by Rachael Woodhouse
It may be the biggest news story on the minds of those who are awake: the Gulf of Mexico oil gusher. No one but ignorant sheeple or slick corporatist shills can now try to make the claim that this event is anything less than a devastating man-made environmental disaster. Videos showing multiple gushers have sprung up all over the internet, so despite British Petroleum’s and the Obama Administration’s attempts to cover up the true magnitude of the disaster, the truth of the matter is there for all to see.
The best way to describe this catastrophe has been accurately coined by Michael Rivero, host of GCN’s What Really Happened. “Some observers have claimed that the BP Gulf Oil Disaster is Obama’s “Katrina.” Sadly, this is far worse. The Gulf Oil Disaster and scandal has reached the point of being America’s Chernobyl.”
Captain Kelly Sweeney of Maritime Headhunters appeared [] on GCN’s Call To Decision and told Pastor Butch Paugh regarding the initial accident, “the rig itself was not equipped with an extra fail safe that is required in other countries like Norway, in places like the North Sea, down in Brazil where they do a lot of drilling. Our government did not require that, and BP and the other oil companies said it’s too expensive, [but] it only cost like 500,000 bucks, and every rig should be equipped with one of these things.”
Even if the initial cause of the gusher was an accident (which many have begun to doubt), BP’s response to the incident has undoubtedly made the pollution far worse. Corexit, the chemical dispersant that has been added to the spill, has had the effect of driving the oil far beneath the surface, making the cleanup nearly impossible to manage.
Captain Sweeney went on to describe the danger to cleanup workers from the toxic mix of crude oil and Corexit. “The fishermen that have been hired by BP to deal with the oil spill in close to shore are becoming ill. The health experts are saying that it’s the direct result of exposure to the crude oil. You know, the crude oil itself has dangerous gasses that can kill within a matter of minutes…and the dispersant that they’re spraying in the air to get the oil that’s on the surface, a lot of that blows over onto the poor men and women who are helping clean up this oil spill. And they’re getting ill, they’re getting sick, it’s really affecting them, and I’m very concerned for my fellow mariners.”
Presstv.com is reporting that “the agent [Corexit], scientists believe, has a 2.61ppm toxicity level, and when mixed with the warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico, its molecules will be able to ‘phase transition’.” That means it will get into the atmosphere.
As is always the case in man-made disasters, it is wise to follow the money. Corexit is made by a water treatment company called Nalco. So, who owns stock in Nalco? An article from LeakBird.com dated March 4, 2009 says “(Warren) Buffett picked up 8.7 million shares. That makes Berkshire the second-largest shareholder in the company, with a little more than 6% of the shares. It’s easy to see what Buffett likes.”
Harley Schlanger of LaRouchePAC.org told Nutrimedical Report host Dr. Bill Deagle about BP’s atrocious record on worker safety and the environment. “This goes back to the 2005 explosion at a BP refinery in Texas City, Texas where I think there were 15 or 16 deaths and 170 badly injured. In the trial, BP admitted negligence.”
Dr. Deagle expressed anger about the 11 dead workers, but added that the harm to human life doesn’t end there. In his view, “it comes back to occupational medicine…and I’m sure that there’s lots of other workers on these other oil rigs, exposed to toxins and dangerous workplaces, and cuts in safety standards that they [BP] knew were going to eventually blow the lid off of a rig. And this is what happened here. BP was always cutting corners, they have a reputation around the world, and they shouldn’t be in our waters at all. And that’s not to say that you can’t drill, but they needed to drill properly with backup safety procedures that they didn’t use.”
Angry yet?