A hole in the world

‘Obama cannot order pelicans not to die (no matter whose ass he kicks). And no amount of money – not BP’s $20bn, not $100bn – can replace a culture that’s lost its roots.’ Photograph: Lee Celano/Reuters

‘[BP’s] primary purpose was to generate profit for our share holders … our primary purpose in life was not to save the world.’ — Tony Hayward, BP CEO

‘The Gulf of Mexico is a very big ocean. The amount of volume of oil and dispersant we are putting into it is tiny in relation to the total water volume.’ — Tony Hayward, BP CEO

A must read – A hole in the world by Naomi Klein in today’s Grauniad!

The Deep Water Horizon disaster is not just an industrial accident – it is a violent wound inflicted on the Earth itself …

John Wathen, a conservationist with Waterkeeper Alliance, summed up the disaster when he flew over the Gulf in the first few days of the disaster: The Gulf seems to be bleeding. Environmental lawyer Monique Harden refuses to refer to the disaster as an ‘oil spill’, she says ‘we are hemorrhaging.

Tony Hayward wants his life back.

Whales are dying, fish are dying, the inshore fisheries are dying, the tourist industry is dying.

The coastal marshes are dying. These are the spawning ground for the Gulf marine life. If the marshes die, the Gulf Dies.

Tony Hayward would like his life back. As would the eleven workers who died on the Deepwater Horizon oil rig when it exploded 40 miles off the Louisiana coast in the Gulf of Mexico on 20 April 2010.

We are told BP will clean up.

Alaska still has not cleaned up from the Exxon Valdize disaster. Oil has soaked into the beaches. It may have said Exxon on the side of the ship, it was carrying BP oil.

BP is using as an oil dispersant Corexit, a neuro-toxin pesticide banned in the UK. It is safe BP assures the little folk of the Gulf. Safe! Safe as the Deepwater Horizon, safe as the BP oil plant in Texas!

BP has cut corners, it has ignored safety advice. Andarko Petroleum, a 25% partner of BP in the Deepwater Horizon, has accused BP of ‘recklessness’.

Tony Hayward is not fit to run a whelk stall. He comes across as an insensitive, incompetent fool. Appearing before a Senate Committee he was unwilling or unable to answer their questions. How he he be expected the know the answers when he is CEO of a company that drills hundreds of holes in the ground!

What of the Swedish Chairman? He was too busy with his girlfriend playing the life of a playboy in Thailand.

BP had no contingency plan in place in the event of an accident. Their response to date has been one of stick finger in the air and wonder if this will work.

BP has laid flimsy booms which are doing nothing to contain the surface oil. Oil is now heading into the Atlantic. It is moving at an estimated rate of one hundred miles a day.

BP has repeatedly lied about the amount of oil pouring from the well. It is not just oil, methane is also pouring out, a greenhouse gas far more potent than CO2.

BP has an appalling environmental and human rights record. From the leaking Trans-Alaskan pipeline to paramilitary death squads kicking farmers off their lands on a pipeline route through Colombia.

Under George W Bush, Big Oil was the White House. Barack Obama may now be kicking BP ass, but he did nothing to roll back Big Oil on entering the White House.

In the 1950s, a US-UK coup in Iran removed a legitimate democratic regime to install and a puppet regime and hand the country’s oil over to BP (British Persian), We are still counting the cost with a despotic Islamist regime running the country.

BP as a company is finished. It has trashed the environment and in turn it is being trashed. Its share price has gone into free fall, its credit rating is fast approaching junk bond status.

BP RIP! Gulf of Mexico RIP?

Also see

Slick publicity
How Obama decided to expand offshore oil drilling
The Spill, The Scandal and the President A Deepwater dividend
BP oil spill may not be capped until Christmas, expert warns
History of BP Includes Role in 1953 Iran Coup After Nationalization of Oil
Rolling Stone’s Tim Dickinson on the Inside Story of How Obama Let the World’s Most Dangerous Oil Company Get Away with Murder
How Obama decided to expand offshore oil drilling
Years of Internal BP Probes Warned that Neglect Could Lead to Accidents
The Ahab Parallax: ‘Moby Dick’ and the Spill
Experts double estimate of BP oil spill size
BP rejects oil drill partner’s ‘negligence’ claim
BP suffers third rating downgrade
Gulf of Mexico oil leak ‘worst US environment disaster’
BP oil spill: grassroots anger over ‘lack of clean-up plan’
BP oil spill caused by ‘negligence or misconduct’, says drilling partner
Congress’s key accusations against BP

Tags: DeepWater Horizon, Gulf of Mexico, oil, oil spill