Mother of all gushers could kill Earth's oceans

[Titanoboa]

Risking to blow up America, we could hit two stones with one bird.

(Hey, no offence!)

Would need a big bomb, though.

[sinewav]

Maybe you wouldn't need a nuke? There are some pretty big conventional warheads that could probably do the job, like a bunker-buster. Then again, I have no idea how something like that would work under a mile of water with the massive pressure PSI. Maybe I should search before posting about something I know nothing about, eh?

[Tank Program]

A relief well (which seems the most "sure fire" in a rather vague sense) is at least 2 months away. More if it gets caught up in Obama's reforms on offshore drilling practice.

They were drilling the relief well from Day-1—that's the only way to actually stop it. And of what specific "reforms" do you speak, and in what way do you think they would have any impact on that? You do realise that Obama (spineless, stand-for-nothing corporate Republicrat and sell-out, "post-partisan," concession-giving Compromiser-In-Chief that he is) had approved expanded offshore drilling prior to this, and that there's currently only a "moratorium" for P.R. purposes (and in fact, MMS had continued issuing permits for drilling).

By the way, are you still trusting BP, considering they've already been caught in several lies and coverups regarding this?

Maybe I've used the word reform a bit liberally. As far as I know the system for issuing permits and safety checks is coming under review, and so all new permits are being delayed at least 6 months, while existing operations continue. Something like that. Considering how little we've heard about the practice going on at the second location, it's entirely possible they'll come under some sort of review. As much as supervision is necessary, it can also slow things down significantly on site. Best practice on paper and location tend to be quite different. I should also point out that I seem to remember something about a poll on offshore drilling. Approval for it's fallen something like 40% since 2008.

As for trusting BP, I still give them the benefit of the doubt. They may have been caught in lies, but if so then it's not been in any of the articles I've read.

(I should point out all of this is from memory and it's entirely possible I may have details wrong.)

[apparition]

http://www.consumerenergyreport.com/201 ... oil-spill/

Feds Launch Criminal Probe of Oil Spill, BP Stock Plummets

[Tank Program]

They've also started working on another method of cutting off the oil flow. They've chopped off some of the mangled pipe in the hope of lowering a dome over it again, I think.

[Word]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2010/jun ... -oil-spill
i lol'd

earth has a chance!

[akira]

That spill is likely more catastrophic than the rare leaked media info suggests.
As for the origin of oil there are 2 major theories - biotic or abiotic origin. The latter is gaining momentum as a result of experiments of russian scientists, who created hydrocarbon chains out of marble and some stuff I forgot using huge pressure and high temperatures.
Also many of the giant oil fields do no run dry at all - see Ghawar in Saudi-Arabia, which is being harvested for 70 years now.
Anyways, another russian scientist formulates the theory that the current oil spill is situated on a "migration" channel, where oil (if the abiotic theory proves true) flows from the inner zones to the upper and he estimates that the leak could gush for years. Dire portent indeed.

Also Napolitano (US Homeland Security Sec.) were quick to decalre the event as national security issue - yet done is almost nothing. Is is way more prudent to think that the aim of this move was to block media coverage, which would show the magnitude of the desaster.

True or not, in the end, the victims are mostly the non-human lifeforms - bussiness as usual.

[Concord]

True or not, in the end, the victims are mostly the non-human lifeforms

As most of us here would acknowledge considering we're a pretty environmental friendly bunch, "In the end" we're effected as well, yeah?

[Word]

http://www.blacklooks.org/2010/05/niger ... rspective/

[Word]

i think we can symbolically close this topic

[gawdzilla]

Why? They are still only testing for the second day. About time they solved it though, hopefully.

[ppotter]

It's only temporary anyway, isn't it?

[Hoax]

No the plan is to seal it up with concrete aparently but they can't exactly say it's 'done' because people with start crying a lot more if it starts leaking again

[Phytotron]

Word (and others), you really should read the entire report, not just the headline.

people [would] start crying a lot more if it starts leaking again

You think that would be unjustified? Like this is some trivial event and people should stop being such whiny babies about it?

[Word]

i know it's just temporary - but can't we be a BIT optimistic?