Where is the outrage? (re: BP oil spew)

Where's the freaking outrage over this?

The sheer disingenuity of BP's public handling of the situation is ridiculous; as public relations goes, blatant lies (as exposed in this thread) aren't usually a great choice of tactics, but I would expect a much stronger backlash against a deception of this magnitude, and I'm not seeing it, in the media or here on ATS. Sure, there's a sort of simmering discontentment, and an occasional strongly worded memo from the White House, but where is the outrage? Where are the repercussions for those responsible for handling this situation?

If profit had not been BP's foremost concern, they would have terminated the flow from the well entirely as soon as the emergency shutoff valve failed. They did not; they chose to try methods they knew were unlikely to succeed, as long as they offered some small chance of allowing continued profit from the well. To allay the demands of Congress and the public for more information about the extent of the leak, they provided us with a feed showing what turned out to be a tiny part of the oil spewing into the Gulf and washing toward Louisiana's wetlands. They have lied to the government and to the public, and yet neither has taken strides to hold them fully responsible, financially, legally, or by any efficacious means whatsoever.

It's been, what, 38 days? All I've seen has been attempt after failed attempt by BP to control the leak in a manner allowing them to salvage some, or most, of the oil (i.e. the precious, precious money) being wasted. Their profit-first, stop-the-leak-second methodology, coupled with this incontrovertible shattering of their (already perilously thin) façade of humanitarianism and ecological concern, should have led to BP's being flayed alive by Congress, the public, or at the very least by the media; why this is not happening is baffling to me.

The 'Top Kill' will fail. The technique was developed for use on terrestrial oil wells, not those underneath a mile of water (if my 3 AM math is right, that's something like three hundred thousand pounds of pressure per square foot; this is probably enough to make some kind of difference in the success rate). BP has been over-generous by a factor of five to ten in their favor, if not more, in more or less every estimation they have made of any number tied to this leak; if they have publicly stated a predicted success rate of ~30-40%, as posted in the thread linked above, then I'd peg the real probability of the Top Kill working at a still fairly generous ten percent.

I have no idea what will seal the leak, but I would bet a fairly large amount of money that we won't find out until July or August.

I do hope that I'm wrong. I just have very little faith left in the ability of humanity to clean up the kind of messes that we, in our unprecedented state of advancement, are beginning to learn to make.

A few years ago, when peak oil was in vogue, I read an article containing an estimate of the number of millions of gallons of oil left in the Earth. It was a large number. I don't remember what it was; the point is, it was finite, and for a while, the public was becoming aware of this. But we seem to have forgotten, and meanwhile, through this leak, we've knocked a good seven and a half mil off of that already all-too-finite figure. And that's not all- the oil has not only been wasted in terms of its potential energy but is working pretty strongly against us, threatening to destroy one of the most important ecosystems in North America and the world. This is an epic double whammy to Earth's level of general entropy, and nobody is taking responsibility for it.

Offshore drilling is an unfortunate necessity; Western society will not be induced to turn en masse to any kind of alternative fuel until the very last drop of oil has been wrung from the deepest catacombs of Earth. But anyone who can look at this disaster, consider its full implications for our ability to plan for and mitigate the destructive consequences of our malignantly expanding need for energy (and for food, and for ever more destructive weapons, and et cetera) and blithely continue to put short-term convenience ahead of the long-term survival of our species, or to sit by and watch this happen with the sense of resignation that seems to be gripping America, has a mind that I truly do not understand.

What are your thoughts on this? What can we, as individuals, do to express the depth of our anger over the mishandling of this disaster? Why the hell should it fall to us to demand action; isn't there some institution left in America capable of taking charge here, handling the situation through the concerted effort of our best minds and technologies, and holding those responsible for this dawdling accountable?

What has happened to us as a nation that something like this barely even bothers us any more?

This apathy is gonna get us all killed.

When the world is burning, remember that somebody warned you.






[edit on 28-5-2010 by The Parallelogram]

Why there is no outcry? Well, BP has more money and power then most countries. Not good enough as a reason? I really hope that they will pay (both financially and legally for this) but chances are that we will pay for it from our pocket and some low-level clerk will loose his job.
As for finite oil volume loosing a bit - frankly i am more worried about finite fish supply loosing a bit. As you mentioned - ecosystem will take a blow and it will resonate world-wide.
But outcry...... All Greenpeace-like organizations are silent. Media is silent. Politicians are silent. $$$$
Ad people will not wake up in mass until they pay lots more for energy bills and lots and lots more for food. But it will be too late for outcry.

I think there is plenty of outrage to go around when it comes to the BP oil disaster.. And they will be paying for a long time coming. Seems like rants are too easily ignored. I would say boycotting BP would be a good start. There is plenty of competition out there, but I am not sure if any of the other oil companies are more or less responsible that BP.

reply to post by mapsurfer_


You could boycott BP and buy from Exxon instead ........ oh