With all eyes glued on the atrocities in Gaza and Ukraine, another homegrown atrocity may soon be underway. The Obama administration has quietly executed one of those sneaky summer weekend news dumps in hopes of nobody noticing or caring. Because what, after all, are pods of insane dolphins, and hordes of dead turtles, and the extinction of an entire whale species compared to hundreds of battered human bodies?
From Think Progress:
On Friday, the U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) approved the use of seismic airguns to explore the seabed from Cape May to Cape Canaveral for oil and gas.
These sonic cannons are compressed airguns that get towed behind ships, using dynamite-like blasts to produce sound waves 100,000 times louder than a jet engine underwater every ten seconds. The waves travel through the water and through the ocean floor, bouncing back up at different rates to provide prospective drillers and researchers a better sense of where oil, gas, minerals, and sand lie beneath the waves.
It’s not a surprise that this is dangerous: even BOEM estimates that this practice will disrupt, injure, or kill millions of marine animals, including the most endangered whale species on the planet. It is less surprising that this risky tactic would be approved in large part to ferret out another source of fossil fuels, risking another BP disaster and emitting more pollution that causes global warming. It’s more surprising that this gambit is being entertained in an area that may not even have that much oil or gas.
So why is the Obama administration entertaining it? Because he already ticked off "climate change" on his legacy to-do list by trumpeting proposals to reduce carbon emissions at some vague time in the future. Because compromised politicians want the waters off their sacrosanct borders opened up for the extraction of every last single drop of oil and gas, regardless of the cost. Because the president wants to start handing out drilling leases before he leaves office in 2017. Because there is lots and lots and lots of money to be made for a select few pockets.
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6 comments:
I do not consider myself a "tree huger", but this is wrong.
1:02
I am not a tree hugger either. When I got to the part about global warmning I stopped reading. I have a feeling this is a bunch of propaganda from the tree huggers.
I'd rather see the drilling here, the jobs here, and the money kept here. Drill, baby, drill!
Anonymous said...
I'd rather see the drilling here, the jobs here, and the money kept here. Drill, baby, drill!
July 28, 2014 at 1:35 PM
Yes, because who cares if the oceans are becoming devoid of life, as long as we have oil and jobs. Maybe we can find a way to eat the oil when the dwindling food supply can no longer feed the over population of people.
Drill baby drill is a saying for idiots.
If you don't understand the environment then you might believe humans should do these types of things.
If you are educated, you realize immediately what a terrible idea it is.
Forget the global warming b.s.
THIS IS TERRIBLE!!!
Jobs? Do you have ANY idea how many jobs this is going to KILL in coastal communities along the coast? Those dead sea creatures are going to mean just that.
Whether you oppose this as a sensible environmentalist or someone who sees what a few oil jobs will mean to thousands and thousands of other jobs, you need to contact Congress and the White House and oppose this crap!
There are plenty of safer interior spots to drill. This is INSANITY!
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