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Richard Heinberg on the Deepwater Horizon "spill" (it's more like a flood...)
Check out this link for some more background on the Gulf oil desaster... The Comments are worth reading, too: http://www.countercurrents.org/heinberg220610.htm
And for those who feel so inclined, Michael C. Rupperst www.collapsenet.com is live now.
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Evacuation of Gulf States: Matt Simmons - Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/06/22/AR201006...
An enduring feature of the gulf oil spill is that, even when you think you've heard the worst-case scenario, there's always another that's even more dire.
The base-line measures of the crisis have steadily worsened. The estimated flow rate keeps rising. The well is like something deranged, stronger than anyone anticipated. BP executives last month said they had a 60 to 70 percent chance of killing it with mud, but the well spit the mud out and kept blowing.
The net effect is that nothing about this well seems crazy anymore. Week by week, the truth of this disaster has drifted toward the stamping ground of the alarmists.
The most disturbing of the worst-case scenarios, one that is unsubstantiated but is driving much of the blog discussion, is that the Deepwater Horizon well has been so badly damaged that it has spawned multiple leaks from the seafloor, making containment impossible and a long-term solution much more complicated.
Video from a robotic submersible, which is making the rounds online, shows something puffing from the seafloor. Some think it's oil. Or maybe -- look again -- it's just the silt blowing in response to the forward motion of the submersible.
More trouble: A tropical wave has formed in the Caribbean and could conceivably blow through the gulf.
"We're going to have to evacuate the gulf states," said Matt Simmons, founder of Simmons and Co., an oil investment firm and, since the April 20 blowout, the unflagging source of end-of-the-world predictions. "Can you imagine evacuating 20 million people? . . . This story is 80 times worse than I thought."
I'm starting to wonder about
I'm starting to wonder about Matt Simmons. First he floated the idea of nuking the well, and now raving about evacuating entire states...
Desperation does funny things to people
And after (how many weeks) I think anyone who has attention on this and the consequences, is feeling desperate.
Simmons.....
Yes I agree. I have read his comments with some disbelief myself.
First he talked about massive further leaks a few miles away from the well (how would that happen through 18,000 ft of base rock??) and then about nukes and now total evacuation. I read he was forced out of his position at his 'investment bank' based on his comments.
The Oildrum has a calm and well informed summary of the situation of the well here:
http://www.theoildrum.com/node/6659#more
Putting the proverbial oil on the fire of hysteria is not going to help the situation.
Having said this, the situation of cause is dire enough without the addition of any hyperbole. The coming storm season will make floating rubber booms and artificial sand banks look like a joke as anyone knows who ever stood at a beach in a storm. The oil will be driven deep into the so important and fragile ecosystem of the marshes which are spawning grounds to so much sea life there. The increasing dead zones in the deep water are another catastrophe.
Perhaps Simmons is playing (has been asked to play, bought or pressed into) a planed role in the PR management of this: The role of the joker who makes off the cliff comments, gets soundly rebutted, resulting in the general population to think: "Its all not to bad then".... while in fact its really really bad as it is and won't get better any time soon. And as Simmons is a popular expert witness in the Peak Oil saga, the deconstruction of his reputation through these comments might assist the peak oil deniers camp....