You have to feel terrible for the people of New Orleans, as this oil spill has added catastrophe to injury in a city that hasn't yet recovered from one of the worst catastrophes in the history of North America. My friends and I were talking about it yesterday, and you have to ask what is left in the city of New Orleans for its people? After Katrina, the commercial fishing industry has been the life blood of their local economy, and now even that is being taken away from them. The city is too far under sea level, putting the residents at extreme risk with each new storm, and now its main economic output has been destroyed for a generation.
Many of the people evacuated from Katrina still have not returned to the city. Many of the people currently living in New Orleans are the people who couldn't afford to move. Between the unrepaired hurricane damage and their coastline now devastated, I can't understand why anyone would want to live there. I'm sure Mardi Gras is good wholesome fun, but it was a really bad idea to put a major city in a flood plain that far under sea level even if once upon a time it served a critical purpose. They still can't repair the oil leak! Why not just pour a 50 meter by 50 meter concrete block and drop it on top? Or is it that important to salvage the oil? Since Obama put BP in charge of the cleanup, every strategy they have tried includes harvesting the oil into a tanker. Just drop a giant block on it and seal it forever.
The U.S. on tv is not the reality on the ground. You can walk two blocks in the wrong direction in most major city in enter a No-go zone.
ReplyDeleteI located a small deli behind my hotel, a block behind (close to waterfront, the park Taste of Chicago across street)and the couple were shocked to see me and told me to head back to the hotel it was midday. They genuinely seemed concerned about my safety.
I am a sucker for a corned beef, montreal smoked deli sandwich.
Sandwich was okay.
A visit to Chicago for a conference noticing a visible police force in key spots along the main street in the downtown core and hotels. It was great for getting directions.
I went two exits on the highway past my hotel and it was like visiting a ghost town mid day. Not a soul on the street, boarded up houses, businesses for blocks. It was eerie.
From gated communities, to not visiting the 'city at night' the U.S. in nothing like our cities.
We have a few troubled hotspots but not swaths of downtown cores or abandoned city blocks. (notably Hastings Street on Cheque cashing day, Toronto -Jane-Finch myth on tv)
New York, Atlantic City, Chicago, Detroit etc.
That is what the top kill is supposed to do. A giant block will leak slowly forever and make it impossible to do anything more useful or effective.
ReplyDeleteI absolutely agree - stop the leak at all costs first. Then worry about how to get the oil out safely, if at all.
ReplyDeleteThey didn't just invent the "top kill" two days ago. That option has always been on the table, but BP wants to salvage the current well and the oil coming out of it. God forbid they kill the leak and have to drill a new hole later!
ReplyDeleteThat's the big mistake Obama made, putting BP in charge of sealing their well, because for a month they have been unsuccessfully trying to suck up the oil from the source instead of sealing the top. The top kill should have been done at the start.