BP Oil Spill Disaster in Gulf of Mexico

[cenacle]

[Note: this one hour radio show offers a great deal of information about the oil spill disaster in the Gulf of Mexico]

BP Gulf of Mexico Spill Special
http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2010/05/450722.html

Audio: http://www.indymedia.org.uk/media/2010/05//450723.mp3

The Gulf of Mexico "spill" is really a man-made underwater volcano of oil. This accident taps a primeval fear in the human mind. Something dark and uncontrollable rushes out of the Earth, poisoning the global oceans. Could that really happen? Richard Heinberg, Anita Burke, Riki Ott, Antonia Juhasz, and new song "Corporate Catastrophe".

Black oil, millions of years old, gushes out of a gash in the Gulf of Mexico. One of the world's largest companies, BP, formerly British Petroleum says it's 1,000 barrels a day, then 5,000. Satellite photos suggest 25,000 a day. In a closed session, BP admits they don't know - it could be 40 to 60,000. The Governor of Louisiana prepares for 100,000 barrels daily. The "spill" is really a man-made underwater volcano of oil.

I'm Alex Smith. This accident taps a primeval fear in the human mind. Something dark and uncontrollable rushes out of the Earth, poisoning the global oceans. Could that really happen?

Madness ensures. Right-wing radio's Rush Limbaugh suggests the giant rig Deepwater Horizon was bombed by environmentalists. Others say a North Korean submarine did it.

During two administrations, BP lulled regulators to sleep, with assurances and campaign contributions. All that dirt will leak out too.

Meanwhile, 20,000 feet below the Gulf Waters, the giant Macondo field spurts out a relentless wave of fossil carbon, suspected to equal a new Exxon Valdez spill, every three days.

So many victims, so many tales to tell.

In this Radio Ecoshock report you'll hear from the activists who knew this was coming.

* Riki Ott, marine biologist, fisherwoman, and the conscience of Valdez, Alaska, checks in from New Orleans.

* Antonia Juhasz, oil researcher from Global Exchange, introduces us to BP - and it's lobby in Washington. Antonia wrote "The Tyranny of Oil: The World's Most Powerful Industry – and What We Must Do To Stop It."

* Peak Oil guru Richard Heinberg looks at the big picture impact. His famous books are "The Party's Over," "Peak Everything," and "Blackout". Richard is a founder of the Post Carbon Institute.

* And former Shell Oil executive Anita Burke finds the inside track, and the real culprits.

We end with a new song, "Corporate Catastrophe", written about the spill by Dana Pearson, and heard first on your Radio Ecoshock.

Alex Smith
Radio Ecoshock
 http://www.ecoshock.org

Radio Ecoshock
- e-mail: http://www.ecoshock.org/

[laughingwillow]

The wife saw a local article recently about a guy who went down to LA to assist with the oil clean up. Since returning, he has suffered from some serious respiratory problems. A doctor apparently told him that x-rays show the lungs of a person who smoked cigarettes for decades. The absorbent chemical that BP used is thought to be the source. It seems that they have a couple of alternatives and the one chosen is pretty harsh to life in general and prolly not a good idea to have been used in that manner.

lw

[judih]

ohmygod. it gets worse and worse.

[dendro]

ya they're using the dispersant developed by Michael Chertoff's chem co.. They know it's toxic and inefficient, but they make money on it. And they know there's too much oil to gather and burn, so they just want to hide it under sea. Keep people in the dark until the catastrophe is too great to contain or heal. Onward NWO!

Besides the dispersant, the fresh oil is accompanied by a large amount of gas, which combine to release a huge amount of benzene into the water and air. The benzene represents a profound danger to any life, especially human life.

Some observers, seeing how the Obama admin is in bed with BP, are beginning to posit that the gushing well could actually be by design, a super industrial espionage attack on the USA. Pretty extreme stuff, but there are rumors that there will have to be mass evacuations from all affected areas, including LA, FL, GA.

Weird, wild stuff...

[laughingwillow]

Yeah, let's blame this on Obama too. Why not?

Btw, I have to scratch my head at the folks who want big gubmit out of our lives and then complain when they don't fix messes created by the private sector in a timely fashion.

lw

[Glider]

I've got to agree with you, lw.  It is asking a little much to assume complicity with Obama.  Simple human greed and human ineptitude suffice without the need for conspiracy.

I'm wondering if there isn't something going on where BP doesn't really want to cap the well until they've proven to themselves they really cannot contain it, however I fear big government floundering about in the mess.

[JRL]

Well put Glider. I agree with you and lw on this.

[dendro]

"Simple human greed and human ineptitude suffice without the need for conspiracy."

It may suffice, but it doesn't rule conspiracy out either. However, I'm not sure "conspiracy" is really the right word to describe Obama's interrelationship with the corporate masters. Conspiracy implies some mutual participation in planning and carrying out some action. What we have seen with Obama since his election is simply Obama doing what he is instructed to do, like a good employee. Any conspiracy is likely taking place at higher levels than Obama.   :cool2

"I'm wondering if there isn't something going on where BP doesn't really want to cap the well until they've proven to themselves they really cannot contain it, however I fear big government floundering about in the mess."

Sorry, I'm not following you here, could you please restate?

[Glider]

Well Obama spent and spent, same as any successful politician seems to do.  That money comes from somewhere, and democrat supporters to the contrary, I don't see grass roots funding providing that sort of money.  Especially not in a tight economy.  And if you bought the success, wouldn't you expect a little quid pro quo?  You're right, I don't count that as conspiracy.  

"I'm wondering if there isn't something going on where BP doesn't really want to cap the well until they've proven to themselves they really cannot contain it, however I fear big government floundering about in the mess."

Sorry, I'm not following you here, could you please restate?

I don't know any of the finances involved, but I have to assume that at the moment BP sees it as cheaper to do cleanup and re-capture that well than to cap it and drill new, assuming they'd even get the opportunity to drill new at this point.

On the other hand I don't trust any government on earth to do a better job.  If Obama and friends moved in and took over the job of capping that oil well, I am convinced that it would work approximately as well as Bush and friends moving in to clean up after Katrina.

-G-

[dendro]

Interesting. BTW, I don't see "gubmit involvement" in regard to the capping and cleanup effort as an either-or situation. IOW, I don't see why the US fed has to "take over" the job of capping the well. I think you are on the right track with your idea that profit motive may be influencing BP to delay capping the well. If so, then perhaps the proper role of gov't. in this case is to enforce law and regulate--make it less profitable for BP to fuck around, and more profitable for it to perform according to law and environmental welfare.

Sadly, we have not seen anything like this coming from DC. And this is one reason why there is an increasing public perception that Obama is in bed with BP.

Hi Lw...

"Btw, I have to scratch my head at the folks who want big gubmit out of our lives and then complain when they don't fix messes created by the private sector in a timely fashion."

I have to scratch my head at the folks who can still use the terms "public sector" and "private sector" with a straight face.
 :e_wink:

[dendro]

http://www.naturalnews.com/028863_Briti ... exico.html

(NaturalNews)

The Gulf of Mexico oil catastrophe, now in its 35th day, has struck land, coating tourist beaches, marshes and shorelines with a greasy black filth that metaphorically represents the corporate greed that now dominates the U.S. economy. We are all awash in the dark slime of corporations gone bad, and now we're paying the price for allowing these companies to dominate our media, our government and our entire economy.

You might think government regulators could have prevented all this, but that's hardly the case. This disaster isn't merely about a government regulation failure; it's about what happens when you let corporations rule Washington.

Reporters threatened with arrest by U.S. Coast Guard under orders from BP
British Petroleum has been steamrolling both the federal government and the press over this oil catastrophe in the Gulf. For starters, the U.S. Coast Guard is now threatening to arrest journalists who try to cover the story by invoking "BP rules" that forbid journalists from conducting investigative journalism. (http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010...)

As reported by CBS News: "When CBS News tried to reach the beach, covered in oil, a boat of BP contractors with two Coast Guard officers on board told us to turn around under threat of arrest."

In other words, the U.S. Coast Guard is now protecting the financial interests of corporations by trying to censor a story the public needs to see.

At the same time, BP thumbed its nose at the EPA and flatly refused to use less-toxic chemical dispersants in its cleanup efforts. So yesterday, the White House ordered BP to cut its use of chemical dispersants by half. The chemical in question is called Corexit, and so far BP has dumped 650,000 gallons of the toxic chemical in the Gulf of Mexico.

And yet, as the Guardian reports, "Scientists told congressional hearings last week that Corexit was more toxic and less effective than other dispersants on the market. Conservationists fear the chemical could further jeopardize already depleted stocks of fish such as Atlantic bluefin tuna or poison endangered species of turtle." (http://www.guardian.co.uk/environme...)

Powerful corporations write their own rules
BP, of course, can simply ignore the order to ease off its use of chemical dispersants, just like it ignored rules and regulations about drilling for oil in the ocean in the first place. And that's the problem here: When corporations are allowed to run the show, they will inevitably take shortcuts that compromise the health of their customers or the environment.

The same thing is true with Big Pharma, which basically runs the FDA, FTC and CDC. What BP is doing to the Gulf of Mexico, Big Pharma is doing to the health of the world population. And yet because it is so incredibly profitable to poison people with dangerous prescription medications, the pharmaceutical industry has the financial influence to dominate the actions of government regulators.

Similarly, the meat and dairy industries basically run the USDA. That's why healthy raw milk is being outlawed while pasteurized, processed dead milk is heavily pushed by the USDA (and the FDA). (http://www.naturalnews.com/028757_r...)

Time and time again, powerful corporations corrupt the system and turn it to their own advantage: Military contractors dictate foreign policy. Monsanto dictates agriculture policy. Wall Street dictates banking regulations. And British Petroleum writes its own rules when it comes to offshore drilling.

It's not even a question of government regulators having too little power, either... regulators have plenty of power. It's just that they are using it against the People rather than to protect the people. They are purposely avoiding holding corporations responsible for their actions that are destroying our health, our economy and our environment.

A crime against our planet
For example, if you or I dumped 650,000 gallons of a toxic chemical in the ocean, we'd be arrested and brought up on criminal charges that would probably include "terrorism" charges under the Patriot Act. But when BP executives do exactly the same thing, nothing happens to them. No arrests. No criminal charges. No consequences.

Heck, you know as well as I do that BP will get off with a slap on the wrist when this is all over. Every major corporation that commits fraud (Big Pharma), steals from the People (Goldman Sachs) or causes an environmental catastrophe (BP) gets off virtually scot-free.

Well why is that? Why can corporations commit the most heinous crimes imaginable and yet never be held accountable? Big Pharma has engaged in so much price fixing fraud, clinical trial fraud and fraudulent marketing that it would make your head spin. Yet the U.S. government continues to do business with Big Pharma, buying up their dangerous drugs at monopoly prices, even though these companies are essentially corporate felons. Read my stories on Merck (www.NaturalNews.com/Merck.html) or Pfizer (www.NaturalNews.com/Pfizer.html) if you don't believe me.

Business as usual in the corporate world
The sad truth is that this disaster in the Gulf of Mexico isn't an aberration. It's just business as usual in the corporatocracy known as the United States of America, Inc. The corporations run this country, and they do whatever they want, regardless of how many people are killed, how many laws are broken or how many miles of coastline are utterly destroyed by chemical contamination. They operate with utter disregard for anything resembling ethics or honesty.

Corporate greed knows no limits. If corporate executives could profit another billion dollars by destroying the entire Gulf of Mexico, do you have any doubt they would pursue that course of action? Your life has no value to them. Marine life has no value to them. The health of the world's oceans have no value to them. They only value one thing: The bottom line profit they can produce at any cost.

British Petroleum = Big Pharma = Big Food = Big Agriculture = the Military Industrial Complex.

It's all the same, folks. Do not be surprised that these criminal corporate operators are destroying our planet. They've been doing it for generations, and they absolutely will not stop unless We the People make them stop through force (by having these people arrested and imprisoned, for example).

If you really want to clean up the planet, we should stop tossing chemical dispersants into the Gulf and just start tossing greed-minded corporate executives into the ocean and see how far they can swim when they're coated with oil.

That would be planetary justice, my friends, and it would send a powerful message that corporate executives who cause harm to the world around them may end up swimming in the very same cesspools of greed they themselves created.

[Glider]

Well I was mistaken about profit motives for not capping the well.  BP already has two other wells started (May 2, and May 23) into the same basic place, with the immediate intent of reducing pressure on the busted well to the point where it can be capped.  That being the case, I doubt there is any financial motive for BP to delay.

[dendro]

If so, then perhaps it is not such an extremist view after all that industrial sabotage on a grand scale, even a war on the US as an economy and a nation, is here displayed by the actions of BP.

Perhaps this is similar to the massive failure on the part of the feds to police US borders for the last 40 years, thus allowing unprecedented illegal immigration to take place (FYI, other countries, which have wanted to, have been able to police their immigration just fine. Mexico comes to mind here).

This in addition to the horrific failure of NAFTA to promote American welfare, as well. As we all can see, just the opposite has occurred.

And the failure of the "credit" system now ravaging almost every American. Under Mr. Greenspan, this was done in a most obvious and transparent manner, for those who were paying any attention. And now corporate "welfare programs" have become official policies of the fed.

False flag attack events staged to throw USA into endless wars designed to bankrupt the country financially and morally.

The taxing of Americans into bankruptcy, engendering a  deeply indebted, sleep-deprived, anxious, overworked population.

The failure of US schools, massive unemployment, the ongoing destruction of the middle class and the creation of a permanent underclass.

The drug war.

Polluted air, food and water.

The purchase and corruption of US' entire media conglomerate by a small handful of plutocrats, along with the purchase of the engines of government and social democracy to bring about a one party system.

The list of "bad decisions" is so long, it would take days to write them all down. Certainly, the collection of bad decisions on the part of fed policymakers over the last 30 years is so humongous as to beggar belief. One is left with the very real possibility that every element of social failure we have seen is progressing according to some larger plan, one that is not designed to promote the general welfare.

All of these gross acts fit the pattern that the "loony, crazy, tinfoil hat wearing conspiracy theorists" have been warning us about-that the plutocrats have declared war on the USA, and will not stop until they have engineered its destruction, and ushered in their New World Order.

"900,000 lbs of steel, rushin down that track".

To quote the immortal Ralph Wiggum, "Tinfoil makes my head itchy."  :blaugh:  :blaugh:  :blaugh:

[Glider]

(FYI, other countries, which have wanted to, have been able to police their immigration just fine. Mexico comes to mind here).

Just to nitpick on one element....  If we accept the argument that everyone wants out of Mexico, then how hard can it be to keep people out?  

-G-

[dendro]

Clever, yes, Mr. Glider.  :lol:

That's a big "if" tho. I don't accept that argument at all. Many people would like to live in Mexico. Either for the retirement opportunities, luxury part-time living, the weather, surf and sport, or job opportunities.

However, have you been to Mexico? Specifically southern Mexico? Because there is an ongoing police action and repression taking place there, and has been for a generation now. The natives of Chiapas have been repressed brutally by the Mexican army, with generous help from you, the American taxpayer, and your military reps.

Oaxaca has been under martial law for a while now.

The truth is, for impoverished Guatemalans, Hondurans, Nicaraguans and Salvadorans, work of any kind in Mexico is preferable to unemployment in the home country. And yes, many do illegally immigrate to Mexico. And Mexico brutally represses those it apprehends (they are pretty successful at it), and imprisons them or tosses them back across the Border.

But Mexico is only one country that has generally succeeded in controlling their immigration. Australia, New Zealand, other Pacific Islands, Middle Eastern nations, Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Myanmar, Japan, Thailand etc. all present themselves as basically successful in this area. Europeans used to do so, then their national policies "changed", and now western Europe has many problems with their immigrant populations. But again, this is by policy. Where the government of a nation has the will to control immigration, they are able to do so.

As a teenager living in SoCal in the early sixties, I witnessed the rising illegal immigrant population filtering slowly into CA. And no one seemed to care or try to do anything substantive about it. I traveled to Mexico and saw the state of things, and I knew that in time, the same pattern would repeat all over the US, unless steps were taken to actually enforce the immigration laws.

But little was done, the tide of illegals increased exponentially,  and now it is too late. Arizona's effort to begin enforcing these laws is much too late, they should have done this in the early seventies. It might have mattered then.

So where were the US feds? They knew what was happening, they did nothing. How could this not be by design? The fedguv participated in financing and legislating the micromanagement of the LA real estate market to keep the blacks penned in restricted neighborhoods. Then they made sure that alcohol, white powders and crystal were freely available in those neighborhoods. Then they opened the border. They knew what they were doing, they know how to get what they want.