PLEASE READ THE PREVIOUS POST "MY OIL HISTORY" BEFORE CONTINUING WITH THIS POST AND THE FOLLOWING POST
I heard a Mother one time on tv discussing her son. She said that every time she is with a group of other women she listen’s to them talk with great pride about what their children are doing. One just got married, one just got a new job, one going to college, one off to explore the world, etc.….. And there she sits with a child who was just arrested for a drug related crime, in jail with a very bleak future. This latest had come after years of dealing with his addiction problem, bringing on other heart breaking episodes for their whole family. Yet, he is still her son and she still loves him and she knows the good that is located somewhere within him….. He had went from a beautiful, small, wonderful child with a very big productive heart into a self destructing failure at life. The pain was almost more than she could bear…… Furthermore she knows that no one can appreciate, or even begin to sympathize with her sadness.
I guess I compare the BP oil spill to a similar feeling. Through misinformation, conspiracy theorists, rumors, lack of knowledge, the harm already done and the fear of what further damage we’ll have to deal with, not to mention our dependence, very few people understand.
My first thought when this happened was for the families of the eleven who died in the initial rig explosion. Suffice to say my prayers are with them in their grief. The workers gave their lives for something they believed in, worked hard for, and did their job to provide the rest of us comfort. May they forever rest in peace knowing that they are hero’s in my eyes.
My second thought (as with most of the world) was the damage that has already and will come to our beautiful gulf coast…. Needless to say, with the exception of Hiroshima, & Chernobyl, and a few others, it was and will be the most horrifying event in our history, and, as with all great disasters it will not end for a very long time. My prayers are with those whose livelihood depends on what the gulf has given them through generations, and for our planet that will suffer the most.
My third thought is with those who are now faced with untold challenges ahead of stopping the oil flow and cleaning up the enormous mess it has created. It’s going to take greater wisdom and technology than the world has ever seen and countless hours of work involving thousands of people on land, in the sea and on the coastlines affected. (as of now the total scope is unknown and cannot totally be assesed).
I would like to state that I will not be discussing “blame” at this point, that will be left to those who do the investigating in the future and for others to debate to their heart’s content. I will say that any time man is involved in doing any thing, the probability for error is greatly increased if not certain. Oversight, mistakes, human error, equipment failures, etc. are part of life period. In no other area of life or industry can Murphy’s law be applied more honestly “if it can go wrong it will” than in the oilfield.
That being said, I also want to make it clear that I am not an engineer or oil field technician. Therefore, I have a very limited knowledge of what BP is doing when it comes to fixing this huge problem. However; saying that, I want to add that very few do comprehend the complexities of the problem or the fix…. So, you will not read any suggestions coming from me. The public at large, understandably so, does not have a clue, which brings me to my next point.
Frustration, being mad & upset, yelling and screaming, assuming things you know nothing about, and pointing fingers is a normal, expected response, but many of the nonsensical statements I’ve heard over the past month of dealing with this, really needs to stop.
First of all NO ONE WANTED THIS TO HAPPEN! Not the 11 workers, not the other 150 people on that rig at the time, nor the BP officials and crews or any of the other support companies working on this project, wanted this to happen. Furthermore, they along with thousands of others are doing everything in their power to stop it. It very simply is not a simple fix.
There are untold numbers of some of the greatest engineer and scientific minds in the world working on this along with industry personnel physically doing the hands on work, gathered from hundreds of companies from around the world.
I also want to remind my readers that this in no way is written “in defense of the companies involved” but rather “in support of” all the people involved. If you are interested in the technical aspect of all this, I would urge you to spend some time reading on this website. http://www.theoildrum.com/ Also shown at the top of the page. It is updated on a daily basis with interesting articles and comments and you can learn a lot about what is being done. Also, the live feed of operations which can be found at http://www.bp.com also shown at the top of the page, which shows the robots working 5,000 feet below the surface of the water is absolutely awesome. If you can imagine the folks at the controls working 24 hours a day in shifts in order to complete this latest attempt at stopping the gusher, you will soon realize the immense efforts going into it.
My heart is so torn right now. Full of love and admiration of an industry that has been my life and continues to sustain me. Full of sadness and embarrassment for something going terribly wrong and not being able to do anything about it. Just like the Mother at the dinner party discussing her wayward son, I don’t know what to say except it is my heart and soul and I am so awfully sorry for his mistakes. Yes, we did the best we could and yes I have other children who did not turn out this way.
My next post will cover and hopefully dispel some of the idiotic myths and ideas that has hit the “news” over the past month. Believe what you will but the answers to this problem will not come easily.
Please continue to read the following post "Hope"
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