Headlines from the Associated Press:
Gulf Oil Spill Eclipses Exxon Valdez
At 19 million gallons, the disaster is officially the worst of its kind in U.S. history
Today marks day 40 for the BP Gulf Oil Spill. Eleven people died in the explosion (which seems generally overlooked) and it seems weekly, if not daily, the "official" number of gallons spilling doubles. Obviously, if you watch the news you are familiar with these outrageous numbers and the ridiculous amount of finger pointing going on.
According to the New York Times, "Despite an apparent lack of progress, officials said they would continue with the process for another 48 hours, into Sunday, before giving up and considering other options, including another containment dome to try to capture the oil."
The oil well ruptured April 22. Today is May 29th. Scared yet? I am. Will this top kill work? Will they plug it? Will the oil snake around Florida? If they have to drill relief wells those may not be ready for at least another 8 weeks. 8 weeks. That's late July! Houston, we have a problem.
But not only am I scared and mad, I'm curious too. Curious seems like a weird word for this feeling. It's not the kind of curious you get on Christmas, more like the kind of curious felt when you're waiting to see if the policeman will return with a ticket, or if the professor found it obvious that you procrastinated and threw a pile of crap together for your senior thesis. Maybe that's called dread? Whatever it's called, I'm curious to see what New Orleans will be like, or if we'll even notice a difference. I'm curious to see if the panhandle is affected, curious to know if we'll have a beach to return to down here in the dub-P. By the time we return, at the end of July, will Flagpole be a pile of dead fish and tar balls? What's going to happen to the people who not only make their living from fishing, but have based their entire way of life on fishing?
I guess we'll have to wait and see. And I don't find that to be a very satisfactory answer.
No comments:
Post a Comment