'Not for public': the oil spill may be getting much worse

[seemslikeadream]

BP burning sea turtles alive?

GETTY IMAGES 1 MONTH AGO
ISLE OF PALMS, SC - MAY 01: Workers from the Sea Turtle Rescue operation of the South Carolina Aquarium release back to the ocean one of seven rehabilitated sea turtles May 1, 2010 on the Isle of Palms, South Carolina. Sea turtles are endangered throughout the southeast and hundreds are expected to be injured in the massive oil spill along the Gulf coast.

[elpuma]

BP's Methane Monster: From the Gulf to the Globe

Sunday 27 June 2010
by: Craig Collins, Ph.D., t r u t h o u t | Report

We hear a lot of talk about carbon dioxide as the most dangerous climate culprit. And we should. So far, loading the atmosphere with CO2 is the single biggest cause of climate disruption. But, in the final analysis, methane may prove to be the most deadly of all greenhouse gases.

Unlike CO2, methane is flammable. BP's Deepwater Horizon blowout in the Gulf was triggered by a bubble of methane gas that escaped from the well and shot up the drill column, expanding quickly as it burst through several seals and barriers before exploding. The fiery blast killed 11 workers and sank the platform. Since then, an estimated 210,000 gallons of oil has spewed into the Gulf every day, making it the biggest oil spill in the US since the wreck of the Exxon Valdez in 1989.

Methane is a menace to coal mining. Mines use giant fans to keep this colorless, odorless gas below dangerous concentrations. But if this fails, the tiniest spark can set off a deadly blast. Methane explosions killed 29 miners in the Massey coal mine disaster last month and claimed 12 miners in the Sago mine disaster back in 2006.

However, methane's explosive properties are a miniature menace compared to its heat-trapping capacity. As a greenhouse gas, methane is about 25 times more potent, molecule for molecule, than carbon dioxide. Today, the amount of methane in our atmosphere is spiking at an alarming rate. Scientists studying this situation call methane "a ticking time bomb," and warn that vast stores could be released from frozen deposits on land and under the ocean in the coming decades.

Over the last few years, research ships in Arctic seas have found methane bubbling and foaming on the surface. These "methane chimneys" are caused by 10-degree jumps in temperature over eastern Siberia. Warmer temperatures cause methane to be released from thawing tundra and from melting methane deposits beneath the ocean. "These deposits rival fossil fuels in terms of their size. It's like having a whole additional supply of coal, oil and natural gas out there that we can't control," says James White, a geochemist at the University of Colorado.

The Siberian Shelf alone harbors an estimated 1,400 billion tons of methane - about twice as much carbon as is contained in all the trees, grasses and flowers on the planet. If just one percent of this escaped into the atmosphere within a few decades, it would be enough to cause catastrophic, uncontrollable climate change. This process could initiate a self-reinforcing feedback loop that would spiral out of control even if we cut our greenhouse emissions to zero. Scientists have no idea how close we are to crossing this point of no return, but the signs that we're approaching this tipping point are growing every day.

http://www.truth-out.org/bps-methane-monster-from-gulf-globe60623

[crikkett]

May God Bless us All

[Simulist]

BP's Methane Monster: From the Gulf to the Globe

Sunday 27 June 2010
by: Craig Collins, Ph.D., t r u t h o u t | Report

We hear a lot of talk about carbon dioxide as the most dangerous climate culprit. And we should. So far, loading the atmosphere with CO2 is the single biggest cause of climate disruption. But, in the final analysis, methane may prove to be the most deadly of all greenhouse gases.

Unlike CO2, methane is flammable. BP's Deepwater Horizon blowout in the Gulf was triggered by a bubble of methane gas that escaped from the well and shot up the drill column, expanding quickly as it burst through several seals and barriers before exploding. The fiery blast killed 11 workers and sank the platform. Since then, an estimated 210,000 gallons of oil has spewed into the Gulf every day, making it the biggest oil spill in the US since the wreck of the Exxon Valdez in 1989.

Methane is a menace to coal mining. Mines use giant fans to keep this colorless, odorless gas below dangerous concentrations. But if this fails, the tiniest spark can set off a deadly blast. Methane explosions killed 29 miners in the Massey coal mine disaster last month and claimed 12 miners in the Sago mine disaster back in 2006.

However, methane's explosive properties are a miniature menace compared to its heat-trapping capacity. As a greenhouse gas, methane is about 25 times more potent, molecule for molecule, than carbon dioxide. Today, the amount of methane in our atmosphere is spiking at an alarming rate. Scientists studying this situation call methane "a ticking time bomb," and warn that vast stores could be released from frozen deposits on land and under the ocean in the coming decades.

Over the last few years, research ships in Arctic seas have found methane bubbling and foaming on the surface. These "methane chimneys" are caused by 10-degree jumps in temperature over eastern Siberia. Warmer temperatures cause methane to be released from thawing tundra and from melting methane deposits beneath the ocean. "These deposits rival fossil fuels in terms of their size. It's like having a whole additional supply of coal, oil and natural gas out there that we can't control," says James White, a geochemist at the University of Colorado.

The Siberian Shelf alone harbors an estimated 1,400 billion tons of methane - about twice as much carbon as is contained in all the trees, grasses and flowers on the planet. If just one percent of this escaped into the atmosphere within a few decades, it would be enough to cause catastrophic, uncontrollable climate change. This process could initiate a self-reinforcing feedback loop that would spiral out of control even if we cut our greenhouse emissions to zero. Scientists have no idea how close we are to crossing this point of no return, but the signs that we're approaching this tipping point are growing every day.

http://www.truth-out.org/bps-methane-monster-from-gulf-globe60623

This sounds like the real story about methane the artificially-produced Hoagland methane story from the other day might have been designed to discredit.

[justdrew]

Almost All Exxon Valdez Cleanup Crew Dead




! OMFG OMFG !

[Gouda]

Pentagon Still Buying Most of Its Oil and Gas from BP

http://www.thenation.com/blog/fueling-w ... and-gas-bp

Jeremy Scahill, June 9, 2010

[Nordic]

Facebook just deleted the boycott BP page, which had over 800,000 members (including myself).

People were seriously angry on that site, and for good reason.

And douchebag Mark Zuckerberg just deleted it. POOF!

What's that tell you?

[Sweejak]

It tells me that if anything gets to be effective, they will turn it off.

[Nordic]

It tells me that if anything gets to be effective, they will turn it off.

It was definitely one of the first uses I've seen of a "Kill Switch".

[Bruce Dazzling]

It tells me that if anything gets to be effective, they will turn it off.

It was definitely one of the first uses I've seen of a "Kill Switch".

The boycott BP Facebook page is back.

[Jeff]

BP still using high levels of dispersants despite EPA edict

BY CRAIG PITTMAN
St. Petersburg Times

A month ago the Environmental Protection Agency ordered BP to stop spraying so much dispersant on oil gushing from the Deepwater Horizon well and to find a less toxic alternative to the chemical it was using.

BP is still spraying the same stuff - under the brand name Corexit - that led to EPA concerns in May. Although it has decreased the total amount used, BP has exceeded the recommended daily level of 15,000 gallons sprayed beneath the surface of the Gulf of Mexico. And so far, neither BP nor the EPA has found an effective but less toxic alternative to Corexit.

Meanwhile, federal scientists confirmed this week what University of South Florida researchers and others had found: plumes of tiny oil droplets that stretch for miles underwater, which ``is consistent with chemically dispersed oil.'' Some of it, they found, had oozed into more shallow waters close to shore.

``That's particularly troublesome,'' said Ernst Peebles, a biological oceanographer at USF. Contaminants in more shallow water - about 30 feet deep - can be blown around more easily by wind, spreading it along the gulf's biologically rich continental shelf, he explained.

TOXIC PROPERTIES

The bottom line, Peebles said, is that thanks to the dispersants ``the oil is more broadly distributed than it would have been, and the oil droplets do have toxic properties. It appears to be creating layers of microscopic oil droplets that are spread throughout the gulf.''

But EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson said this week that her agency will continue allowing dispersant use because ``dispersants are one tool in a situation that could not be more urgent'' -- even though, she acknowledged, ``We know that they come with environmental trade-offs.''

...

Some Louisiana cleanup workers have complained of being sprayed with dispersant from planes hired by BP, and reported skin irritation, headaches and nausea. But federal officials said they had been monitoring the dispersant use and so far had found no human exposure problems.

http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/06/27/1 ... ls-of.html


BP oil spill Corexit dispersants suspected in widespread crop damage

UPDATED: June 28, 2010 - The earlier posting referenced the adverse effects of Corexit and crude oil on plants with a link to a research document. Not too may people actually looked at the study though... So I put in the table referenced in the paper to make my point.

June 27, 2010 - Last May 24, EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson promised, "We will conduct our own tests to determine the least toxic, most effective dispersant available in the volumes necessary for a crisis of this magnitude... I am not satisfied that BP has done an extensive enough analysis of other dispersant options."

As of today, those tests have not been completed, according to the EPA. In the meantime, BP has dumped 1.4 million gallons of Corexit on the gulf. Next week, we could have a hurricane pushing Corexit inland.

...

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/ybe ... z0s2Itw857

[NeonLX]

BP still using high levels of dispersants despite EPA edict

Heh. So who's gonna stop 'em?

[Nordic]

Obviously BP is more powerful than the U.S. government.

They can just say "fuck you" to the EPA and keep doing what they're doing.

This is why, I think things might get out of hand and indeed probably NEED to get out of hand. The locals down there need to find out where those dispersant planes are coming from and go deal with it.

They're poisoning them from the air, after all. That's something you need to fight. Any way you can.

Right?

[Peregrine]

But EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson said this week that her agency will continue allowing dispersant use because ``dispersants are one tool in a situation that could not be more urgent'' -- even though, she acknowledged, ``We know that they come with environmental trade-offs.''

Wow, I love the "softer" language they use to describe the added destruction of the Gulf. Environmental trade off. What a joke.

[Simulist]

But EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson said this week that her agency will continue allowing dispersant use because ``dispersants are one tool in a situation that could not be more urgent'' -- even though, she acknowledged, ``We know that they come with environmental trade-offs.''

Wow, I love the "softer" language they use to describe the added destruction of the Gulf. Environmental trade off. What a joke.

Becoming living-impaired is a "trade off" for the benefits of suicide.