Oil Exploration and Destruction of The U. S. Gulf Coastline

It is without a question one of the worse things that could happen to the Gulf coast. But if we really think about it, and it is seriously depressing to do so, this oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico by BP will possibly lead to one of the worse disasters in the United States of America. Lives were lost during Katrina and other hurricanes and those were terrible tragedies, but this occurrence could effect the country for many, many years to come.  It is somewhat impossible to rebuild an ocean and restore wetlands.

This can actually be tracked back to the time when the so called energy policies were being written behind closed doors and the oil corporations were basically given free rein to write their own rules. So here we sit, with the worse oil spill, it’s not even a spill, spills stop at some point.  This is a spewing of oil on a continuous basis into the ocean and those in charge, both BP and the Federal government are looking in bewilderment and asking silently what do we do now?

It is beyond belief that a huge company like BP, British Petroleum, has drilled an oil well, one mile below the surface of the ocean, had an accompanying rig blow up, due to some faulty system and not have any viable backup plan to stop the flow of oil from destroying the eco-system and the ocean waters for miles and miles. Unbelievable.

They drilled, they took oil from the bottom of the ocean, they made billions in profits, but yet they have no idea what to do to cut off the continuous stream of oil flowing out of the ruptured well? How is this possible? Should those who granted the permits to perform this billion dollar operation not have requested documentation and verification at least, that there would be systems in place, like perhaps a fire extinguisher if there were a fire to put it out? Evidently no one even cared to find out.

Breakdown! Total breakdown. Who can say how many red flags should have been thrown up, to protect the eco-system and the coastlines. The birds, the fish, the shrimp. the turtles, the oysters and many, many other species will die. The wetlands, the bird refugee areas and the waters where the animals find food are tarnished beyond imagination. All destroyed with the sludge of oil slicks and the black crude of more and more millions of gallons of a non-degrade able substance. There are sadly reports of men, who have no livelihood now, threatening suicide. The birds covered in oil are frightened and flee, when rescuers try to save them. They will eventually die from being covered in oil. Somebody should pay dearly for this  destructive thing. The economy will suffer,  multitudes of people have lost their sources of income. Enormous damage has been done to the areas affected by this event and the many areas yet to be affected. 

The threat is now that the oil flow will enter the ocean current and turn up the East coast area, possibly moving up to New England. The methods to stop the flow have only resulted in containing a percentage of the outflow, containment structures, siphons and chemicals being some of the methods being used to reduce or contain the oil outflow. On Wednesday of this week, another try will be made to curtail the flow. A second well is thought to be the only way to completely stop the leak, but that by some accounts will take three months to build. This well is said to be in progress at this time.

A commission will be formed to investigate this catastrophe, according to the White House, but foresight on someone’s part, before this happened in the first place would certainly have been the better choice. This should definitely start a serious discussion about finding much more acceptable and cleaner sources of energy. The planet nor society, really and truly can’t take much more of this man made negligence.