Tilted Forum Project Discussion Community - View Single Post - Louisiana Oil Rig Fire / Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill

roachboy · 05-24-2010, 01:06 PM

ace, dear, its not a matter of "bad things not happening." it's a matter of it being kinda predictable that something could, say, go wrong with an oil rig that's drilling at the bottom of the ocean. you'd think there'd be an actual plan for dealing with contingencies. but bp seems to have decided that the way to play things in this regard is to cut corners, avoid development and/or studies and/or regulation to the greatest possible extent and when the shit hits the fan pay the fines. they've demonstrated this "business model" for 20 years. the data's above, in this thread.

you'd think that a sane regulatory system would have taken into account the responsibilities of stewardship of a complex ecosystem like the gulf of mexico and even if you manly man conservatives can't get your manly heads around notions of environmental conservation or protection then you should at least be able to recognize that there are multiple stakeholders in the gulf of mexico, from fishing to tourism to plants animals fish and other things, and this not only close to the deepwater horizon site, but quite far away and potentially very far away as the oil from the spill reaches the main gulf currents and starts getting pulled out to sea and toward florida. for starters. none of these stakeholder interests have been protected by the existing regulatory system.

so you have a corporation with a history of negligence and a policy of fuck it when something happens we'll pay the fines all in the interest of profit maximization, which is of course in the manly man world of capitalism a necessarily good thing until something horrific happens like this at which point all the manly defenders of uncontrolled capitalism start looking for Daddy to bail them out or some Superhero to come in to save Everybody at the last moment because that's how invisible hands roll---but in this unfortunate situation, you not only have a corporation with a history of negligence and a host of specific instances of negilgence in the period leading up to the explosion and collapse and spill, but you have this corporation operating in a "regulatory" system that requires very little of them, that is passive, that does not protect other stakeholder interests, that does not protect the commons, that does not steward resources, but instead follows the lead of oil corporations. and the oil corporations have paid big money for this set-up. and for the political consent which had enabled it. and for the consent of people like you, ace. those were the priorities. not designing systems to contain leaks a mile below the surface of the ocean. so there are no systems. there are no systems and there are no ideas for systems. so there are no solutions at this point.

but there sure as fuck is a leak, and a massive one at that.

so it's entirely disengenuous to act as though this is just a bad thing that's happened.
this is a preventable thing that was not prevented in the context of a drilling policy that's risky and problematic at best which was not hedged round with regulation commensurate with that risk. so there's nothing in place or on the horizon that can stop this disaster from continuing. it's be nice were the junk shot to work, but like everything else that's never been tried a mile below the surface of the water. and we're just finding out about all these---um---gaps in testing and thinking now, 3 weeks into one of the worst oil spills ever.

meanwhile bp was dumping dispersants onto the oil at a mile below the surface that were not only unacceptably toxic but which didn't fucking disperse the oil. what they did was cause it to break up and then coagulate again, but with the dispersant as part of the new tar-ball masses, which float well below the surface of the ocean and below the reach of imaging technologies.

it just goes on and on ace. what happened is not just some random bad thing. what happened was an accident compounded by negligence corruption short-sightedness and greed.

05-24-2010, 01:06 PM	#164 (permalink)
roachboy Super Moderator Location: essex ma	ace, dear, its not a matter of "bad things not happening." it's a matter of it being kinda predictable that something could, say, go wrong with an oil rig that's drilling at the bottom of the ocean. you'd think there'd be an actual plan for dealing with contingencies. but bp seems to have decided that the way to play things in this regard is to cut corners, avoid development and/or studies and/or regulation to the greatest possible extent and when the shit hits the fan pay the fines. they've demonstrated this "business model" for 20 years. the data's above, in this thread. you'd think that a sane regulatory system would have taken into account the responsibilities of stewardship of a complex ecosystem like the gulf of mexico and even if you manly man conservatives can't get your manly heads around notions of environmental conservation or protection then you should at least be able to recognize that there are multiple stakeholders in the gulf of mexico, from fishing to tourism to plants animals fish and other things, and this not only close to the deepwater horizon site, but quite far away and potentially very far away as the oil from the spill reaches the main gulf currents and starts getting pulled out to sea and toward florida. for starters. none of these stakeholder interests have been protected by the existing regulatory system. so you have a corporation with a history of negligence and a policy of fuck it when something happens we'll pay the fines all in the interest of profit maximization, which is of course in the manly man world of capitalism a necessarily good thing until something horrific happens like this at which point all the manly defenders of uncontrolled capitalism start looking for Daddy to bail them out or some Superhero to come in to save Everybody at the last moment because that's how invisible hands roll---but in this unfortunate situation, you not only have a corporation with a history of negligence and a host of specific instances of negilgence in the period leading up to the explosion and collapse and spill, but you have this corporation operating in a "regulatory" system that requires very little of them, that is passive, that does not protect other stakeholder interests, that does not protect the commons, that does not steward resources, but instead follows the lead of oil corporations. and the oil corporations have paid big money for this set-up. and for the political consent which had enabled it. and for the consent of people like you, ace. those were the priorities. not designing systems to contain leaks a mile below the surface of the ocean. so there are no systems. there are no systems and there are no ideas for systems. so there are no solutions at this point. but there sure as fuck is a leak, and a massive one at that. so it's entirely disengenuous to act as though this is just a bad thing that's happened. this is a preventable thing that was not prevented in the context of a drilling policy that's risky and problematic at best which was not hedged round with regulation commensurate with that risk. so there's nothing in place or on the horizon that can stop this disaster from continuing. it's be nice were the junk shot to work, but like everything else that's never been tried a mile below the surface of the water. and we're just finding out about all these---um---gaps in testing and thinking now, 3 weeks into one of the worst oil spills ever. meanwhile bp was dumping dispersants onto the oil at a mile below the surface that were not only unacceptably toxic but which didn't fucking disperse the oil. what they did was cause it to break up and then coagulate again, but with the dispersant as part of the new tar-ball masses, which float well below the surface of the ocean and below the reach of imaging technologies. it just goes on and on ace. what happened is not just some random bad thing. what happened was an accident compounded by negligence corruption short-sightedness and greed. __________________ a gramophone its corrugated trumpet silver handle spinning dog. such faithfulness it hear it make you sick. -kamau brathwaite Last edited by roachboy; 05-24-2010 at 01:09 PM..