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Don't Buy British Petroleum (BP)
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Iona Send message Joined: 12 Jul 07 Posts: 790 Credit: 22,438,118 RAC: 0 |
Greenpeace activists shut down London Gas stations Yes, well done Greenpeace. The petrol filling stations are franchises! The only people who were hurt, were the people who owned them, worked in them and the people who may have run out of petrol on their way to work and got the sack for being late. Have Greenpeace not noticed that people are getting sick and tired of being 'pushed around' by people who do nothing but protest? In London, there is real hatred towards these 'activists' and things are going to get pretty ugly before too long. When are Greenpeace going to scale the walls of the headquarters of the other companies involved? Or, are they too stupid to recognise the fact that other companies were involved? How about Greenpeace putting barriers around the USA? I sincerely hope that the owners of the various petrol filling stations, sue Greenpeace for loss of trade, trespass and a shed load more things! Me? I buy BP petrol and will continue to do so. Did I mention that my sister works for Shell. Indeed she does and she has no problem buying BP petrol for her car and has alot of sympathy for BP's plight - what would she know, eh? Don't take life too seriously, as you'll never come out of it alive! |
ML1 Send message Joined: 25 Nov 01 Posts: 21253 Credit: 7,508,002 RAC: 20 |
... Did I mention that my sister works for Shell. Indeed she does and she has no problem buying BP petrol for her car and has alot of sympathy for BP's plight - what would she know, eh? So you're a bit biased then? And "ignorance is bliss" and excuses everything eh? And you condone wiping out most of the life in the Gulf of Mexico so that you can blissfully pootle around in your car, oblivious? After all, the big mess is on the other side of the planet... No problem over here this side eh? Shame one species of tuna might be wiped out. One spawning generation very likely has. Big question as to whether the adults escaped or were poisoned and suffocated. And that's only one aspect... Regardless of whatever financial franchising trickery is done, Greenpeace pulled off a very appropriate publicity splash. I'm not sorry if that might have inconvenienced you and your sister in some immeasurably insignificant minuscule way. We will all be paying for the BP recklessness and mess in various significant ways. From today's newspaper, likely at your nearby favoured BP petrol station: BP oil spill: A Louisiana tragedy For Tim Gautreaux, a Louisiana local whose family is immersed in the oil industry, the BP leak means the death of his whole community. And things can only get worse… Unfortunately, your attitude makes for a very pertinent example. Regards, Martin See new freedom: Mageia Linux Take a look for yourself: Linux Format The Future is what We all make IT (GPLv3) |
ML1 Send message Joined: 25 Nov 01 Posts: 21253 Credit: 7,508,002 RAC: 20 |
No surprise, the Gulf oil well blowout is just one of many oil industry 'incidents' that happen on a daily basis: Oil industry safety record blown open National Wildlife Federation says catalogue of oil industry accidents proves BP disaster in Gulf of Mexico is not a one-off... [...] ... Among the causes for the poor safety record was the industry's relentless costcutting, despite record profits, said the report's authors, describing equipment failures, tank corrosion, and other signs of poor maintenance. The poor safety and environmental records were not restricted to the so-called Big Oil companies. ... And now BP are to start drilling deep in the Mediterranean, threatening a second species of tuna... Considering recent events, dangerously silly. Regards, Martin See new freedom: Mageia Linux Take a look for yourself: Linux Format The Future is what We all make IT (GPLv3) |
ML1 Send message Joined: 25 Nov 01 Posts: 21253 Credit: 7,508,002 RAC: 20 |
Good progress at last? BP starts 'static kill' to plug Gulf of Mexico oil well BP has started the "static kill" of its leaking Gulf of Mexico oil well, a step towards permanently sealing it. [...] The US government estimates the well leaked 4.9 million barrels of oil before being capped last month, with only 800,000 barrels being captured. US Oil Spill The well ruptured after an explosion on a drilling rig in April which killed 11 workers. That has taken a long time. So lets add up the numbers: 4.9 million barrels - 0.8 million barrels = 4.1 million barrels discharged = 172,200,000 US gallons (42 US gallons per barrel) = 651,847,930 litres (158.9873 litres per barrel) That gives a volume for the discharged oil of: 651,848 m^3 (cubic metres) That's a very large volume of crude oil. The surface slick area is listed as 2,500 to 68,000 sq mi (6,500 to 180,000 km^2) (BP oil spill) Oil is very toxic to marine life. Assuming the toxicity of "It only takes one quart of motor oil to make 250,000 gallons of ocean water toxic to wildlife" (a concentration of 1ppm), for the BP Gulf oil spill that gives: 172,200,000,000,000 US gallons of fatally contaminated ocean = 651,847,930,000,000 litres (158.9873 litres per barrel) That gives a volume of ocean that has been fatally contaminated of: 65,184,793 m^3 (cubic metres) That is a very large volume of ocean to wipe out. How many football stadiums could you fit in that?! And that excludes the effects of the 2.8 million gallons (10,599,153 litres) of known toxic dispersants added... Meanwhile for comparison, pollution from The Exxon Valdez is still a problem over twenty years later... A very big mess. It's our only planet, Martin See new freedom: Mageia Linux Take a look for yourself: Linux Format The Future is what We all make IT (GPLv3) |
ML1 Send message Joined: 25 Nov 01 Posts: 21253 Credit: 7,508,002 RAC: 20 |
Good progress at last? At last, it's looking good for stopping the oil gusher: BP says 'static kill' to stop oil leak was successful BP says the "static kill" of its ruptured Gulf of Mexico oil well has worked, a big step towards sealing it. ... No surprise that the pollution and the wiping out of a vast tract of marine life are being greatly downplayed... A very big mess. It's our only planet, Martin See new freedom: Mageia Linux Take a look for yourself: Linux Format The Future is what We all make IT (GPLv3) |
soft^spirit Send message Joined: 18 May 99 Posts: 6497 Credit: 34,134,168 RAC: 0 |
Anyone believe it? Nope. Wonder how much BP paid for that "breakdown". Janice |
ML1 Send message Joined: 25 Nov 01 Posts: 21253 Credit: 7,508,002 RAC: 20 |
Anyone believe it? Nope. Unbelievable that has been pushed into the news! But then again, enough dumb casual readers might believe it to sway whatever political votes are hanging on it. Let's hope there is enough honesty in the news media to carry on reporting the real story... A very gentle hint is given in: How much damage has the BP oil spill done? Looks like there's going to be a LOT of sponsored spin and FUD on this one for some time yet. I hope whatever scientists do not get blackened and sunk in the mess. There's a very clear message in that news that BP and Obama want this episode to be over and well away from public interest ASAP. It's our only planet, Martin See new freedom: Mageia Linux Take a look for yourself: Linux Format The Future is what We all make IT (GPLv3) |
ML1 Send message Joined: 25 Nov 01 Posts: 21253 Credit: 7,508,002 RAC: 20 |
Meanwhile, looks like some more of BP's practices are catching up: BP hit with $10bn lawsuit over Texas City ‘chemical leak’ Tony Buzbee, a Texas lawyer also representing Gulf residents affected by the spill, on Tuesday filed the class action lawsuit on behalf of 2,000 claimants linked to an incident in April and May. Mr Buzbee told The Daily Telegraph that his clients were seeking compensation for “health effects including all symptoms associated with acute benzene exposureâ€. ... It's a dirty business all round. The only people to profit are going to be the lawyers settling everyone's arguments... Still a big mess. It's our only planet, Martin See new freedom: Mageia Linux Take a look for yourself: Linux Format The Future is what We all make IT (GPLv3) |
ML1 Send message Joined: 25 Nov 01 Posts: 21253 Credit: 7,508,002 RAC: 20 |
Looks like the BP Gulf gusher has been capped with cement: BP Completes Cementing Macondo Oil Well From Top ... BP Plc completed cementing its Gulf of Mexico well from the top, moving closer to permanently plugging the source of the world’s biggest accidental offshore oil spill on record. The company continues to work on a relief well that will probably intercept Macondo in the middle of this month, BP said in an e-mailed statement. ... Still very painfully polluting for how long that has taken. Meanwhile, two other aspects are: Deepwater Horizon: A scientist at the centre of the spill Vernon Asper was one of the first researchers in the Gulf of Mexico to study the oil gushing out from the BP well. But it has not all been smooth sailing, reports Mark Schrope. Note how the scientists onboard the RV Pelican found plumes of oil in the (life fatal) range of "ppm" and additionally found lowered levels of oxygen... Even if the lowered level of oxygen isn't in itself fatal to marine life, I would expect the marine life to suffer and so be more susceptible to being wiped out by the oil plume at much lower ppm concentrations... BP’s Strategy to Limit Liability in Regard to Its Gulf Oil Gusher ... This article briefly discusses BP’s strategy to limit its liability in regard to the Deepwater Horizon blowout. This strategy includes, but is not limited to, intentionally underestimating the rate of flow of oil that’s being released into the Gulf of Mexico, prohibiting independent measurement of the BP oil gusher by unbiased third party scientists and engineers, the excessive and unprecedented use of dispersants (both on the surface and underwater), systematically and intentionally collecting as small an amount of oil as possible from the waters of the Gulf of Mexico, and controlling and restricting media access to the areas affected by the Deepwater Horizon oil gusher. ... Here's hoping this is the beginning of the end. However, I suspect the 'end' may well be decades from now for this one... It's our only planet, Martin See new freedom: Mageia Linux Take a look for yourself: Linux Format The Future is what We all make IT (GPLv3) |
ML1 Send message Joined: 25 Nov 01 Posts: 21253 Credit: 7,508,002 RAC: 20 |
These two articles give a very worrying contrast: BP finishes cementing damaged Gulf of Mexico oil well BP has finished pumping cement into the top of its damaged Gulf of Mexico oil well as part of its "static kill" procedure. The move comes the day after it was announced that almost three-quarters of the oil spilled had been broken down by natural forces or cleaned up. Oil leaked into the Gulf from 20 April when the Deepwater Horizon rig explosion killed 11 workers. The flow was stopped on 15 July. ... ... About a quarter of the oil released by the well evaporated or dissolved in the Gulf in the same way sugar dissolves in water, federal officials said. Another one-sixth naturally dispersed when leaking out of the well, and an additional one-sixth was burned, skimmed, or dispersed using chemicals. At a news conference, NOAA administrator Dr Jane Lubchenco said degraded oil was not a threat any longer because "when it is biodegraded it ends up being water and carbon dioxide so if it has been biodegraded, if it is gone, then it is not a threat". ... Scientists call new gulf spill report 'ludicrous' Scientists have labelled the new U.S. government report that claims it has taken care of the gulf oil spill as 'ludicrous'. Experts are also warning that majority of the oil is trapped under Gulf beaches and could remain there for years. ... "It's almost comical," he said. Hollander said that while 25 percent can be accounted for (by burning, skimming etc), 75 percent is still unaccounted for. For instance, the report considers all submerged oil to be dispersed and therefore not harmful, but that's not the case. ... Which do you believe? It's our only planet. Martin See new freedom: Mageia Linux Take a look for yourself: Linux Format The Future is what We all make IT (GPLv3) |
soft^spirit Send message Joined: 18 May 99 Posts: 6497 Credit: 34,134,168 RAC: 0 |
"There are three kinds of lies. Lies, Damn Lies, and statistics. And that Sir is a damn lie." (Samuel Clemens) Janice |
ML1 Send message Joined: 25 Nov 01 Posts: 21253 Credit: 7,508,002 RAC: 20 |
[...] No surprise there's a few follow-on articles. One such is: Gulf oil spill: White House accused of spinning report Scientists say it is 'just not true' that the vast majority of oil from the BP spill has gone It's our only planet. Martin See new freedom: Mageia Linux Take a look for yourself: Linux Format The Future is what We all make IT (GPLv3) |
skildude Send message Joined: 4 Oct 00 Posts: 9541 Credit: 50,759,529 RAC: 60 |
BTW if you intend to avoid BP products consider not using Catrol Motor oil. it is also BP In a rich man's house there is no place to spit but his face. Diogenes Of Sinope |
ML1 Send message Joined: 25 Nov 01 Posts: 21253 Credit: 7,508,002 RAC: 20 |
There's a lot of oil out there yet... Space Station Crew Documents Oil Spill This photo taken from the International Space Station on July 23, 2010, shows the Gulf of Mexico oil spill as part of ongoing observations of the region. When this image was taken, three months after the explosion on the Deepwater Horizon oil rig, the leak had been plugged for eight days. Water surfaces appear bright and land surfaces appear dark in the image. The stark contrast is due to sun glint, in which the sun is reflected brilliantly off all water surfaces back towards the astronaut observer on board the station. The sun glint reveals various features in the Gulf of Mexico, especially sheens of oil as packets of long bright streaks seen on the left side of the image. ... The high-res photo is sharp enough to see the sea swell. The oil streaks are obvious. And this is for one small area... It's our only planet, Martin See new freedom: Mageia Linux Take a look for yourself: Linux Format The Future is what We all make IT (GPLv3) |
soft^spirit Send message Joined: 18 May 99 Posts: 6497 Credit: 34,134,168 RAC: 0 |
Be under no misapprehension that there are heavy political machinations going on behind the scenes at the moment. The UK Prime Minister has made it clear to Obama and his administration that BP will be fully expected to fund every last cent of whatever it takes to clean up this oil leak. However that does not include putting up with simple BP bashing of the like that we have recently seen. BP made claims they could handle any problem. They obviously could not. They claimed safety was the #1 priority, obviously it was not. They say they will pay "Any proven damages". And are fighting every expense they can. They claim most of the oil is gone, obviously it is not. They say they will clean it up. It appears to me they can not. The ecco systems have been devastated. When or if they can ever recover is pure speculation. But they have refused to pay fishermen average yields based on they could not prove how much the catches would have been THIS YEAR. Shrimp, clam fields destroyed, wetlands poisoned.. distillites raining down that "evaporated" from the spill all across the country.... The US officials failed their supervision under the banner of energy independence while completely failing any constructive move towards renewable energy sources. It is not only time to move "Beyond Petroleum". It is time to move "Beyond BP" Janice |
soft^spirit Send message Joined: 18 May 99 Posts: 6497 Credit: 34,134,168 RAC: 0 |
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ML1 Send message Joined: 25 Nov 01 Posts: 21253 Credit: 7,508,002 RAC: 20 |
... BP made claims they could handle any problem. They obviously could not. They claimed safety was the #1 priority, obviously it was not. They say they will pay Note just now: BP agrees to pay record $50.6m fine for Texas explosion ... The agreement is the latest financial penalty for BP following the Texas explosion. The company paid a $21.3m fine to OSHA in 2005 and entered into a four-year agreement to repair hazards at the refinery. In 2007 the oil giant agreed to pay $373m to settle a number of both criminal and civil charges. In October last year, following an inspection of safety practices at the Texas plant, OSHA issued BP with an $87.4m fine, made up of two parts. The first part cited 270 violations that BP had failed to correct after the explosion, totalling $56.7m, later corrected to $50.6m, which BP has now agreed to pay. The remaining part of the fine, of more than $30m, is for 439 "new wilful violations". BP continues to contest it. That is quite a sour litany... Looks very bad for their latest exploits off the Libyan coast in the Mediterranean... It is not only time to move "Beyond Petroleum". It is time to move "Beyond BP" The politics meanwhile look to be very much to keep BP operating... It's all a dirty game. It's our only planet, Martin See new freedom: Mageia Linux Take a look for yourself: Linux Format The Future is what We all make IT (GPLv3) |
ML1 Send message Joined: 25 Nov 01 Posts: 21253 Credit: 7,508,002 RAC: 20 |
No surprises in this, only in that the oil industry has 'got away with it' for so long: US government calls for new laws to halt repeat of deepwater oil spill Announcement follows White House report that found BP received exemptions for its Gulf well based on decades-old [out of date] data Why does it take a vast disaster to gain the necessary attention?... It's our only world, Martin See new freedom: Mageia Linux Take a look for yourself: Linux Format The Future is what We all make IT (GPLv3) |
ML1 Send message Joined: 25 Nov 01 Posts: 21253 Credit: 7,508,002 RAC: 20 |
[...] No surprise with this, other than for how many it may have fooled: BP oil spill: US scientist retracts assurances over success of cleanup Bill Lehr, a senior scientist at the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) departed from an official report from two weeks ago which suggested the majority of the oil had been captured or broken down. "I would say most of that is still in the environment," Lehr, the lead author of the report, told the house energy and commerce committee. The growing evidence that the White House painted an overly optimistic picture when officials claimed two weeks ago the remaining oil in the Gulf was rapidly breaking down fuelled a sense of outrage in the scientific community that government agencies are hiding data and spinning the science of the oil spill. No new oil has entered the Gulf since 15 July, but officials said yesterday the well is unlikely to be sealed for good until mid-September. ... By some estimates, as much as 90% of the oil was unaccounted for. Lehr said 6% was burned and 4% was skimmed but he could not be confident of numbers for the amount collected from beaches. ... And this is what just one "missing oil plume" looks like: BP oil spill: scientists find giant plume of droplets 'missed' by official account A 22-mile plume of droplets from BP's Deepwater Horizon well in the Gulf of Mexico undermines claim that oil has degraded I'm sure there's no need to describe that a tinge of brown means a large proportion of oil mixed/dissolved in the water. Less obvious is that the non-brown coloured water may well be also fatally contaminated with an oil concentration that is not so very obviously visible. We can't breathe and drink oil and oil fumes and live. Neither can sea life. It's our only planet. Martin See new freedom: Mageia Linux Take a look for yourself: Linux Format The Future is what We all make IT (GPLv3) |
ML1 Send message Joined: 25 Nov 01 Posts: 21253 Credit: 7,508,002 RAC: 20 |
After the big spill: BP frozen out of Arctic oil drilling British energy giant BP forced to abandon hopes of Greenland exploration owing to tarnished reputation from Gulf oil spill ... Despite the Deepwater Horizon disaster, major oil companies – BP included — still hope to begin drilling in the Arctic off the coast of North America soon. Barack Obama opened up US waters there to exploration shortly before the Deepwater Horizon explosion, but suspended the plans while investigations into the disaster took place. But what of all the other companies working to similarly cut-throat costs and using similar practices that may well have just been a little more lucky so far?... And are there any improved methods for a clean up when the inevitable happens? It's our only world, Martin See new freedom: Mageia Linux Take a look for yourself: Linux Format The Future is what We all make IT (GPLv3) |
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