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Growing concerns over US oil leak (BBC News) (1 Viewer)

Jos Stratford said:
- blaming BP now is of no consequence, the oil is in the water and rapidy leading towards a catastrophy for the environment.
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Completely disagree !!


Jos Stratford said:
large scale drilling without any effective contingency plan to deal with a major spill basically leaves the authorities as irresponsible as BP. This was a catastrophic event and neither BP nor the US government have been able to rise to the challenge.
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I hear what you are saying to a degree , but isn't this kind of like blaming the parents of a child that ended up in jail for murder for not raising him correctly? I do think the US government has a lot to answer for though - I hear you [/QUOTE]
 
danehower said:
Completely disagree !!

I hear what you are saying to a degree , but isn't this kind of like blaming the parents of a child that ended up in jail for murder for not raising him correctly?
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There was a need for action plans to be ready before an event of this scale. It does not take a genius to realise that if you stick enough oil platforms in an area or allow enough oil tankers to go through, then eventually there will be an accident.

Blaming BP now does not make the oil go away, there is plenty of time to blame the oil companies later (and I don't suggest they shouldn't receive all they are due). However, if attention is then focussed on the oil company alone, I fear little will be learnt. The authorities need to pre-plan for future events (which will happen), need to introduce stricter regulation (eg, relating to methods of shutting off the oil) and also ensure drilling never occurs in, for example, the even richer waters off Califiornia.
 
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Jos Stratford said:
There was a need for action plans to be ready before an event of this scale. It does not take a genius to realise that if you stick enough oil platforms in an area or allow enough oil tankers to go through, then eventually there will be an accident.
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Are we to assume that they were doing everything they could to prevent this ? -I seriously doubt it , they were more likely taking only the precautions that were required of them and in this case the US government has been deplorable !

Jos Stratford said:
Blaming BP now does not make the oil go away, there is plenty of time to blame the oil companies later
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Blame them now ! - Strike while the iron is hot !

Jos Stratford said:
if attention is focussed on the oil company alone, then I fear little will be learnt. The authorities need to pre-plan for future events (which will happen), need to introduce stricter regulation (eg, relating to methods of shutting off the oil) and also ensure drilling never occurs in, for example, the even richer waters off Califiornia.
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Completely agree !! I dont want to get all high up on this , it really isn't my style , but considering the epic scale of this whole disaster outrage is almost a necessity and I am surprised there is not more of it. Amazing what parallels there are to this and the financial collapse - uber rich companys making insane profits with pathetic oversight and all the while ordinary folk thinking the people in charge were taking care of safety - yes we all need to wake up. Rant over .... I think
 
I'm not going to defend anything just because it's got the word "British" in it's name.. it's nothing to do with me!
 
Quercus said:
I'm not going to defend anything just because it's got the word "British" in it's name.. it's nothing to do with me!
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I apologize - sorry, I am being a serious spaz about this whole thing , it just has me very bothered and I am not understanding any diversion of blame from BP. Like I said before I think both you and Jos are awesome , I am not kidding both of you guys are two reasons that I like to visit this forum. Cheers ,and again I am sorry for jumping to a wrongful conclusion. :-C
 
That's OK!.. No offence was taken

My point, as always with Environmental stuff... was that there's always finger pointing and blame...but it's us... the consumer .... that provides the demand that drives big business, like BP, to take more and more risks.

Whoever was responsible for this particular accident isn't the parriah here.. accidents will happen.. the blame lies with the whole oil dependent economy that we're all part of!
 
I agree with Quercus, its consumer demand that drives these things, you can't expect businesses not to take advantage of a chance to mak money. Problem is, are we going to stop tapping oil, or keep on at it until we run out of oil?
 
Well as of the latest headline, more than 2 million gallons of oil-water mix has been collected. 10% of the mixture is oil.
 
gropperwinch said:
I agree with Quercus, its consumer demand that drives these things, you can't expect businesses not to take advantage of a chance to mak money.
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We can expect them to do it responsibly though right ? It is like we are blaming the addict and not the pusher, both are to blame - but BP is the one making the profits off this ( MASSIVE profits BTW)- and personally I need a way to get myself from work and back , don't you ? Since when did Europe become such vehement defenders of capitalism and big money ? LOL !;)

PS - Quercus's point is very well taken on this side , I completely agree with him !
 
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"Since when did Europe become such vehement defenders of capitalism and big money ? LOL !"

Since we invented it in the 18th Century!

I don't think big business can be trusted to do much more than to look after it's own interests and profit margins.

Bp's massive profits are there because we happily pay for their oil... they don't force us, we areall addicted to oil.. and plastics and petro-chemicals. They supply the demand. I'm not sue if the drug pusher (sic), addict analogy fits here.. past the point that the way Markets work are on a simple supply and demand curve. My argument is as long as there is demand, accidents like this will happen along the supply chain. But it's all linked and no one part of that chain can be held solely to be at fault.

We're kidding ourselves if we thimnk that the sourcing of oil is going to be cheap, clean and non-polluting
 
Quercus said:
"Since when did Europe become such vehement defenders of capitalism and big money ? LOL !"

Since we invented it in the 18th Century!

I don't think big business can be trusted to do much more than to look after it's own interests and profit margins.

Bp's massive profits are there because we happily pay for their oil... they don't force us, we areall addicted to oil.. and plastics and petro-chemicals. They supply the demand. I'm not sue if the drug pusher (sic), addict analogy fits here.. past the point that the way Markets work are on a simple supply and demand curve. My argument is as long as there is demand, accidents like this will happen along the supply chain. But it's all linked and no one part of that chain can be held solely to be at fault.

We're kidding ourselves if we thimnk that the sourcing of oil is going to be cheap, clean and non-polluting
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OK - so I agree with you , but you don't agree with me ? What ever ... circular argument - peace out ! ouch, and goodbye !
 
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danehower said:
Reform through litigation .. I suppose it is the only way at this point.
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Sad but true. I can’t imagine anything amounting to very much coming out of the present congress (& certainly not out of the congress we’re likely to be saddled with after the Nov elections).
 
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