Gulf Oil Slick

[MsDemeanor]

Originally Posted by popcorninthesofa

Aj; Why do you think our government is restricting our awareness of this profound event? it's a hard lesson for all of us to learn.

I'm gonna guess that we'd all be hard pressed to find an instance where any government made it's citizenry aware of all of the details of a negative-impact event during said event.

[dreadgeek]

Originally Posted by MsDemeanor

I'm gonna guess that we'd all be hard pressed to find an instance where any government made it's citizenry aware of all of the details of a negative-impact event during said event.

If that example exists in history, I have yet to see it. I wonder if it has occurred to some of the conspiracy folks that part of the government's silence is that they simply don't know. We throw around words like 'unprecedented' but this event is truly something unlike anything that has happened before.

Cheers
Aj
(Proud member of the reality-based community)

[AtLast]

Originally Posted by dreadgeek

If that example exists in history, I have yet to see it. I wonder if it has occurred to some of the conspiracy folks that part of the government's silence is that they simply don't know. We throw around words like 'unprecedented' but this event is truly something unlike anything that has happened before.

Cheers
Aj
(Proud member of the reality-based community)

Seems to me that there are quite a few unknowns going on with this situation. From the start, I have been amazed at how so many people think that answers were going to just fall from the sky in stopping the spill as well as cleaning it up. Sure, I wanted that too- and yesterday- but the reality is that the technology is sorely lacking along with all of the other contributing factors.

My major concern is- given this crisis and finding out what we do not know and need to find out- will the resources and political will get behind doing so? Will we appropriately fund the engineers, chemists, physicists, environmental scientists, biologists, etc., to build a safety net against this in the future? Will we bring bright people into this loop and pay them well for their expertise? Or, will magical thinking continue allowing the profit-motive to prevail? And it seems to me that a global effort needs to be at the core of advancing this knowledge... yanno, planet earth. There appears to be some countries that have much better know-how than the US or the UK in all of this.

Oh, yes, reality-based thinking is in order!!

[violaine]

david godfrey grew up in my neck of the woods- central florida, and he used to surf at a popular site in new smyrna beach near the jetties. he encountered sea turtles often while out in the water, and turned his interest of marine life into a career. i thought i'd share a story about 'dawn', a leatherback, and the tracking of sea turtles as they migrate toward the oil spill. there are other stories on the main page.

http://www.conserveturtles.org/press..._dawn_oilspill

[JustJo]

Since the popular news is no longer following this story so intensely, I thought you might like this update from the NY Times.

[weatherboi]

Hi folks!!!

Science Friday had some scientists on the show July 30th.


http://www.npr.org/templates/player/...55&m=128875896

[AtLast]

On one hand, I feel joy that the oil is no longer gushing from this well. On the other, I feel a sense of dred because I believe so much has been and will be swept under the carpet in terms of the real effects this will have on the Gulf.

Will this get buried under the next story of a big disater? Just because this leak is capped, does not mean there is much to do in development of ways to stop this kind of mess. Will we actually change policy and institute safe guards? or, will people forget about this just because we don't see oil floating on top of the water or the tar balls on beaches? Will people realize just how toxic this is in the long run for wildlife and the food chain if we don't have live video streams of that oil gushing? Will resources to avoid something like this again be allocated? Will deep-water drilling continue to be accepted and given approval?

Yanno.... see no evil, hear no evil, say no evil...

[JustJo]

Originally Posted by AtLastHome

On one hand, I feel joy that the oil is no longer gushing from this well. On the other, I feel a sense of dred because I believe so much has been and will be swept under the carpet in terms of the real effects this will have on the Gulf.

Will this get buried under the next story of a big disater? Just because this leak is capped, does not mean there is much to do in development of ways to stop this kind of mess. Will we actually change policy and institute safe guards? or, will people forget about this just because we don't see oil floating on top of the water or the tar balls on beaches? Will people realize just how toxic this is in the long run for wildlife and the food chain if we don't have live video streams of that oil gushing? Will resources to avoid something like this again be allocated? Will deep-water drilling continue to be accepted and given approval?

Yanno.... see no evil, hear no evil, say no evil...

I totally agree with what you're saying here. It seems like an unfortunate reality that most of the time we only deal with the thing that's jumping up and down in front of our faces...another reason we aren't taking any significant action to prevent global warming (but that's another whole thread).

[weatherboi]

i wonder how many of these are going to be found.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/s...46&sc=fb&cc=fp