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Want Fries With That Oil Slick?
Posted: Tuesday, June 1, 2010 by LePhilozophe in Labels: BP, Chuck Norris, cravings, Deepwater Horizon, Fish 'n Chips, Gulf Coast, Nuclear energy, Oil slick, The Sopranos, US
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Is it just me, or is there something exceedingly greasy (sorry, couldn't resist) about the developments around the oil spill off the Gulf Coast on the eastern seaboard of the US? In case you're a revolutionary social recluse and have been stuck in your cave and living on tofu and grilled insects in a bid to live as detached and as far away from civilisation as possible for the last couple of months, a brief recap.
Following an explosion on BP’s Deepwater Horizon drill rig on April 20, which incidentally also killed 11 workers, the resultant oil spill is courtesy of a severed underwater riser pipe, which has so far gushed out 910, 000 gallons (12,000 barrels to 19,000 barrels of oil a day) of gunky crude oil (i suddenly have this inexplicable urge to visit the fish 'n chips kiosk), forming a giant slick that extends 29, 000 miles in the ocean . This has in turn closed down about 63, 000 miles of coastland along the Gulf, affecting the livelihood of thousands, as well as causing an enormous environmental calamity in what is already being coined "the worst oil spill disaster in America in 18 years" (yet another record to keep the lads down at Guiness occupied for a while)and that is likely to affect the region for decades.
Let's digress a tad. Mistakes and accidents are bound to happen. Some are unavoidable- such as speeding off from the gas station with the gas nozzle still attached to your tank in a mad rush to catch the final episode of The Sopranos ( er...a friend's cousin's aunt's dad... apparently...*ahem*) - and others not quite entirely avoidable, but with the right contingencies, preparation and foresight, definitely somewhat so. And just in case you're wondering, the BP oil slick disaster falls under the latter. End of digression.
In a set of farcical attempts on BP's part to plug off the gallons of crude oil pumping out of the fish 'n chi-...er...pipe (one of which comprised dropping a four-storey cement building on top of the whole darned show and calling it a day, just in time for the Seinfeld reruns on the telly)- something has become glaringly obvious to me.
Nobody knows what the huckleberry finn they're doing.
Not BP. Not the experts. Not even Chuck Norris. Which brings us to our conclusive and very, VERY disturbing question. What else are we increasingly likely to be dependent on in the future of which, in our rush to develop, have in all probability overlooked a few "minor" details? "Nucular" [sic] energy , anybody?
Now, about that greasy craving...
