, food, soil and home was destroyed by greedy corporations, ineffective government and really nasty people all around?

“There’s enough oil out there that it is logical to think it will hit the shoreline. It’s just a question of where and when. Mother Nature gets a vote in this.” U.S. Coast Guard Admiral Thad Allen said.


A Northern Gannet bird is covered in oil, from a massive spill in the Gulf of Mexico, at a Clean Gulf Associates Mobile Wildlife Rehabilitation station in Fort Jackson, Louisiana April 30, 2010. Credit: REUTERS/Carlos Barria. Image may be subject to copyright.

Latest Development, News and Quotes:

  • If the lawmakers had NOT pandered to the wishes of the Oil Lobby, allowing their clients to operate without an essential safety feature, a  sonar device that is deployed at drilling cites as a last resort to shut down the flow of oil from an underwater well, this disaster, in all probability, would have been averted.  While the law in Brazil and Norway requires oil companies to deploy such devices near the oil well, the the US regulations do not require oil companies to operate one.
  • A “sheen” is approaching the Louisiana coast, Allen has confirmed.
  • “The company, BP, seems to have been slow to ask for help, and, on Friday, both federal and state officials accused it of not moving aggressively or swiftly enough. Yet the administration should not have waited, and should have intervened much more quickly on its own initiative.” A New York Times editorial on Saturday.
  • BP is ultimately responsible!” Said President Obama.  [We know that, but so are you and the government for allowing BP to do this, Mr president.]
  • “This oil spill threatens not only our wetlands and our fisheries… This isn’t just about our coast. It’s about our way of life in Louisiana: our shrimpers, our fishermen, our coast that makes Louisiana a sportsman’s paradise. …This oil spill threatens our way of life. ” Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal warned. [Could you rephrase that to: More drilling in the Gulf threatens the collapse of Louisiana, neighboring states and the whole country? IF you want more proof just wait!]
  • “Satellite images analyzed by the University of Miami suggest the slick has ballooned to an area the size of Puerto Rico.” A news bulletin said. [Note: Puerto Rico is the 169 largest country in the world with an area of about 9,100 square kilometer  (~ 3,500 sq miles).
  • “We need to have something out there. Once it gets into the marsh it is too late. Once it gets behind these islands, through these little canals, you will never clean it up.” The president of Louisiana’s Plaquemines Parish area, Bill Nungesser said, warning that the oil pollution  could result to catastrophic harm to the area.
  • The Gulf of Mexico nightmare enters a new phase—the first stage in the collapse of the Gulf states may have begun. —Fire Earth


NOAA Forecast of the Oil Spill for May 2, 2010. Click Image to enlarge.


NOAA Forecast of the Oil Spill for May 3, 2010. Click Image to enlarge.


Unified Command releases an image showing booming locations as of May 1, 2010. Creative Commons License. Click image to enlarge.

Continued …

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Posted in Deepwater Horizon, gulf of mexico, gulf of mexico oil leak, Gulf of Mexico oil Spill, Northern Gannet | Tagged: , , , , | 5 Comments »

Are things as bad as they look?

Posted by feww on May 1, 2010

You guessed it: Things are much worse…

Taking Stock of the Oil Spill, Energy and Climate Bills and the FREEDOM TO CHOOSE SUSTAINABLE LIFESTYLES

We are taught about individualism, individual freedoms and values. In reality, however, everything is decided for us well in advance.

How could we be free, if there’s corporate monopoly on everything?

We learn about the importance of diversity when it comes to other species, but we are denied the same knowledge when it come to learning about  humans.
We are en-shackled by the global economy, a prison made by the monetary system. All of our other nightmares are the derivatives of the system.

In a nutshell …

1. Our rulers have imposed upon us a method of doing things, a system of exponentially expanding human ecological footprint called economy, which is destroying the planet.

2. We have been prevented from researching, developing and ultimately opting for alternative lifestyles, sustainable means of running our everyday lives, with zero impact on the planet.

3. Coupled with the economy, an inseparable part of it in fact, is an energy policy that demands more and more fossil fuels, the production and consumption of which is destroying not only the climate, but the very air we breathe, land and water we feed from.

4. We have been hoodwinked into electing an incompetent and ill-meaning President, who’s trying to secure a second term in office by way of appeasing the giant corporations that have no concern other than maximizing their bottom line.

5. Some of those giants strap us inside vehicles that were made by other giants,  keeping each and everyone of us locked in on the wilderness of freeways, polluted roads and streets, so that we would burn the gas they sold us, going nowhere, several hours a day, each day.

6. We are blindfolded. How can anyone find out that the road map the giants have sold us goes nowhere and the destinations marked on them are non-existent? The answer is they can’t.

7. Disasters like the growing oil spill in the Gulf momentarily awaken us to the truth.  Even then, our realization of truth is ephemeral. The giants’ spin machine (our politicians), their agents of disinformation (the media) and other dark forces of information suppression (the Internet Mafia), prevent us from seeing, hearing, experiencing and ultimately making the right decisions by ourselves.

8. By all means then sue the giants. But don’t stop there because the Administration, media and the Internet Mafia deserve equal reaction.

9. Knowledge and information forms the basis of our decision-making process. Access to up-to-date information and knowledge of alternative  points of view can make the difference between whether WE and therefore our civilization survive, or becomes extinct.

10. A major mechanism of evolution is learning… Learning is facilitated by feedbacks. But the social feedback and all other feedbacks lines are short-circuited, corrupted, and converted into loops that come back to the same point over and over again. The giants have retarded the evolution of of human species. When species cease to evolve, they become extinct.  Right now the odds are heavily stacked against the survival of ‘Google Civilization.’

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Posted in collapse, Collapse Mechanisms, Energy and Climate Bill, energy dinosaurs, Google Conspiracy, Obama administration | Tagged: , , , , | 3 Comments »