 | < back to blogs list
|
Political Networking
OFN Admin
Blog Established on Mar 11, 2010
Gulf Oil Spill - Environmentalists Ruining the Environment?
May 27, 2010 6:06 AM
At this point I'm sure we all know there is a major oil spill in the Gulf. Aside from figuring out who to blame, who is responsible for the accident, gaining political points by making outrageous speeches regarding 'big oil', scrambling to adjust national policy regarding how much money will be garnered, and using this situation to grab as much of the taxpayers dollar as possible, there is another issue at hand: The clean up process.
Though you don't hear about it on U.S. national news programs, there is a solution to an oil spill. This solution has been used numerous times in the past, on oil spills both larger and smaller than the one being faced in the Gulf.
There is a fleet of ships designed specifically to clean up the mess. These ships drag huge 'fences' through the water, picking up the oil. This oil is pumped into huge containers inside the ships. The oil is then separated from the water that was taken into the ships, and the water is then pumped back into the ocean.
The 'side effect' of using this process is that it is currently impossible to remove 100% of the materials from the collected water, so there are small 'beads' of biodegradable material that go into the ocean when the water is pumped back out of the ship.
These 'beads' take time to diminish, but within a month or two they simply dissolve back into the silt, rock and other organic matter that they are composed of.
The Dutch government has four of these huge ships, and have already offered to use them to clean up the Gulf. So why are they not out there already?
The reason is the beads. Environmentalist groups fear that the beads will become a burden to the sea life, be 'accidentally' ingested by fish, or wash up on shore and become an unsightly mess on beaches.
So, the environmentalists would rather have the actual oil spill kill the fish and wash up on beaches, instead of a nearly 100% biodegradable bead.
This really has nothing to do with whether or not millions of gallons of oil end up on coastlines, or whether or not the oil will kill both animal and plant life in the Gulf, and potentially along the eastern U.S. seaboard.
It has everything to do with large environmentalist groups having the internal desire to demonstrate just how much power they hold over elected officials. It has everything to do with environmentalist groups drooling about the potential lawsuits that are sure to occur once the oil damage starts to occur.
There is a lot of money to be made in natural disasters - especially if you are an environmentalist/activist group, and there is a large corporation found at fault for such a disaster.
There isn't a whole lot of money to be made if the majority of the potential mess is cleaned up before it can cause severe damage to both the environment, and the financial stability of communities touched by such a disaster.
I just thought I would let you know that this mess could quite possibly be avoided. It still can. Maybe not as successfully as it could have been if the Dutch offer would have been taken when it was originally offered, but there is still the potential for great success.
Just like the Katrina disaster in LA, when the Dutch (again) brought their expertise to the forefront and explained exactly what had to be done to avoid another levy disaster. The environmentalists and politicians saw no profit in the suggestions, so they were purposely ignored.
For those living along the coasts - enjoy the black beaches you will surely be living next to in the very near future. Enjoy the smell. Enjoy the loss of income. Enjoy the endless cleanup.
Just remember that it could have been avoided, and you can thank your local environmentalist lobby (who you will surely be able to find at any courthouse - suing oil companies) for your plight.
|
| 
|  |
