Mother Jones - The BP Cover-up

[zabet]

Mother Jones - The BP Cover-up

BP and the government say the spill is fast disappearing—but dramatic new science reveals that its worst effects may be yet to come.

— By Julia Whitty

WE'RE SWINGING ON ANCHOR this afternoon as powerful bursts of wind blow down through the Makua Valley and out to sea. The gales stop and start every 15 minutes, as abruptly as if a giant on the far side of the Hawaiian island of Oahu were switching a fan on and off. We sail at the gusts' mercy, listing hard to starboard, then snapping hard against the anchor chain before recoiling to port. The intermittent tempests make our work harder and colder. We shiver during the microbursts, sweat during the interludes, then shiver again from our own sweat.

I'm accompanying marine ecologist Kelly Benoit-Bird of Oregon State University, physical oceanographer Margaret McManus of the University of Hawaii-Manoa, and two research assistants aboard a 32-foot former sportfishing boat named Alyce C. On the tiny aft deck, where a marlin fisher might ordinarily strap into a fighting chair, Benoit-Bird and McManus are launching packages of instruments: echo sounders tuned to five frequencies; cameras; and a host of tools designed to measure temperature, salinity, current velocity, chlorophyll fluorescence, and zooplankton abundance, all feeding into computers lashed into the tiny forward cabin.

(snip)

Death by oil is a horrible way to go. Necropsies on birds reveal hypothermia resulting from oiled feathers, malnutrition resulting from the hypothermia, anemia from the shock and stress of hunger, and poisoning from the oil ingested and inhaled during preening. Although a few birds will escape the immediate lethal effects, their eggs and chicks will not. An experiment from the 1980s with nesting Leach's storm-petrels—tiny seafaring birds breeding on islands off Newfoundland—found that birds exposed to crude oil or Corexit (the dispersant BP is using in the Gulf) lost more eggs and chicks than did control birds. This, even though the oil exposure was sublethal, and even if only one adult of the pair was oiled. Breeding success for adults generally returned to normal the following year—except in the case of birds exposed to the highest sublethal doses of oil or Corexit. Fewer of those birds returned to breed—indicating that their part in the experiment had proved lethal after all.

(snip)

BP's schizophrenic approach to the cleanup becomes more insidious in light of the company's legal liabilities: The Clean Water Act stipulates that BP must pay $1,100 for every barrel of oil proven to have been spilled—$4,300 per barrel if gross negligence is determined. But the use of dispersants clouds estimates of the spill's size, guaranteeing that the true number will never be known—since relatively little oil will ever wash ashore—and guaranteeing that BP's liability will be vastly underestimated.

MUCH MUCH MORE HERE: http://motherjones.com/environment/2010/09/bp-ocean-cover-up?page=1

This article is so full of horrifying information, it is difficult to cull 4 paragraphs out of it to represent the full scope of what it details. I encourage you to read it all.

[JDPriestly]

1. Best idea -- subscribe to the magazine. Support it with your

money and read it regularly. There are always a lot of small items that are very interesting.

[zabet]

2. I agree totally. nt

[dixiegrrrrl]

3. Key summary:

BP and its partners have transformed themselves into modern-day pirates, operating beyond law or conscience.
Their reckless quest has endangered and perhaps condemned not just the Gulf Coast, but the largest, richest, most pristine, most biologically important, and last completely unprotected ecosystem left on Earth: the deep ocean.

[bherrera]

5. But this article shows no new data

I am not an expert, but I am researching this subject since April. And it does seem the oil has been effectively dispersed to allow the biodegradation by bacteria. The new technology, and the very active bacteria colonies in the Gulf of Mexico, have been quite effective. Thus the content of this article is not on solid ground. If they do not publish hard facts, it is difficult to believe what they say. And this is a point I make to you American readers, your media seems to be full of empty headed comments, on the right, and on the left. Sometimes these comments are more than empty headed, they are big lies. For example, polls show the majority of Americans supported the invasion of Iraq, even though it was evident to any intelligent person who bothered to look at FACTS that President Bush and his surrounding cast were big fat liars. Learn this lesson, and be aware both the left, the right, the enviromentalists, the corporations, the media, the government, and almost anybody who publishes things in the USA, are either providing disinformation or highly biased and unscientific "data".

[dixiegrrrrl]

6. You are correct about mistrust of the media.

More and more many intelligent people in this country are learning to look for what is not being said,
or to believe the opposite of what is being said. And "foreign" news sources are often linked to here at DU.

Unfortunately, the "average" American prefers watching tv to reading, and is loath to think for themselves..

Having said that, some of us have learned over the past 10 years that polls are not trustworthy,
elections are not trustworthy, and the enforcers of most of our laws are not trustworthy.

[Ghost Dog]

7. Weñcome to DU, bherrera.

[Mimosa]

8. Welcome, Bherrera,

Looking forward to hearing your perspective on various issues. :D

[Poboy]

4. Thank you for posting. k&r-nt