[QUOTE=MichaelWSmith;35207]Well, Confucius, my name is not rlanasa and no, I am not in the pay of BP. I agree that this disaster is affecting all of us on a bipartisan level. But the Maddows of the world want to use is as an excuse to destroy the oil industry – and I, for one, am not anxious to live without the following products for the rest of my life:
anesthetics
antifreeze
antihistamines
antiseptics
artificial limbs
artificial turf
aspirin
awnings
balloons
…
yarn[/QUOTE]
What exactly did Maddows say in that youtube clip that made you label her a lefty ? If Maddows is a lefty, what would you label a person like the “Swamp Fox” ?
Thinking in terms of just your puny life span is a bit selfish. What about the life spans of future generations ? How will they survive without :
clean health
healthy genes
healthy babies
clean air
clean rain
clean water
clean soil
plankton
fish/food that is safe to eat
songs of birds & frogs
jobs & culture
This simple non verbose list might come across as Utopian to a person with a psyche which denies fossil fuels are a finite resource ? An addict can’t think beyond his next fix! You don’t care because you think it won’t happen in your life time. Like let our kids worry about it and clean up the mess. We don’t have to revert to the stone age to eventually be less reliant stuff you listed. Most of it is carcinogenic anyway. What good is all of that and millions you may have stashed in your bank, if your health is terminally stuffed ?
All resources are finite, as such we should use them sparingly with care and respect to allow transition for alternatives or even recycling or improved efficiency. Technology is available to exploit these resources wisely, with no need for rape pillage and plunder. Most everything I use is derived from petrochemical products. Stuff made of metal and glass still need energy to forge them. I own up and acknowledge my reliance on the keyboard and computer screen I use now, but that don’t make me complicit with negligence like using el cheapo methods to extract hydrocarbons nor justify profit for the sake of greed.
ALL BLOWOUTS ARE PREVENTABLE !..even ones precipitated by heavy rain, lightening and hurricanes. I have been a bonafide rig pig for the last 3 decades but always refused to shove my snout into the trough. I am yet to miss a kick on my watch. I refuse to work for shonky outfits.The vast majority of the wells I was on, were done safely with sound quality engineering and materials, by well paid and qualified or experienced engineers, who rose up the ranks by shear hard work and merit, and not because he was bum buddies with persons of high rank or status. I run a tight ship and when I sniff out a shyster that poses a danger, I run his ass off and it don’t matter if he is the son of a big wig somewhere. I am well aware of the repercussions that will ensue but would rather put up with that than go global to evoke sympathy with shameless gibberish like “I want my life back”.
The vast majority of rig personnel I have worked with, love the sight of whales, giant graceful sting rays, nautilus and the exotic wild life we get to see in some fantastic locations. It is the ones who were born and bred in predominantly plastic artificial and or visibly or invisibly filthy environments who worry me most. A good number climb the ladder rapidly. Actually they are not capable of climbing for fear of heights but get winched to the top.
Are you in denial that the damage that has been done and will further be done until BP kills this well, will be permanent ? Perhaps you just push this out of your mind ? …bacteria will look after the problem.
Then again that much awaited time for when we hope BP will kill the well, might not be the end but just the beginning given the incompetence that’s led to this catastrophe. You can label people who think outside the box, commies or heretics, burn them at the stake but Mocondo is one hell of a super field with expected CONTROLLED flow rates of 50,000 bopd. I don’t know about you but I’m scared ******** and never felt this helpless, not just due to the scale of this catastrophe but also because of the unbelievable shameless psychological inexactitude and cognitive dissonance displayed by BP’s brand of public relations. I won’t believe anything they say unless they deny it. It gives us all in the industry a very bad name. Nobody is going to believe us when we say we care about nature and the environments we drill in.
I have no choice but to trust that BP and the rest of the industry helping, will kill this well soon if not at the very least, later, and pay less time factoring effects their operations and announcements will have on BP’s share value come Monday. If the industry feels they can’t trust them any further then they should push them aside and take over the kill before its too late.
And just FYI – Necessity is the mother of invention.The human species has so far been a resilient lot but life on this planet will go on quite nicely without us. Being on top of the food chain pyramid don’t make us and plastic indispensable.
I am an oil field engineer and support deepwater drilling but we badly need invest in technological contingency for such situations, like perhaps new subsea technology and even subsurface applications like downhole BOPs. Making new laws won’t help if persons we pay our taxes to don’t have the guts to enforce them.
The following youtube clip is dedicated to spirits who share a similar mentality like yours in hope that it will evoke a consciousness and decency that will question your futile efforts at defending a bunch of vandals cum losers. Enjoy and many thanks to the person or persons who put it together.
//youtu.be/8jP8CC2rKj4