Monday, May 17, 2010

What should have been done, really!

Thought today. :

17th of May 2010.
Sofar BP and the rescue team has made everything go as wrong as it could be made.

What should have been made or done:

****use heavy duty booms to encircle the site at 50 miles radius or so... even double booms.

****why not take one or several supertankers on site, pump the water with oil from the surface of the sea into the tanks of the supertankers

****have it separate in its tanks, let the water filter through our absorbent filter and back to the sea

--->what is up now is the oil is disperged by dispergant toxic chemicals at several hundred feet of depth and that mixture cannot be removed in any way from there. will be a problem for years to come... fishing banns and similar actions are to be deployed..............
and
it is then as the hurricane season starts washed up on the shores and dune lakes and similar places and the disaster is a fact for a long time.

out of sight ===>>> no problem??? I say really BIG problems, well as we know it is a ever growing problem, even for years to come.

what I mean is think BIG, this is a BIG country this United States of America...

so what should be in reserve always at least now in the future:

1. several hundreds of miles of the heavy duty sea boom to encircle the event/leak
tugboats to keep boom at place in circle
2. supertankers to pump it up and separate it on board
3. filter it through an absorbent
4. then let it go out to the sea, as pure water....

any objections on this scheme? an idea like a million, yes?

I think really this could have been the only way to do it as opposite the dispergants are the worst way.

So maybe someone should have put a thought into this before action was taken, yes?

How is it going, cleanup of oilspill in the Gulf of Mexico

Open letter to: letters@time.com and mr Bryan Walsh

Dear Sirs.

I read your article in the TIME "The Big Spill" vol 175, no 19, 2010.

A very good article.

I also have great concerns about how this is handled in the sense of not having enough materials to start with, not enough material like booms in the whole world!!! not enough knowledge how to cope with the oil on the surface and so on. Now they have placed an order for 500 kilometers of high sea booms, but it is too late.

Doing the old trick which is out of sight is out of problems... and thats not so in this case, now the problem is some hundred feet under the water... and nobody can fix that... it will eventually be on the beaches, in the fish and shrimp, if it gets into the vortex of the gulf stream it will en up on the north pole.... what that then has for effects. it will be there for years to come...

There should be an international authority to which all oil using countries , shippers, producers etc pays money as agreed, this authority collects and places out equipment in strategic storage around the world so that it is available when these spills happen , because they will. There are also other issues that should be addressed internationally, what to do, encourage political awerness and guts, think back on recent issue in Spain-Portugal. This is an issue for possibly the UN or a division of it. or a better inter-state body to be founded.

Venezuela just lost a gas rig, it could have been the same sort of disaster there too.

See also earlier in this blog how we years ago made a plan and had the idea to create several environmental action centers in Europe. EAC's. my blog of Feb 28 2006. That was a beautiful plan. It still is, and necessary as this mess shows very clearly.

Your Sincerely
Bernhard Edgren

Saturday, May 01, 2010

Poissa näkyvistä, poissa luonnosta? VÄÄRIN!


Öljytuhon torjuntaan vedenalaista hajotusainetta

Öljytuhon torjuntaan vedenalaista hajotusainetta
Kuva: JOHN EDWARDS/US Coast Gard/EPA

Energiajätti BP on alkanut käyttää vedenalaista hajotusainetta Meksikonlahden öljytuhossa.

Aine hajottaa öljylautan pienemmäksi ja se laskeutuu joko merenpohjaan tai nousee pinnalle, josta sitä on helpompi siivota.

Yhdysvaltain viranomaiset ovat jo aiemmin vaatineet BP:tä tehostamaan öljykatastrofin torjuntaa. Puolustusministeriön mukaan kaikki torjuntaoperaation kulut laskutetaan BP:ltä.

Öljyä on jo alkanut ajautua Mississippijoen suistoon, ja neljään osavaltioon on julistettu hätätila.

Louisianassa on lisäksi laitettu kansalliskaarti liikekannalle. Pentagonin edustajan mukaan kansalliskaartin on tarkoitus auttaa paikallisia yhteisöjä öljyntorjunnassa ja suojella elintärkeitä kohteita saastumiselta. Myös Mississippissä kansalliskaarti on saanut kuvernööriltä määräyksen auttaa paikallisviranomaisia.

Öljylautta on saanut Louisianan viranomaiset valjastamaan töihin myös paikallisia vankeja. Vankeja koulutetaan puhdistustehtäviin ympäristöviranomaisten avuksi.

Tuulet painavat lauttaa yhä kohti Louisianan rannikkoa.

Tämä on kyllä nyt sitten hyvin kyseenalaista. Eli jos ja kun öljy tällä lailla "hävitetään" näkyvistä se jää kuitenkin olemaan alueella ja kalastus ja eläimet voivat tosi huonosti ja tosi kauan. Oli miten oli se öljy on saatava pois sieltä ei se riitä että se vain ei ole näkyvissä!

Jonkun olisi ehkä tarvinnut varautua tähänkin juttuun edes vähäsen... niinkuin etukäteen... ehkä myös Suomenlahdella...

This is serious!!! All possible efforts has to be done, NOW!

Fears Grow Over US Oil Spill Crisis

5:37am UK, Saturday May 01, 2010

Greg Milam, Sky News, Louisiana

Efforts to prevent an environmental and economic disaster from a giant oil slick off the coast of America are being hampered by the weather.

Washed up oil boom barriers

A barrier meant to block the flow of oil is washed up on a Louisiana beach

The southern US states of Alabama and Mississippi have now joined Florida and Louisiana in declaring a state of emergency.

Oil from the Gulf of Mexico slick has begun to wash onto Louisiana shores, crossing barriers designed to stop its flow.

Animal rescue groups along the coast have started to receive their first patients - seabirds coated in thick, black oil.

Louisiana Oil Spill

The US Coast Guard is helping clear up the massive slick

President Barack Obama has called for a "thorough review" of the disaster and there is already finger pointing between oil giant BP and the US government.

Up to 200,000 gallons of oil a day are spewing into the Gulf after the BP-operated Deepwater Horizon rig exploded and sank last week.

It is not known what caused the blast, which has left 11 people missing, presumed dead.

NASA: oil slick from the sunk Deepwater Horizon drilling platform

A NASA image shows the oil slick from above

There are fears the slick could soon rival the Exxon Valdez disaster as the worst oil spill in US history.

US federal and state officials have warned BP that its resources appeared insufficient for the rescue mission.

Although it looks like only small quantities of oil have so far washed up on the Louisiana shoreline, the real fear is the weather.

A Louisiana Heron flies above the fragile wetlands near the town  of Venice

Environmentalists are worried about hundreds of species in the marshland

The winds are bringing the oil towards the coastline and they are making it impossible for emergency crews to operate effectively.

The choppy waters mean that crews cannot burn or skim the top of the surface.

And it looks like the weather is here to stay for a few more days causing anxiety to grow.

Local fishermen listen as a BP company representative

Fishermen in Louisiana listen to a local BP representative

This is one of the most sensitive wildlife areas in the US and also home to a fishing industry which is of massive concern to people in this area.

There is a real concern that whatever is being done at sea is not enough.

That is why we are starting to see some finger pointing between the Obama administration and BP.

Although it is BP's responsibility a lot of people in this area feel that their government has taken a long time to get involved.

They feel a lot more needs to be done to prevent an ecological and economic disaster in this part of the US.


I hope that BP starts doing the right measurements in the right places, immediately!