I assume most of you have been following this mess. The part that I find frustrating though not particularly surprising is how badly the truth has been left out of all the media hysteria. This is also the case with the US government response to it, politics is trumping everything. I guess it iw well known that there is no problem so great that government can't make worse but the actions of Obama in this one exceed even one's worst expectations as he has taken actions and made statements that defy all logic or good sense.
The media always love a good crisis and veiw their primary role to exaggerate and dramatize, perhaps the one thing they are good at. Getting the facts out to the public is not on the agenda, at least to the extent that the facts don't support the hysteria.
Let's look at what some of the facts are.
This is not remotely near the worst oil spill ever. That honor belongs to Saddam when he invaced Kuwait which resulted in the spilling of over 900 million barrels of oil. It is not even the biggest spill into the Gulf of Mexico. That record belongs to Pemex and was set in 1979 and this current one won't remotely come close to it. This was aggravated by a collision of a tanker just off the coast near Galvaston that spilled a bunch more oil just after the Pemex well was shut off. The combination of these two major spills still didn't do any long term damage to the Gulf, both the fishing and the beaches verified by a detailed study done three years later in which no trace of either could be detected in eitherthe sea life including shrimp or on the beaches. Yes the beaches did have some tar balls which they always have had for millions of years since there are natural leaks in the Gulf, the same as most parts of the world. By the way, these leaks in the Gulf each year amount to a volume that scientists estimate exceeds twice the total of that dumped by the Exxon Valdez.
Obama has responded by trying to pander to his anti-business supporters by blocking all drilling in the Gulf which has cost over 50,000 persons their jobs and put one more nail into the coffin of US self sufficiency in oil as well as aggravating the employment situation.
The media always love a good crisis and veiw their primary role to exaggerate and dramatize, perhaps the one thing they are good at. Getting the facts out to the public is not on the agenda, at least to the extent that the facts don't support the hysteria.
Let's look at what some of the facts are.
This is not remotely near the worst oil spill ever. That honor belongs to Saddam when he invaced Kuwait which resulted in the spilling of over 900 million barrels of oil. It is not even the biggest spill into the Gulf of Mexico. That record belongs to Pemex and was set in 1979 and this current one won't remotely come close to it. This was aggravated by a collision of a tanker just off the coast near Galvaston that spilled a bunch more oil just after the Pemex well was shut off. The combination of these two major spills still didn't do any long term damage to the Gulf, both the fishing and the beaches verified by a detailed study done three years later in which no trace of either could be detected in eitherthe sea life including shrimp or on the beaches. Yes the beaches did have some tar balls which they always have had for millions of years since there are natural leaks in the Gulf, the same as most parts of the world. By the way, these leaks in the Gulf each year amount to a volume that scientists estimate exceeds twice the total of that dumped by the Exxon Valdez.
Obama has responded by trying to pander to his anti-business supporters by blocking all drilling in the Gulf which has cost over 50,000 persons their jobs and put one more nail into the coffin of US self sufficiency in oil as well as aggravating the employment situation.