Rant for Booming-- mitigating the damage from oil blowout

Why O why aren’t we really Booming? Mitigating the oil blowout in the Gulf of Mexico

I heard this as an audio and was galvanized.

There are things I know well, like Afghanistan, and disaster response (like refugee camps, post hurricane response) & on those subject I fing that watching people (us) do them poorly is an outrage, a pain, & a catastrophe. Like Katrina or the Afhgan war-- I shout at the television is despair and disbelief. The pain and frustration is unbearable. In fact, on those subjects I sound a lot like Ms. Fishgrease.




What I want to know is if it is too late to do good booming and if not what exactly is being done.

In case the suggestions or questions I have go past too fast in the video I have restated them here. Let me know if you have suggestions. I can only imagine how heartbreaking it would be to watch NOTHING happening as the oil rises on the gulf.

Based on what we hear here from this video, it sounds like there is a job we can do:
a. Get the experts to tell us what to do at this stage about booming & any other ways to mitigate the exposure to and effects of oil on the living things in the water and on shore.
b. Get boom made and delivered. If it really matters we can get the women and the equipment. Can we make more of it with sewing machines, a standard pattern, and the right “material”? If it is money-- get money and then watch it like a hawk.
c. Help in whatever way to get it in place, keep it right and use every means possible to monitor the process. Use google earth, airplanes, boats, word of mouth, radios, and real science.
d. Best I’ve found so far is called "skytruth”  Follow the oil catastrophe via Gulf Oil Tracker 
e. Maybe this is nuts and its too late. If so, tell us. But, tell us if there are other ways we can chip and do things that matter.
f. The Coast Guard is meant to guard our coasts. They should do that, we should demand that.

Our hearts go to all lives connected to the gulf of Mexico.  I've made a gallery of photos from there and add it it every day.  Hearts to the gulf

I for one would be willing to be a boom-tender.  Hopefully I would be better at it than making videos but, in both cases I am trying to improve.

Sharon

The Gulf is Your Fault -- A Story

I heard this story by Mark Fiore while listening to Best of the left podcast. It has a Grinchlike feel with humor and sharpness. I've been modifying various childrens songs with "relevant" content, so beware there may be more to come. But, Thanks to Best of the Left. This fits under "I wish I had written it" and "it only hurts when I don't laugh". We picked the Florida burrowing owl to compliment the Dr. Suess style.

I found this Entry by Kathy Gill at "the moderate voice" and thought she did a great job.  Thus, I am including it as-is with links to the original. 

At a certain point I carry the discussion towards photographs from the Gulf Coast in honor of the time we spent there, the people and all we have to lose.

This Is Not A Spill by KATHY GILL in Politics.  Jun 18th, 2010 

Words Matter.

ThisIsNotASpill.org seeks to change the framing used to talk about the BP explosion in the Gulf of Mexico on 20 April 2010. Here it is, almost two months later (18 June 2010) and media are still describing this disaster with the word “spill” in both stories and headlines.

This is not a spill.

A spill is what happens when your toddler knocks over a tumbler of milk.
A spill is what happens when you turn over that bucket of soapy water while washing your car. It’s not what happens when you leave the water hose running for days. Or weeks. Or months.
A spill is what happens when a fixed quantity of fluid accidentally escapes its container.
Connotatively, spills are small.

The BP blowout is neither small nor fixed in quantity. Nor is the oil encased in a container, unless you think of the earth as a container. And by that definition, a volcanic eruption could be considered a spill!

There is a more precise noun that describes what is going on almost a mile below the surface of the ocean, 40 miles off the coast of Louisiana: blowout.

A blowout, in the words of the OilGasGlossary, is “an uncontrolled flow of gas, oil, or other well fluids.” To substantiate my claim that we should be using “blowout” not “spill” to describe this disaster, recall that the exploratory well  blowout preventer, “a large valve that can seal off an oil or natural gas well,” failed. Blowout preventer failure = blowout.

This is not a spill.

It is a blowout.

And the sooner that the media begin using the true name to describe this disaster, instead of an innocuous euphemism, the more likely the enormity of the event — and what it means for our seemingly insatiable demand for energy — will permeate our collective conscious.

The author details things we can all do to reduce our consumption of oil in individual life-size increments and large community and national increments. Lets try them all. You can check out her suggestions at:  Ideas to reduce oil consumption

I aim to remind us also of what we are losing in wildlife, natural beauty, and culture. A memorial in photos and writing to the Gulf Coast. An apology to all who live along those shores whose lives have been brought into another screeching chaos of uncertainty.

Words are important, and so are pictures. We all own this.



This is the Atchafalaya swamp in Louisiana, the largest inland swamp and basin in the United States. They are working hard to figure out how to minimize the amount of oil into the area and to do all they can to prevent damage. As Don Shoopman the Senior News Editor at the "Daily Iberian"
said
My heart would stop if oil flowed into and past Morgan City into the heart of the Spillway.

(June 17, 2010)

To see more pictures of the gulf coast --- follow the link to the gallery.

Gallery in honor of gulf coast residents of all types

We have just started and will share updates and links.

Sharon

Share your thoughts on ways to inspire action and to reach out to those that live in the Gulf coast states and need to know we stand with them

Oil in perspective

Images of oil-- picturing scale

I am trying to construct a narrative that is large enough to encompass the new facts and ensuing time since the Deep Horizon oil rig explosion and the unfolding disaster began in the gulf of Mexico.

I gather that the trouble started because they were attempting to cap the oil well.   Some report this was an exploratory drill that was to be capped and then possibly returned to in the future.  Others say that the  well was disappointingly "unproductive"and British Petroleum (BP) who bought the rights to this oil field wanted to move the oil rig elsewhere in the gulf.  Reportedly it costs $500,000 per day for BP to rent an oil rig from its owner Transocean Ltd, and, running the operation costs another $ 500,000 per day so, one day and  ~$ 1million gets the crude oil out of the ground (water).   Thus, the amount of oil we see spewing into the gulf waters via webcam was, prior to April 20, 2010, "trivial" relative to some level of profitability and consumption.  At day 35 in this ecological, humanitarian, economic, political, and moral disaster, lack of oil production is not the problem.

Looking for ways to chip in and help I donated money to Audubon and then 34 more days have passed. In an effort match the personal response needed or, at the very least, visualize it, I thought perhaps I should reduce my own daily consumption (and that of my less enthusiastic family members) by the amount this represents.  This led me to review some basic facts and then try to shake these into some pattern that I could work with.  What I have is not a coherent story but a pile of shattered fragments that, taken together, are unbelievable.

A barrel of crude oil is 42 gallons. Out of every 100 measures of liquid crude oil one would get about 40 measures of gasoline (or about 40% of crude oil is gasoline). Chemical means have allowed us to increase this proportion by breaking larger hydrocarbons or combining smaller ones to make more gasoline.

What is flowing out of that 21 inch diameter pipe is crude oil-- at a rate that was, until yesterday reported to be 5000 to 100,000 barrels per day or 210,000 to 4,200,000 US gallons.  However according to the Associate Press reports today two separate teams of experts using different methods report that 17 million to 39 million gallons of oil have leaked thus far (1/2-1 million gallons per day).
So how much is that? 

In America we use 20 billion barrels of oil per day.
A billion is a thousand million or 1,000,000,000.
Of this total, 9 billion barrels per day is used in cars.  In the more familiar measure this is ~390 billion gallons per day of gasoline.
The ANWR reserve in Alaska that we keep almost drilling, "drill baby drill", is estimated to have 10.4 billion barrels of oil total. As someone pointed out, not enough for a day.
The oil field in the gulf that was tapped by the Deep Horizon was estimated by BP to have a total of 50 million barrels (7.9×10^⁶ m³) of oil prior to the blowout.  When BP submitted documents for permits they estimated 160,000 barrels per day as "worst case scenario". These were updated by them to 240,000 barrels per day.  Thus, presumably unless the fish get mechanically inclined we may have a calculable, albeit tragic, end point.  No, I do not know why I would believe that number was credible.

The largest oil spill in history was not the Exxon Valdez with the paltry 11 million (mind your zeros) gallons (not barrels) it was a 10 month long spill in Mexico.

BP has accepted responsibility for the oil spill and the cleanup costs, but indicated they are not at fault as the platform was run by Transocean personnel.
Haliburton corp (yes, they do seem to do everything and be everywhere) put the cement in the well pipes 20 hours prior to the explosion and were to put in a final cement cap so that the well could be re-tapped in the future if it became more profitable to do so.


A group of BP executives were on board the platform celebrating the project's safety record when the blowout occurred;^[46] they were injured but survived.

The US coastguard discovered the spill on April 22.
On April 23 BP sent a remotely operated vehicle and reported there was no oil leakage. The coast guard agreed.
On April 24 the coast guard said there was a leak.
As of May 2, 2010, BP had sent six remotely operated underwater vehicles to close the blowout preventer valves, but all attempts were ultimately unsuccessful.
Oil was known to be leaking into the gulf from three different locations. On May 5, BP announced that the smallest of three known leaks had been capped. This did not reduce the amount of oil flowing out, but it did allow the repair group to focus their efforts on the two remaining leaks.^[103]
On May 18, 2010, CBS reporter Kelly Cobiella tried to visit the beaches in the Gulf of Mexico to report on the disaster. She was met by BP contractors and American Coast Guard officers who threatened her with arrest if she did not leave. The Coast Guard officials specified that they were acting under the authority of BP.^[98]
On May 19, scientists monitoring the spill with the European Space Agency Envisat radar satellite stated that oil reached the Loop Current, which flows clockwise around the Gulf of Mexico towards Florida, and may reach Florida within 6 days
On May 20, 2010 (one month or 30 days) the US secretary of the interior stated that the U.S. government will verify how much oil has leaked into the Gulf of Mexico
On May 14, engineers began the process of positioning a riser insertion tube tool at the largest oil leak site. After three days, BP reported the tube was working. Since then, collection rates have varied daily between 1,000 and 5,000 barrels (42,000 and 210,000 US gallons; 160,000 and 790,000 litres), the average being 2,000 barrels (84,000 US gallons; 320,000 litres) a day,
U.S. Rep. Ed Markey, the chairman of the Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming discovers that there is a video clip of the oil leak on Youtube and demands BP release video footage and feed to US government.
May 21 tube removed so BP can "close the well".
At this point BP continues to report spill rates of 5000 barrels per day.
On May 25, a scheduled flyover was denied permission after BP officials learned that a member of the press would be on board.^[99]
PBS' "Newshour" converted a video feed from BP to make it work on most Web browsers and has made that available for free.
May 26th BP starts the "top kill" operation
On May 27, U.S. Coast Guard reports that BP engineers had succeeded in stopping the flow of oil and gas into the Gulf of Mexico. He further stated that the well still has low pressure, but cement will be used to cap the well permanently as soon as the pressure hits zero.^[114]

Tonight we learned that the US government and BP officials reported to the news media that "things" were going well with the newest operation to stop the oil spill by blocking the pipe with mud and concrete from above.  These reports were provided to us when in fact the operation stopped at 11 pm the previous evening.  Incredibly, this means the US government is relying on BP to provide valid and timely information.  Couldn't the US government wiretap BP officials or constrain them in some way to operate under surveillance? Perhaps it is a trend in the right direction insofar as the lifespan of lies is less than 12 hours.

Seven fisherpeople of the gulf were taken to hospital today with what was deemed toxic effects of oil and dehydration. Thus, all private (or non-corporate) boats working to mitigate the effects of the oil spill were called back to shore.

Two additional relief wells are being drilled into the oil field to reduce the pressure. These will take 2-3 months before they will be able to contribute significantly to the solution.

The head of the Mining agency resigned today. It was cited that this agency was given tickets to ballgames by BP and shared computer porn.

All the means of prevention that are standard in other countries we do not employ- cost you know.

I will keep up my calculations to see if I can figure out means to express the amount of oil as percent of daily energy use or car drives or something that we can respond. I do know that I want people to stop telling me their response is adequate unless they are closing the well or washing birds. Our leadership needs to get the data, get in charge, and then give us all a way to take this disaster and make a commitment to lower cost (lower environmentally costly) fuels and reduced consumption. High oil prices in 2008 reduced our use and changed our habit in one month. For example, Americans travel 7 billion miles per day but with hike in gas prices we reduced our miles driven by 9.6 billion in the 31 days of May 2008.

We act like we cannot change. Its simply impossible to expect sacrifices in terms of energy or the need to use petrochemicals and coals. But, the people that live in LA, FL, AL, are sacrificing again, with everything and maybe a few of us could make life changing moves too. To reduce the risks of oil spills, oil wars, loss of integrity and oh, yes, global warming.

With great sorrow I see so many dirty hands and shortcuts from years of the same until its normalized.

Let me know if this is useful to you or what you think would help tell the story better.

Sharon

Education revolution from TED series

This is an entertaining and activating talk on education that may resonate with you. He offers some useful and powerful mental images to help illustrate his points.



As we work with some incredible people to create/design tailored education for our daughter the term "community-based" education seems apt.

Sharon

Notecards available at Joes Pond Crafts

Wonderful new images in the spring-summer collection. This year I have been focusing on botanical images and birds.  I keep finding new favorites with each batch scanned.  I've been making prints and they come out very well.  Check out the New-Birds, New-Potpourri, and New Gardens galleries.

Deb Stresing picked a fine group for her shop in West Danville Vermont- Joe's Pond Crafts on Route 2.  The entire group she picked is in a special gallery for you to see go to gallery of Notecards on sale at Joes pond.  She is happy to order more and you can also order via the website.

Joes Pond Crafts is a lovely place in a big old barn that features local artists work with a Vermont theme. Check it out.

Sharon

International Health

Justmeans Health editorial  This is an editorial by Ano Lobb MPH on the JustMeans site (social entrepreneur website) that was posted today.  I was asked to do a technical review of the methods and content and given a chance to weigh in. For many people it is a shock to find out that all the discussion about the burden of disease and mortality are estimates because most countries to not have a system in place to count deaths. It seems like a simple thing to do but has not been given priority.  
 
International health study measures global mortality 

Posted On: May 20

A new international health study in The Lancet attempts to answer a seemingly simple question: What are the leading causes of death for children under age 5? That death rate is an often-used measure in international health, and reducing it is a UN Millennium Development Goal. The good news: despite a growing population, total deaths declined between 2000 and 2008 from 10.6 million to 8.8 million. Other interesting, if somewhat despair-inducing figures:

• Of the estimated 8.8 million deaths in children 5 years or younger, 68% were from infectious disease, including pneumonia (18%), diarrhea (15%) and malaria (8%).

41% of death occurred in neonates (under 1 month), with preterm complications (12%), birth asphyxia (9%), and sepsis (6%) being the leading causes.

Different high-death regions have different mortality profiles, with most deaths in sub-Saharan Africa occurring in those 1 month to 5 years, while deaths in China and India occurring more frequently in neonates.

In developed areas, genetic causes are a notable cause, something not widely seen, or at least reported or measured, in the developing world.

The methods of this paper are nearly as telling as the results. International health studies often report death rates, but deaths are not routinely counted in most of the world. Consequently, the authors present an exquisite flow chart with 33 different boxes depicting how they calculated their estimates. North America, parts of South America, Europe, Russia, Oman, Australia and New Zealand are the only areas routinely recording births and deaths. For the vast majority of the rest of world, some form of "verbal autopsy" is used as the basis for death estimates. In other words, asking a parent or family member, or perhaps health worker, what they think a child died from. International health expert Sharon McDonnell, MD, MPH, reviewed the paper for Justmeans.

"The verbal autopsy doesn't bother me so much," said Dr. McDonnell, whose career spans several decades with senior positions at both WHO and CDC. "It can be better than what is on paperwork via registries, so it doesn't necessarily speak to the quality of the data. It's often gathered at community level going door to door so it can be more likely to get accurate population estimates compared to health facility estimates."

Political factors also can't be overlooked in international health.

"The reporting of deaths in any way simply relates to whether the government has a system to count people. Most systems to count people were developed to tax them or send them to the military, sp there's little incentive to be counted on the part of the population. Westerners have a cultural frame of democracy and representation- having a voice. In many places you really don't want to stand out or be heard, it's best to blend in. Imagine the picture: a poor woman goes to a government official and says "my baby died". The official says "yes, so?"

"Until action and compassion are tied to reporting it is unlikely and almost irrelevant."

Photo credit: The Lancet