Gulf oil spill in perspective.

[eamarquardt]

Old Sam C. once said if you don't read the newspaper you are ill informed. If you do read the newspaper you are misinformed. So I don't know who to believe.

No one can deny that the gulf oil spill is a big disaster. However, an article in the LA Times this week (not that you can believe everything you read there) compared the amount of pollution as a result of the BP accident with the amount that is emitted every day in Los Angleles.

http://articles.latimes.com/2010/jul/08 ... c-20100708

Depending on how you look at it it takes only 2 or 4 days of our "business as usual" pollution in Los Angeles to equal one day's worth of BP pollution! This has been happening day in and day out for years and will continue day in and day out for the foreseeable future. We all hope the BP spill will be contained soon but the day to day air polution in this country is far bigger.

Food for thought.

Gus

[GPW]

Sounds like Bull chips to me .... LA pollution didn't kill off all the marine life ... BP did !!!! GRRRRRRR!!!!!!!

[Billy K]

Well, now there's a bowl of worms....did BP or did the Feds....??

LA approved a shallow drill permit but the feds said 'nope; you gotta drill deep'.

The oversight and inspections were the Feds responsibility. Yes, BP took shortcuts but, they had to meet with approval by someone outside BP too!

I will not dismiss BP from their responsibility. I will not stand by and watch them receive sole blame, either. There is a myriad of paperwork and approval that takes place and BP did not do all of that by themselves!

Pollution comes in many different forms and amounts. What is being said, in my opinion; in the posts above comes down to the old saying.......

"put a frog in cold water , turn up the heat slowly, and you'll boil it to death - put a frog in hot water and he'll jump out, immediately"

The gulf has had "HOT water" poured into it and L.A. is slowly coming to a boil.........

[caseydog]

[eamarquardt]

Sounds like Bull chips to me .... LA pollution didn't kill off all the marine life ... BP did !!!! GRRRRRRR!!!!!!!

Yeah, but only because the marine life wasn't breathing the air! The air here in the 60's was so thick you could cut it with a knife. I'm sure that it killed (literally) a lot of folks, plants, and animals (I can remember gasping for breath at the end of a smoggy day). Guy (teardrops for vets) and I were toodling around one day in the San Fernando Valley and you could see all the way across the valley through the clear air and I remarked that it was nice to see the air cleaned up to the degree it has been. He, being comming to Ca. later in life was surprised at my comment and had no idea how much cleaner the air is today versus then.

I can't concieve that spraying the oil with a "dispersant" and allowing it to sink (and cover the bottom) is a good answer but good answers are sometimes hard to come by.

We gotta be a bit easier on "spaceship earth".

Cheers,

Gus

[Arne]

We, well, not me.. can only try to contain what floats.

http://io9.com/5581771/this-one+year-projection-of-the-deepwater-horizon-oil-spill-will-ruin-your-day

[Billy K]

Mark Twain covered theorhetical forecasts....

...lies,damn lies, and statistics.....

CD, no dead horses here; the truth will come out......it still effects people and causes them to ponder.

[starleen2]

HUMMMM - BP's petroleum products made the plastics that go into the land fill? double whammy! Don't be so shocked everyone - it's all our fault, we just don't want to give up our throw away lifestyle. Put your money where your moth is - don't used disposable plastic anything on your next camp out - wash your dishes and reuse them - or just be the hypocrite that blames Bp for the mess that we demanded from our consumerism

[eamarquardt]

Mark Twain covered theorhetical forecasts....

...lies,damn lies, and statistics.....

CD, no dead horses here; the truth will come out......it still effects people and causes them to ponder.

Not sure the LA Times article was "speculating", the numbers are pretty clear cut and believable.

Sam C. = Mark Twain

Cheers,

Gus

[Billy K]

unlace and take a breather, Leatherneck.

I was aiming at all the catastrophic predictions of what won't ever be recouped,repaired, or reincarnated after the spill...or smog, for that matter.

"Our time" is but a blip in the face of this blue green ball we call home. She has fixed herself many times over and will do so again....we may not see how the earth beats our theories but, look at what she's done since Pinatubo and/ St. Helens.........dire predictions of dead oceans and a flaming planet be damned, says the 'Ol Girl!

To paraphrase a lost but, Great Thinker...George Carlin - maybe the Earth has just been waiting for us to figure out how to use and make plastic....

We can make a difference in what and how little we harm, I agree. Every person I speak with wants clean air and water. BUT; just because it's bad "here" does not mean every similar thing is wrong!

L.A. sits in a somewhat stagnant valley. The breezes swirl back into themselves and hold things there. That valley has come great leaps forward since I first saw it 20+ years ago. And, that does not mean every major city/metro area will forever be as bad as L.A. was.....Not every drop of spilled oil will kill a thousand birds. Not every tanker will follow the Valdez ashore.....Theory and projected possibilites are not sustainable FACT!

I despise doomsday predictions and 'one-size-fits-all' theories. Depending on the mindset of the theorist...one beat of a unicorn wing could snuff out a candle all the way around the world!!! Possible? Maybe. Prove it!

Saddle up, Gus.....carry on...

[eamarquardt]

unlace and take a breather, Leatherneck. Done!

L.A. sits in a somewhat stagnant valley. The breezes swirl back into themselves and hold things there. That valley has come great leaps forward since I first saw it 20+ years ago. And, that does not mean every major city/metro area will forever be as bad as L.A. was You seem to know a bit about LA! You didn't, however, mention the temperature inversion that traps the pollution. Even the local indians (but not of India) called LA (before it was LA) "The Valley of Smoke"

I despise doomsday predictions and 'one-size-fits-all' theories. The problem with "one size fits all" is the one size doesn't fit anyone very well. Depending on the mindset of the theorist...one beat of a unicorn wing could snuff out a candle all the way around the world!!! Possible? Maybe. Prove it! Haven't your heard of and bought into the "BUTTERFLY EFFECT"?

Saddle up, Gus.....carry on... Yes Sir! Now if you could only train LCpl Marquardt/#2 son to address me as SIR rather than "old man" or at least say "old man, SIR" (as #1 son occasionally does)!

I made no predictions. Years ago, after one of our "wildfires", I remember hearing that it would take a hundred years for the landscape to recover. Three years later, you couldn't tell there had ever been a fire (except for the burned out hulks of homes). Southern California's ecology is what is called a "pyric climax" (no I'm not referring to anything sexual). The vegitation grows, drys out, and burns up. This cycle repeats on a regular basis. It's great for toasting marshmallows and making smores (but I'm really not that big on either).

After the recent fires in Santa Barbara, within months, there was new green sprouting all over the place. Even from the cracks in the rocks! The heat of fire is required to make some seeds germinate. I doubt that within a year or two (except for the burned up man made structures) you will be able to tell there was a fire!

There are microbes that "eat oil for lunch". The earth has a remarkable regenerative capacity far beyond what most people understand.

HOWEVER, I think an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure and we ought to take it a bit easier on Mother Earth as she's the only Mother and Spaceship we have. There are definately places that are pretty screwed up as a result of us.

Now the bad news. The sun is gonna burn out but before doing so it will melt the earth and everyone aboard is gonna be toast. I don't think I'll wait.

I have passed the "baton" to LCpl. Marquardt. He, however, is tired of putting up with non-coms, tired of stupid officers, and is considering OCS to make the Corps just a bit better! I, for one, hope he does as he has a lot more common sense at 20 than some of my fellow officers ever did. If anyone from the USMC sees this, I'll say I made that up, that's my story, and I'm sticking to it!

I took off my haversack and knapsack years ago. I understand they dated to WWl! I've seen my son's 782 gear (including his night vision scope) and it is a far cry (and far heavier) than what we had. He just got back from three weeks in Estonia on manuvers with the Estonians. He had a good time felling trees with his MK-19 which beats the M-79 by a long shot (or short shot). He reports the HE rounds work infinately better than the TP rounds for chopping down trees.

As far as So. Cal. goes, it is heaven on earth except for the fact there are too many "rats in the cage" (one of the few things I learned in college is the more rats you have in the cage, the more agressive they become) and the government. Without so many "rats in the cage" the LA Basin and Inversion Layer Effect wouldn't be nearly so bad.

Everyone wants to get "back to nature", but no one wants to walk.

Dismissed!

Semper Fi,

Gus

[Arne]

"Everyone wants to get "back to nature", but no one wants to walk."

Almost every on-line dating profile I read says they like to walk on the beach... I go down there and don't see anyone walking...

Want to make a difference? Buy one of these. I did 2 years ago, at target for 10 bucks. The lid covers the mouth piece, and it has a good latch and lock on it. and stop buying bottled water for 3 bucks a gallon.

http://www.thermos.com/product_details.aspx?ProdID=945&CatCode=HYDR&q=

http://www.newdream.org/water/calculator.php

Want to help? Next time you go grocery shopping, take a cart IN when you go.. I mean, you're going in anyway.

[eamarquardt]

I have never understood the logic of buying bottled water. Anyplace that sells it usually gives tap water away for free and it usually tastes just as good.

Now I know the weather here is just about perfect (I can get by with no heat during the winter (but my wife requires some) and no a/c during the summer bu I will admit to having turned it on maybe 6 times in 26 years in my current home and this is the first home we've owned with a/c) but when it does warm up I find a ceiling fan for sleeping works well and a small quiet fan (vornado brand) cools me down just fine when just hanging out. A fan is one amp at 120 and a/c is 30 amps at 240 or sixty times more expensive to run.

Cheers,

Gus

[Laredo]

HUMMMM - BP's petroleum products made the plastics that go into the land fill? double whammy! Don't be so shocked everyone - it's all our fault, we just don't want to give up our throw away lifestyle. Put your money where your moth is - don't used disposable plastic anything on your next camp out - wash your dishes and reuse them - or just be the hypocrite that blames Bp for the mess that we demanded from our consumerism

No, not all our fault.
British Petroleum has a long and detailed history of cutting corners, shorting safety, and ignoring potential consequences.

This is BP's fault, and the proof is that of the 27,000 abandoned wells in the Gulf there's only one gushing oil into the water at extinction-level-event volumes as I write this: the well BP had Deepwater Horizon drilling when the well kicked and the rig caught fire because the BP company man ordered an unsafe procedure to save a day's rig rental.

And so far as the water bottle -- I like my surplus canteen 'cause if need be I can rinse it with real live boiling water. Cheap, durable, multipurpose, comes with a carrying case that doubles as insulation.