(NaturalNews) BP officials have announced today that the "top kill" effort to stop the Gulf oil leak has failed. Unanticipated problems doomed the project, which involved trying to pump tens of thousands of gallons of mud, shredded rubber tires and other "junk" into the hole to try to halt the outflow of oil.
At 6pm Saturday evening, BP officials announced the "top kill" effort had failed and now they were moving on to another plan (more below).
I am on site at the Gulf Coast right now, and while I haven't reached the areas where
oil is washing up on the
beaches, I'm learning some interesting information nonetheless. In particular, finding a hotel room anywhere near
New Orleans has become virtually impossible, as
BP has rented out virtually every available hotel room from St. Charles, Louisiana all the way to Pensacola, Florida. (I am currently staying in a fleabag hotel that miraculously has internet access...)
But it raises the question: Where are all these people? I haven't seen a single BP person anywhere, and I was out on some beaches today filming editorial segments for
NaturalNews. I did see some small watercraft laying out protective barriers, but I didn't see any BP people anywhere.
I'll keep you posted on what we find tomorrow as we approach the beaches to the East of New Orleans.
Expect more oil for the next 10 weeks
Now that the top kill effort has failed, it means
oil will keep spewing into the Gulf of Mexico until at least August. That's when two "pressure release" wells are expected to be completed. The purpose of these two wells is to siphon off the oil from underneath the ocean bed, thereby releasing the pressure that's currently pushing crude oil out of the existing hole under the doomed
Deepwater Horizon rig.
This "plan C" effort remains extremely risky, of course. There's no guarantee it will work at all. And if it fails, this "volcano of oil" could continue to pollute the Earth's oceans for
years. This could, in fact, be the
global killer event I warned about in an earlier story about this BP oil spill. (
http://www.naturalnews.com/028805_Gulf_of_Mexico_Deepwater_Horizon.html)
We could be looking at a global-scale
environmental catastrophe that destroys virtually all marine life in the Gulf of
Mexico and takes
a century to fully recover. It's really that bad. If they can't stop this volcano of oil in the next week, we could be looking at the single most destructive environmental catastrophe ever to strike our planet since the asteroid that wiped out the dinosaurs.
Get ready for more chemicals
In the mean time, now that the top kill effort has failed, BP has announced
it is resuming the spraying of chemical dispersants into the massive oil plumes that remain deep under the surface of the Gulf of Mexico
water. This means
more chemicals that will kill more forms of marine
life throughout the Gulf.
But it's not just aquatic life that's being threatened by these chemicals:
BP workers are increasingly being sent to the hospital complaining of
symptoms like vomiting, dizziness, difficult
breathing and others. The obvious cause of such symptoms is the huge amount of crude oil bubbling up to the surface (some of which evaporates into the air) along with the massive injection of chemical dispersants into the waters (some of which also evaporates).
CNN is reporting that BP claims it is monitoring
air quality, but so far BP has not gone public with any air quality test results.
None of the
cleanup workers have been outfitted with chemical masks that might protect them from the volatile chemicals now present in the Gulf waters. Yet CNN is reporting that the warning label on the chemical product made by NALCO states: "Avoid breathing vapor."
The
EPA, meanwhile, remains silent on this whole issue. Remember: It is the EPA that ordered BP to stop using its selected brand of chemical dispersant, but BP utterly ignored the EPA and continues to dump that very same chemical into the Gulf of Mexico right now.
A chemical attack on America
What we are watching here, folks, is very nearly
a chemical attack on America by BP and the oil industry. It's hard to say what's worse: The oil or the chemical dispersants. In fact,
no one knows the answer to that question, and it can't even be studied by scientists because the disaster keeps growing by the day.
This is one environmental catastrophe that just keeps getting worse, and the cost to the marine ecosystem is
incalculable. And that's not to even mention the
economic cost to the region and all the people who depend on life in the Gulf of Mexico for their own livelihoods. Their lives are now being
destroyed by this oil drilling catastrophe.
If there's one lesson that comes from all this, it is a reminder of the
immense value Mother Nature provides us each and every day at no charge. The VALUE of a healthy ocean is incalculable. And the COST of killing it may be more than what human civilization can bear.
I suppose this resolves the whole question of what's more important: The environment or
the economy? As we're rudely discovering today,
the economy cannot exist without protecting the environment first.
About the author: Mike Adams is a consumer health advocate and award-winning journalist with a mission to teach personal and planetary health to the public He is a prolific writer and has published thousands of articles, interviews, reports and consumer guides, impacting the lives of millions of readers around the world who are experiencing phenomenal health benefits from reading his articles. Adams is a trusted, independent journalist who receives no money or promotional fees whatsoever to write about other companies' products. In 2010, Adams launched NaturalNews.TV, a natural health video site featuring videos on holistic health and green living. He's also the CEO of a highly successful email newsletter software company that develops software used to send permission email campaigns to subscribers. Adams volunteers his time to serve as the executive director of the Consumer Wellness Center, a 501(c)3 non-profit organization, and enjoys outdoor activities, nature photography, Pilates and martial arts training. Known as the 'Health Ranger,' Adams' personal health statistics and mission statements are located at www.HealthRanger.org
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Saturday, May 29, 2010
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