History Repeats Itself, Oil Spill Version

by Video of the Day on May 28, 2010 |   Trackback URI   |     Email This Post Email This Post   |   13585 Views  

Watch the video. Then think to yourself: the almost exact same oil spill that happened in the Gulf Coast today also happened in 1979. Same failed equipment, same corporate greed, same failed techniques, same failed response, same environmental disaster. Somethings just don’t change.

Read more about the 1979 Ixtoc I oil spill here.

See Also: Cousteau’s grandson: “This is a nightmare.”, Optical delusions, The Gulf Coast Oil Spill In Pictures — Corporate Edition, You Can’t Make This Stuff Up, “Top Kill” Has FAILED In the Attempt to Plug the Oil Leak Using Mud … Now BP Will Try to Add Some “Junk” to the Mix to Try to Seal the Holes, ‘Did You Plug The Hole Yet, Daddy?’, BP Oil Spill, Why British Petroleum Will Not Pay, Obama Administration Official Resigns in Wake of BP Spill, and The State and the Energy Monopoly.

Technorati Tags: rachel maddow, oil spill, british petroleum, bp, gulf coast oil spill, oil disaster, 1979, 2010, video

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  • Mike

    Incredibly stupid segment and article. Spills always happen. It’s not because of corporate greed, but because difficult engineering projects like off shore oil drilling are risky. The benefits far outweigh the risks though in the way of hundreds of millions of barrels of oil that fuel modern transportation.

    • Frank

      Screw you Mike.

    • Tim

      Mike’s a Republican, ignore him.

    • Mira

      How about we dump Mike in that ‘spill’ and see how he floats?

      Wait, was that crass? Did I come off as uncaring and unkind? That’s how you, Mike, just made yourself look and everyone else like you. Sure, it makes cars move. That’s a narrow minded view. Narrow cause cars don’t keep people alive. The planet is mostly water. Earth is blue. If there’s no water and no fish and no animals because some (many, too many) people think “the benefits” of moving cars “far outweigh the risks” of killing sea life, poisoning our water and air and destroying the ecosystem then it will take a long time for these people to wise up, and by then, I fear it will all be too late.

      I don’t care about corporation making money, its what they do. Have at it. But, if it hurts others then, yeah, I have a problem with that.

      Education, try it.

      • JuneL

        Hear, hear, Mira!

        I would add to throw in every crooked BPer and inspector who ‘looked elsewhere’ and have them try to swim for shore. If there’s a stronger Wake Up Call, people, I don’t want to know it!

      • wow

        Mira ur stupid

  • Ray

    Mira,

    Well said. I too fear that the ecosystem will one day collapse. This WILL happen eventually because our current practices aren’t sustainable. I would like to see offshore drilling curtailed because the risks far outweigh the rewards. It makes more sense to reduce consumption. Some might call me a hypocrite because I drive a car and participate in a modern society. To this I say I would readily take public transportation if it were available and I would also be delighted to drive a more fuel-efficient car if one could be had. Unfortunately society hasn’t provided these opportunities to me and there’s no way I can do this myself. The real hypocrisy comes from a political system that preaches energy independence yet left ridiculously low CAFE standards in place for decades … politicians who write generous tax incentives allowing small business owners (including lawyers, doctors, real estate agents, etc) to buy gas-guzzling SUVs. A government that refused to participate in the Kyoto protocol and was a spoiler at the recent Copenhagen talks. Oh sure … let’s “drill baby drill!” Let’s continue to drill the earth because the status quo is so very convenient, comfortable, and profitable. People like to think our technology can solve any problem but the last time I checked it will take centuries at best to develop the technology to reach another earth-like planet. Our present course can only lead to disaster. We are marooned here on this pale blue dot and the sooner we start behaving in a sustainable way, the better! What is it you hope to bequeath to your children and their children Mike (#1)?

  • ASH

    When you ban oil drilling off the coast they go to deeper water and we get these kind of spills. Expect more! Allow off shore drilling where if there is this kind of disaster it can be fixed by men in the water and not over a mile down

  • ogie

    same company was running the rig in 1979 …brilliant!

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  • http://hipstersuck.com Hipsters

    Accidents happen every day, in every facet of our lives, including businessnessnesssss.. sucks that this one is so big and is screwing up the environment.. but do you REALLY think they’re not doing everything they can to stop the leak (I mean, they make so much GD money off it, it is in their best interest to get it under control & operati0nal)

    Mike, ignore the trolls. Your point is valid & a rational discussion should be made around what you have stated.

    • Anonymous

      A lot of other country require safe guards that BP did not use. Accidents do happen, but not planning for them is irresponsible, and they should be held liable for it.

    • Rick

      The relief well should be a requirement in the drilling process, enforced by the US Navy when in our coastal waters. The profits from oil would easily cover the cost of having to drill a second well simultaneously.

  • http://www.sittampalam.net MANMATHAN

    Collect the mixed oil,gas,mud,and h20 through a funnel”cone” and refine it into
    good aviation fuel. gasoline ,diesel and TAR
    Manmathan

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  • Ex-Pat

    I am shocked to read the leftists berate Mike or anyone else that makes the simple statement of “accidents happen, offshore drilling (especially deep water) is dangerous or risky”, because they are. It is a fact of life in business, all business there is risk to accidents, damage to the environment and loss of life. Unfortunately BP had the trifecta of accidents on this one. Are they to blame? Sure as hell are. Will they pay? You bet your ass they will and have, have you seen their stock price plummet? Is Obama, Bush, Clinton, Bush, Reagan, Carter, Ford, Nixon, Johnson, and Kennedy at fault as well? I would say yes. There is suppose to be oversight, extensive audits and safety inspections; Obama’s administration cancelled one 10 days prior to the accidents. Should Obama be held accountable for that? I say yes, but can we toss him into the hole along with Mike (I say yes only because I think the man is a Socialist), but in the end he is just as unlucky with this accident as Bush was with Katrina. He hasn’t been on scene nearly enough as Bush was with Katrina or Clinton with Oklahoma City but what is the man going to do? Stand there and point more fingers and toss insults at BP 24/7? Frankly I would rather have him golfing or in Chicago, he does less damage to our economy if his mug is not on TV slamming some corporation or talking increased taxes. There were holes (pardon the pun) in the system before him and they didn’t get filled in time or if they were ever going to get filled. You do understand BP filled his coffers more than any other politician EVER and he has only been on the National scene for 5 years. Do the math.

    The accident was a threat, forced on them oil comanpies and the United States by LIBERALS and environmentalist pushing oil rigs further out into the sea, deeper and deeper to drill. No one had a fix, no one had a plan for the fix (BP or the US Government), but we NEED the oil. So the drilling was approved and the inspections would never have found the problem or the accident anyway. The root cause of the problem is forcing rigs into such a deep atmosphere, if the other 50 or so rigs out in the same area experienced a problem we would have 50 more scenarios just like this one. You liberals are to blame, for your knee jerk reactions each every time an accident occurs or Mother Earth hiccups. You are like Chicken Little with the Sky is Falling mentality.

    The drilling will not stop, nor can it stop as the oil and the gas is needed and essential to our everyday lives. And not just for your flippin car you tool. The laptop you typed on to ridicule Mike has oil in it, the brush you used this morning for your hair, the toothbrush you used, your phone, you name it …… OIL IS IN IT. Fact of life people oil is here to stay, get over it. Because none of you or us are willing to go back to the stone ages, so gripe all you want about corporate greed and Mike stating “benefits far outweigh the risks” as he is the most accurate of all.

    BP will cap the leak, possibly not for another 6 months, the environment will be cleaned up, there will be new safety standards and more inspections, but in the end WE will pay for it not BP. The price of oil and fuel will go up and BP will make record profits yet again off our backs because it is the nature of business. Possibly we will learn to pull IN the rigs from having to drill a mile deep so that if there is another accident it does not take 8 months to fix it.

    And then you tell Mike to get educated? Attacks, attacks, attacks.

    • Luk

      This is the problem. People actually assume that “the environment will be cleaned up”. Like it is THAT easy. It is not. I don’t think informing others that education is important warrants it being an attack if those informed are people who throw statements of conviction just like that.

      We are paying for it now. The planet is paying for it NOW. And we will pay for it for years to come. Because this isn’t the first thing we did to the environment that needs to be “cleaned up” and its sure as hell ain’t the last. And that my friend, is a fact.

      People are angry. They should be. It damn is about time. It should be a wake up call. No one said that we aren’t ALL to blame. Heck, if you’re reading this, then you’ve already done more than your part to harm the planet. But own it. Don’t hide behind words. Do something, say something at least. Don’t accept that oil/waste/pollution/etc is part of your life. Demand more.

      If there’s one thing humans are good at – that is if they want something bad enough, product mostly, and are willing to pay for it, someone will make it be it for good or for greed.

      I want to bank on good. Education is damn a good place to start, because ignorance is no excuse.

      Wonder if I will be deemed a troll ’cause someone doesn’t agree…

  • http://www.babeled.com Man Overboard

    Behind every ‘corporate greed’ is an insatiable appetite for a product of comodity that every single one of us is guilty of having. Remember the next time you fill up or use plastic.

  • Celia

    It IS Corporate greed that is causing the oil companies to forego the cost of updating their equipment for the sake of meeting their bottom lines —- They have to meet their profit numbers so they get their big bonuses!!! Don’t you get it? Its happening in virtually EVERY US corporation — even the best of ‘em.

  • Crackers

    It’s obvious none of the people who left comments live on the Gulf Coast. I live on the Florida Panhandle. I cannot go to the beach without crying. Our entire economy is built around tourism. Yes, that’s our mistake but that is the way it evolved. When people discovered our beautiful white sand and emerald green water, everyone wanted a piece of it. This oil spill will bankrupt thousands of families. Mom-and-pop storeowners and fishermen have already been thrown out of work. And I’m here to tell you, other than oil clean up work, there are few jobs around here. And the loss to the environment is unfathomable, comparable only to a nuclear accident because it is rending thousands of square miles of water, tributaries and coastline fouled and uninhabitable.
    The Florida Panhandle is home to thousands of endangered species, both plants and animals. For instance, there is a specific type of endangered sea turtle that only comes to the Panhandle to lay eggs. The water where the spill is is a migration path for rays, sharks and other kinds of fish and mammals, most of which will just now be coming into those waters.
    But the callousness with which some are dealing with this is shocking. Imagine having worked your whole life doing something you loved and then have it fouled and destroyed — tortured to death if you will — right before your eyes. This spill has not only decimated the fishing industry’s future, it has served to make its past successes irrelevant.
    Imagine if you will, being in your late 50s, early 60s, having worked only one job in your entire life — most likely a family business. Your skill set is limited, you’re not a rich person and now you are faced with not just finding a new job but a new way of life.
    Yes, this is personal, not just for one person or a few, but thousands of people who live along the coast. And it underscores the folly of our dependence on oil and the despicable lengths to which we will go to obtain it. At what point will we say, “this is enough” and demand an alternate energy solution?

  • Billy Hewitt

    The Gulf of Mexico is about to become a dead zone because the BP & Obama team are “BLIND TO PLUMES”. The main leak is from the fractured sea bed not the riser 6 miles away shown on TV. It will take a nuclear weapon at 18,000 feet below sea level to plug the fractured hole. The main leak is gushing oil at the rate of 120,000 bpd instead of BP estimate 5,000 bpd and government estimate of 19,000 bpd. BP should be declared a terrorist and all BP assets seized and all company officers declared enemy combatants and sent to Guantanamo for daily waterboarding until they confess. Bye Bye GOM! Hello East Coast have a BP tar ball. A gift from uncle Tony.

    Simmons says Government Should Take Over BP Oil Clean Up: Video Reference Bloomberg News
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4whiKQgnp4w&feature=related

    Matt Simmons: “There’s another leak, much bigger, 5 to 6 miles away”,flv Dylan Ratigan show
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cDGAoU1H2gM&NR=1

  • Rick

    The relief well should be a requirement in the drilling process, enforced by the US Navy when in our coastal waters. The profits from oil would easily cover the cost of having to drill a second well simultaneously.
    This really isn’t that complicated.

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  • J. F.

    Ok… to the people that seemingly want to defend the corporations with the accidents happen thing… do this…

    Get in your car, and go get on the highway, get up to about 65 or 70…. then close your eyes for a about a minute.

    Chances are… the stuff will hit the fan. Then deal with all the pain, chaos, and disorder that results in this.

    Then when you are fit to drive again… get back on the same highway, go the same speed, drive the same car, and close your eyes again.

    That’s what these guys did. Making the same mistake twice is not an accident. These guys have MORE than enough money to set aside the worlds best R&D department on Accident Prevention!

    How can you defend something like that?

    Spills do happen, all the time… but not in this magnitude. Two of worst spills now have happened due to the same cause, in the same area, but the same operator! And thats WITH 30 years of potential R&D.

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  • http://yahoo.com dal

    Mike: You sure stirred up a hornets nest of loony libs. Bet each one of them went to school to learn all about liberal arts and flipping burgers at mc donalsd

    • Joe2

      dal, I’m not a liberal and you are ignorant of your own existence much less the distruction around it. How about you pay it forward and educate yourself about greed, the way environment works and how throwing money at things can sometimes hide the ugly but not the rotten core?

      Cheers.

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