Quantifying, and Dealing With, the Deepwater Spill

Gooseygoose writes with a link to this analysis by Boston University professor Cutler Cleveland. "Some reports in the media attempt to downplay the significance of the release of oil from the Deepwater Horizon accident by arguing that natural oil seeps release large volumes of oil to the ocean, so why worry? Let's look at the numbers." Read on for a few more stories on the topic of the Deepwater Horizon spill. theodp writes with some information on the remote-controlled efforts to stanch the oil's flow: "The work Tito Collasius does sounds a little like science fiction: Men on ships flicking joysticks that control robots the size of trucks as they rove miles beneath the sea in near-freezing depths no man could hope to reach. But BP's spill efforts rest in the hands of underwater remote-operated vehicle (ROV) pilots, who 'fly' the ROVs from command centers aboard ships, joysticks in hand and large banks of screens in front of them offering a view of the challenges they confront in the waters below. ROVs are typically used for commercial (as in the oil industry), oceanographic (science research and exploration), and military (mine reconnaissance and recovery) missions. If you're interested in joining Tito, training's available." Even if BP were to effect a perfect block for the oil, though, there's still quite a bit of it swirling in the Gulf — you've probably seen some gut-wrenching pictures of the affected wildlife. Reader grrlscientist writes "Some people claim that we should euthanize all oiled birds immediately upon recovering them. But I argue it is our ethical responsibility to protect, clean, and save these birds, even after they've been oiled, just as we should preserve and clean their habitats."

Comments

Re: The Exon Valdez

[Brett Buck]

And the large view is even worse. Human population is exploding and we are now absolutely confronted with the fact that oil driven technologies are a horror story. And we are jumping to adopt newer technologies with no way to estimate the great harm that they may generate. After all, only the lunatic fringe believed that oil driven advances were aproblem until the 1970 era.

My God, maybe we should just all kill ourselves now! And never try anything new on the off chance that it might prove harmful in some way in the future. Who gives a crap if half the world's population starves to death while we determine a perfectly safe energy technology?

         

Animal ethics?

[AthanasiusKircher]

TFA (the last link) makes some reasonable points about why a blanket euthanization policy for all birds could be extreme. But then it goes too far and wants to save everything. From the conclusion:

Because all people use oil or oil-related products in some form, I maintain that it is both ethical and responsible to try to save as many oiled birds and other wildlife as we can. [...] I think that each life is intrinsically valuable and that each animal is deserving of care and protection. In a world where life is not always respected and valued, I think that saving the life of even one bird sends an important message.

Awww... you want to save the animals? Every life is sacred! Well, you can start by saving the life of the tapeworm that took up residence in your body, or perhaps that mosquito that just bit you and gave you malaria. What? You see a breeding ground for those disease-ridden mosquitoes and want to dump the water? Don't kill the larvae! Or what about the rats that infest your house and could potentially bring disease, particularly if they are allowed to multiple and run rampant in urban areas? You might think that trapping them humanely and releasing them is doing a good deed, but be sure you release them in a habitat where they can find enough food, or you're just contributing to their prolonged starvation as they die a horrible death. Better safe than sorry -- leave food out for them and keep them in your home.

Oh wait -- I bet TFA is just talking about cute animals that aren't annoying, disease-ridden, or parasitic to humans.

I'm against unnecessary cruelty to animals, but it simply doesn't make sense to try to save every possible bird here, from either a monetary or moral perspective. Those which can be relatively easily treated, sure. But the humane thing to do for birds who are unlikely to recover and who would be completely stressed out by prolonged contact with humans is to euthanize them. Just like the humane thing to do for many pets (and even humans) with a likely terminal condition is to stop forcing treatment on them and let them die.

Passport for Guilt Trip: DENIED

[archer, the]

Thank you for pointing out that, being under 40, I was one of the people to choose Oil as a major energy source back in the 50s, 60s, and 70s. Thank you for pointing out that, making $50K a year, I was one of the people who lobbied politicians with the message of "there's no such thing as global climate change". Thank you for pointing out that being a non-governmental, non-petrochemical, non-drilling employee, I chose the poor oversight and safety practices that occurred on Deepwater Horizon.

Enough sarcasm.

Yes, we are too dependent upon oil. Most people know that. Many of us have believed that for decades. However, these decisions were made long ago and by people with influence.

Recently, we have been making progress: there are hybrid cars on the road now. There will be electric cars on the road soon. We're looking for alternatives for plastics as well. People can pay an extra fee to have their electricity supplied from a renewable source. But the oil problem won't change overnight.

Re:The Usual Suspects

[Doc Ruby]

The governors of the states affected didn't do anything but collude with oil/gas corps before the catastrophe. Now they're shifting blame off themselves by blaming someone else. Even when they're right to blame someone else, that doesn't mean their spin is at all accurate, because it's designed to falsely avoid getting any blame on themselves.

Note that the governors in question, of all 5 Gulf Coast states, Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida, are all Republicans who were in power when Bush/Cheney (both oilmen) were running the country. They made money under Cheney's energy policy, and pushed back the inevitable consequences of catastrophe, just like they did in the financial system. And now they will take as much "Big Government" as they can get, after working to shrink government to small enough that they could "drown it in a bathtub". That is how they roll.