UPDATE: The latest from these pathological liars
So their stock is down big time.
That’s what it’s going to take. The corporation’s obligation to its stockholders is to make them a profit. Therefore, the obvious consequence needs to be: if you do this kind of thing, you will make a loss. That will actually work to keep the pressure on.
Even in Big Oil, the profit margin is not that impressive — for BP, about 8% of sales (massive salaries are counted as expenses, not as corporate profits). If they had to clean up every mess they made, they would lose money.
Now for the news, thanks Michele at the North Pole for sending this in:
Gulf oil spill relatively ‘tiny’: BP boss
LONDON (AFP) – BP chief executive Tony Hayward claims that the Gulf of Mexico oil spill is relatively ‘tiny’ but admits that his job is at risk over the incident blamed on his company.
Hayward told Friday’s Guardian newspaper that the leaked oil and the estimated 400,000 gallons of dispersant that BP had pumped into the sea to try to tackle the slick should be put in context.
“The Gulf of Mexico is a very big ocean. The amount of volume of oil and dispersant we are putting into it is tiny in relation to the total water volume,” Hayward said.
Asked if he felt his job was under threat, he replied: “I don’t at the moment. That of course may change. I will be judged by the nature of the response.”
BP is facing a growing backlash in the United States as experts warn the spill may be at least 10 times bigger than an official estimate.
Hayward insisted that deep-water drilling would continue in the United States despite angry responses to the incident from environmentalists and politicians.
“Apollo 13 (the unsuccessful third mission to the moon in 1970) did not stop the space race,” he told The Guardian.
:::Prior version of this post:::
Via POLITICO
‘An NPR News Investigation has found that there could be at least 10 times the amount of oil spilling into the Gulf of Mexico from the Deepwater Horizon oil rig than previously estimated. NPR’s Richard Harris asked scientists to analyze a video that BP released of a pipe on the seafloor spewing out oil.
‘The scientists concluded that 70,000 barrels of oil are spilling into the Gulf each day, plus or minus 20 percent – 14 times higher than the official estimate of 5,000 barrels per day from the U.S. Coast Guard. … [T]hese estimates indicate that the oil spilling into the Gulf has already far exceeded the equivalent of the 1989 Exxon Valdez tanker accident.’
Go to CNN video featuring interview with scientist who made the calculation.
Thank you SheBear13 for sharing the beautiful prayer. I have been seeking just this, and have passed it on to my spiritual community so that we can amplify the prayer. Blessings,
Jan
It’s important to remember that we NEED a healthy eco-system so that the natural world can absorb all the toxins we produce.
We need a diverse and flourishing ocean to act as a carbon sink to absorb our CO2 emissions. Without healthy oceans, the rate of climate change will go much much more quickly.
Same with streams and rivers, same with forests.
When this elitist corporate pinhead stood up on a public stage and proclaimed that essentially the eco-system is an infinite resource that can be infinitely exploited without serious consequence (and that was the implication of his message that the ocean is very very big), is simply WRONG from a scientific point of view.
Our best scientists have begun to understand that we need healthy functioning forests and oceans to keep from poisoning ourselves with all the pollution we produce.
Mr. Corporate Pinhead is flat-out wrong, and should not be believed.
My nephew is a diver in the Gulf. He says he hopes they can get the spill under control before the summer storm season begins. How could this get more horrible?
Carol van Strum writes:
Some more information in this article, and for once there are actually informed, non-vitriolic comments:
http://www.physorg.com/news193058341.html
From: SWS Secretariat [SWS@burkinc.com]
Sent: Thursday, May 13, 2010 3:46 PM
To: Melissa —
Subject: SWS – Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill – Announcement
Message from the President
SWS and the Oil Spill in the Gulf of Mexico 5/13/2010
As oil continues to flow into the Gulf, you may be wondering what SWS is
doing regarding this issue. As a scientific society, our role is to provide
an objective, scientific basis for making decisions surrounding this
ecological crisis. I have been in discussions with members of our Board of
Directors and leaders of other scientific societies about how we can work
together to provide this scientific perspective. I have also reached out to
our South Atlantic Chapter and been in contact with various contacts who are
involved in dealing with the oil leak in various ways. Some SWS members are
participating already in benchmark surveys of coastal ecosystems to provide
a baseline upon which to judge the nature, severity, and duration of
ecological impacts after the oil slick reaches the shore. Many other members
have participated in studies of coastal resources of the Gulf and may also
have valuable baseline information, and SWS may play a role in making that
information available in the future. Other members have asked me about what
they can do to help now. If you are interested in volunteering to help
regarding the oil leak, please visit the Deepwater Horizon Response Unified
Command website http://www.deepwaterhorizonresponse.com/go/site/2931/ and
click on the volunteer tab. Or, call one of these hotlines:
Wildlife Hotline 866-557-1401
Volunteer Hotline 866-448-5816
Resource Damage 800-440-0858
I would welcome any comments or suggestions you may have regarding the role
of SWS in addressing this ecological catastrophe.
Andy Baldwin, President, Society of Wetland Scientists
baldwin@umd.edu
“The Army secretly dumped 64 million pounds of nerve and mustard agents into the ocean, along with 400,000 chemical-filled bombs, land mines and rockets ”
???
This is really disgusting.
Piss on them.
That “out of sight, out of mind” mentality is why we’re fucked up today. My hope is that from here on in we challenge that self righteous, insular mindset once and for all.
Kudos Eric for alerting us to this crazy shit under the sea.
Carol van Strum sends this in: The (Newport News, Va.) Daily Press. did a version of the offshore chemical dump story, which was picked up by USA TODAY. Wait, this article is from 2005!
http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2005-11-01-weapons-ocean_x.htm
Report: Army secretly dumped chemicals offshore
By John M.R. Bull, The (Newport News, Va.) Daily Press via AP
NEWPORT NEWS, Va. — The Army secretly dumped 64 million pounds of nerve and mustard agents into the ocean, along with 400,000 chemical-filled bombs, land mines and rockets — either tossed overboard or packed into the holds of scuttled vessels, according to an investigation by The (Newport News, Va.) Daily Press.
Asha:
I’m with you and collective praying and it seems appropriate to print here this invitation to prayer that came into my mailbox last night.
“A Great Urgency
To All World Religious and Spiritual Leaders
My Relatives,
Time has come to speak to the hearts of our Nations and their Leaders. I
ask you this from the bottom of my heart, to come together from the Spirit
of your Nations in prayer.
We, from the heart of Turtle Island , have a great message for the World; we
are guided to speak from all the White Animals showing their sacred color,
which have been signs for us to pray for the sacred life of all things. As
I am sending this message to you, many Animal Nations are being threatened,
those that swim, those that crawl, those that fly, and the plant Nations,
eventually all will be affect from the oil disaster in the Gulf.
The dangers we are faced with at this time are not of spirit. The
catastrophe that has happened with the oil spill which looks like the
bleeding of Grandmother Earth, is made by human mistakes, mistakes that we
cannot afford to continue to make.
I asked, as Spiritual Leaders, that we join together, united in prayer with
the whole of our Global Communities. My concern is these serious issues will
continue to worsen, as a domino effect that our Ancestors have warned us of
in their Prophecies.
I know in my heart there are millions of people that feel our united prayers
for the sake of our Grandmother Earth are long overdue. I believe we as
Spiritual people must gather ourselves and focus our thoughts and prayers to
allow the healing of the many wounds that have been inflicted on the Earth.
As we honor the Cycle of Life, let us call for Prayer circles globally to
assist in healing Grandmother Earth (our Unc I Maka).
We ask for prayers that the oil spill, this bleeding, will stop. That the
winds stay calm to assist in the work. Pray for the people to be guided in
repairing this mistake, and that we may also seek to live in harmony, as we
make the choice to change the destructive path we are on.
As we pray, we will fully understand that we are all connected. And that
what we create can have lasting effects on all life.
So let us unite spiritually, All Nations, All Faiths, One Prayer. Along
with this immediate effort, I also ask to please remember June 21st, World
Peace and Prayer Day/Honoring Sacred Sites day. Whether it is a natural
site, a temple, a church, a synagogue or just your own sacred space, let us
make a prayer for all life, for good decision making by our Nations, for our
children’s future and well-being, and the generations to come.
Onipikte (that we shall live),
Chief Arvol Looking Horse
19th generation Keeper of the Sacred White Buffalo Calf Pipe
(Wolakota.org )”
Onipikte indeed.
Ursula
what I am worried about is that at some point there will be a balancing act carried out by Nature to bring oceans to their natural state and I am feeling chills to even think about it. You were right, we need collective prayers.
Asha