(NaturalNews) Oil is a dirty business. It's not just the politics of oil, which are dirty enough by themselves -- it's also the environmental toll of the substance. Even when used correctly, its chemical byproducts cause air pollution and release carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. But the real mess comes when things go terribly wrong -- much like what happened recently when the offshore drilling rig
Deepwater Horizon exploded and sank to the ocean floor off the coast of Louisiana. This set in motion a chain of disastrous events that are only now beginning to unfold.
Nearly 50% of the
seafood consumed by Americans comes from the
Gulf of Mexico, by the way. That explains why seafood contains such an alarmingly high concentration of
mercury as well as industrial chemicals -- because
the Gulf of Mexico is America's toilet where every toxic chemical, heavy metal and pharmaceutical that's flushed down the drain ends up getting dumped. No wonder the Gulf of Mexico is
home to one of the planet's largest ocean "
dead zones" -- over 6,000 square miles of dead
water where fish can't even survive (
http://serc.carleton.edu/microbelife/topics/deadzone/).
And that was before the
oil spill. Now, thanks to a creeping
oil slick that's approaching shorelines throughout the
gulf, the
breeding grounds for a huge number of marine species is now threatened. Species from pelicans to shrimp are likely to be devastated by this oil slick.
It's already being called a "mega-disaster" by environmentalists. "The magnitude and the potential for ecological damage is probably more great than anything we've ever seen in the Gulf of Mexico," said Nancy Rabalais in a
Washington Post interview (
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/04/30/AR2010043...). She heads the Louisiana Universities Marine Consortium in Cocodrie, La. "Once it hits the shoreline, it'll get into everything."
"Ninety-seven percent of commercial
fish and shellfish in the Gulf depend on estuaries and wetlands during their
life cycle," said Jane Lubchenco, head of the
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Those wetlands are about to be covered with a thick brown slime that will make reproduction of seafood species virtually impossible.
Oil continues to spill out of the sunken rig wreck at the rate of 5,000 barrels a day. So far, there's little hope of stopping it. Observers are already characterizing this spill as "worse than the Exxon Valdez spill" in 1989.
Everything you've read here so far is being widely reported in the mainstream media. The story that follows, however, is much more difficult to find.
The Halliburton link and Washington hypocrisy
It was only a few weeks ago that
Obama proudly announced he would expand offshore drilling, breaking one of his many now-worthless campaign promises. The lack of outcry from
Democrats over this announcement was nothing short of bizarre: If Bush had announced an expansion of offshore drilling, he would have been widely (and rightly) condemned for it by the left. But when Obama announces the same thing, it's apparently okay with Democrats.
Back on the Republican side of things, the company Halliburton -- yes, the same one that rakes in billions of dollars in
profits rebuilding things in the Middle East after the U.S. military blows them up -- is the company that completed the "rig cementing" just 20 hours before the rig exploded. A federal study, meanwhile, shows that most rig blowouts are caused by problems with rig cementing. So now it appears that Halliburton may be implicated in this
environmental disaster. (
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/04/30/MNRB1D7PQB.DTL)
The San Jose Mercury News is reporting that a lawsuit filed by a rig technician who was injured in the
explosion claims Halliburton made crucial
mistakes in cementing the well, "increasing the pressure at the well and contributing to the fire, explosion and resulting oil spill." (
http://www.mercurynews.com/news/ci_14996372?source=rss)
A blog at the L.A. Times explored the full extent of the Halliburton connection to the oil spill:
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/greenspace/2010/04/gulf-oil-spill-the-hal...Get ready for some theater
Halliburton, which was once headed by Vice President Dick Cheney, now finds itself in the spotlight as Congressional investigators are beginning to ask questions. But don't expect this to go very far: It's all just theater to appease the public until memory of this event fades and the old corrupt Washington / Big Business machine can get rolling again.
Since when has concern for
the environment ever got in the way of powerful corporate interests that have political pull in Washington? Rest assured that no matter what the immediate fallout from this disastrous oil-era accident, the Halliburtons of the world continue to rake in billions of dollars in annual profits even as their mistakes extract an incalculable loss of life across our
natural world.
Halliburton has shareholders to please, after all... no matter how many pelicans, sea turtles or dolphins have to die in the process.
Slick, huh?
Additional information:The Gulf of Mexico is actually home to five of the world's dead zones (
http://disc.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov/oceancolor/additional/science-focus/ocean-c...)
About the author: Mike Adams is a natural health researcher, author and award-winning journalist with a passion for teaching people how to improve their health He is a prolific writer and has published thousands of articles, interviews, reports and consumer guides, reaching millions of readers with information that is saving lives and improving personal health around the world. Adams is an honest, independent journalist and accepts no money or commissions on the third-party products he writes about or the companies he promotes. In 2010, Adams co-founded NaturalNews.TV, a natural health video sharing site that has now grown in popularity. He's also a noted technology pioneer and founded a software company in 1993 that developed the HTML email newsletter software currently powering the NaturalNews subscriptions. Adams is currently the executive director of the Consumer Wellness Center, a 501(c)3 non-profit, and enjoys outdoor activities, nature photography, Pilates and martial arts training. He's also author a large number of health books offered by Truth Publishing and is the creator of numerous reference website including NaturalPedia.com and the free downloadable Honest Food Guide. His websites also include the free reference sites HerbReference.com and HealingFoodReference.com. Adams believes in free speech, free access to nutritional supplements and the innate healing ability of the human body. Known by his callsign, the 'Health Ranger,' Adams posts his missions statements, health statistics and health photos at www.HealthRanger.org
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