In today’s not-at-all-shit news, internal documents have revealed that BP is woefully underprepared in the event of an oil spill from planned drilling off South Australia’s coast.
Say it did happen. Say we had an oil spill disaster. This is how long it would take to start the recovery process:
Equipment from Singapore to cap leaking oil wells? 32 days to arrive.
Containment response system from Texas? 25 days to arrive.
Time taken to drill a second relief well? 157 days.
The cost of fucking up the Australian marine life in the name of oil drilling? Priceless The Environment.
The Guardian has created a fantastic interactive tool explaining just how badly the environment would suffer in the event of an oil spill, which you can see HERE.
BP says that it would take 35 days to cap a leaking well in the worst case scenario. They’re planning a series of exploratory wells in the Great Australian Bight marine park next year, an area which is of major conservation value. The area is a seasonal carving habitat for the southern right whale (endangered), and foraging areas for the Australian sea lion (endangered), white sharks, sperm whales, and blue whales.
FYI we’re not the only ones fuming about this. Government officials said that they “normally expect more detail around response measures, for example equipment availability”, and The Wilderness Society has called to end BP’s work in the Great Australian Bright altogether, calling it “one of the last pristine marine environments left in the world.”
This – THIS – is why we can’t have nice things. Literally. Our environment is precious and if we keep taking it for granted it’s going to shrivel up past the point of repair.
via The Guardian
