"The Gulf Of Mexico MESS": What You Need to Know about How Heavily Exploited it is....(pic heavy)

[NYC_SKP]

We need to become aware of how much exploration has been done and how many wells are already out there.

And then we need to lobby hard for a moratorium on new exploration, and eventual retreat from exploitation.



I'll bet you didn't know how thoroughly developed the offshore assets already are.

Some maps of the gulf to ponder:


They want to drill off Florida's west coast:

Note: Those blue lines are the network of EXISTING pipelines out there.





New discoveries are further and further offshore and in deeper water, more difficult to ensure environmental safety:



Open up this large image, PDF, to see the networks of underwater pipelines out there now, you'll be shocked:

http://www.gomr.mms.gov/homepg/lsesale/visual1.pdf



And this big one: "How many Holes are in the bottom of the Gulf?



(That's just the holes, not the pipelines)





http://www.infrastructurist.com/2010/05/10/the-current-... /



http://www.whitehouse.gov/deepwater-bp-oil-spill /

[flamingdem]

1. Stop the oil madness, now, not later nt

[Uncle Joe]

2. Add to that nature's conveyor belt, toxic dispersants and the effect of hurricanes.

Thanks for the thread, NYC_SKP

[NYC_SKP]

4. Thanks for the contribution. It's a miracle a big leak didn't happen sooner.

That fucking network of holes and pipes under so much water was a disaster waiting to happen.

[dmr]

19. I can't shake the conveyor's belt from my mind. It's breaking my heart.

I broke down last night while fixing dinner. My son tried to console me, but he's having a hard time processing it himself.

I have an incredible fear that this is far worse than they're letting on, and it's going to become more disastrous than imagined.

I lived in Miami for 20 years; we love and are protective of the coral reefs. They are beautiful and nurtured. I just can't fathom their destruction.

And for what? Greedy oil men? I told my son, as a nation, we could've heeded Jimmy Carter's warnings. But, his message was destroyed; and we all got bamboozled by big monied oilmen, and the politicians they bought.

But what do I know. Some asshat Republican agrees with Rand Paul, accidents happen. Like it's no big fuckin' deal.

[Uncle Joe]

22. I believe this should give anyone living within miles of the coast additional reason to leave

upon the approach of hurricanes, some of that toxic soup is bound to be transported inland.

I believe it's better to be safe and aware of the probability than sorry, listening to someone cite "no one could have for-seen."

Peace to you, dmr.

[dmr]

24. That's just the thing, Uncle Joe, a hurricane could transport that stuff inland

and destroy that inland. That toxic soup could end up in the canals that feed into fresh water lakes, and into the Everglades! The Everglades! I don't want to even think about it or the eastern seaboard.


There is just too much at stake here. From marine life dead zones, to destroyed land, displaced people, health risks, and the immeasurable economics.

[Cybergata]

33. Frightening n/t

[CountAllVotes]

3. Drill Baby Drill!!!!!

& recommend.

[pnorman]

5. K & R! For later careful study.

n/t

[gateley]

6. Thanks for giving this its own well-deserved thread -- and for the awesome

research.

Now please pass the Pepto-Bismol.

[NYC_SKP]

7. 50,686 holes in the gulf. Something was gonna fail sooner or later.

And tens of thousands of miles of oil and gas pipelines, these don't all show up in the graphics I'm included.

FUCK!

[gateley]

13. That is absolutely horrifying. We have to STOP IT! nt

[suffragette]

8. Stunning to see the scale of this

K&R

[blindpig]

9. k&r

[Sherman A1]

10. Thanks for Posting

This is very informative.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

11. I had NO idea it was this bad.

I am horrified, saddened, OUTRAGED...

Mostly OUTRAGED.

Damn those greedy bastards.

DAMN.

K&R

[NYC_SKP]

17. Me either. Out of sight, out of mind. Over time these will all decay.

I could cry.

[mod mom]

18. + 1. This is frightening that those greedy bastards can control the sources of such

potential damage.

[rucognizant]

53. LOTTA GREEDY BASTARDS!

In my small coastal town..............pretty far away NOW but vulnerable..................the greedy bastards INCLUDE KIDS, who think it is cool to race around THE BEACH on noisy gas powered ATV's. And their parents who enable that, & think it's just good clean FUN! ( "at least the kids aren't doing oxycontin!") 2 years 4th of July I traveled home across the Mass Tnpk. EVERY 2nd or 3rd vehicle was towing some kind of GAS POWERED TOY!, boat, ATV, race car.

How about if each of us prints off as many of these maps as we can..and thrust them under the noses of those who need to be informed. Under the wipers of SUV's in the parking lot, take to the inlaws sun dinner...etc.........................

[Catherina]

12. Bookmarked and Rec'd n/t

[graywarrior]

14. Astounding

Kicking this and bookmarking.

[NYC_SKP]

45. And very sad.

Everything we do comes back to haunt us, eventually.

[cliffordu]

15. Jesus. Now riding my bicycle makes sense again....

Completely unacceptable.

K&$

[NYC_SKP]

70. K&$?

[RagAss]

16. When I was young....

I would think about the Universe, in all of its glory, and feel so insignificant.

Now that I am old, I think about oil companies and feel even more insignificant.

Wisdom !

[Birthmark]

34. Now, see?

I did the exact opposite: When I was young I thought about the oil companies. Now that I'm old (almost) I think about the Universe.

Strangely, you and I have arrived at the same place.

[jp11]

20. Jiminy Jilickers, amazing how I've never seen anything remotely depicting this kind of pervasive

drilling platforms/activity before, score another for the mainstream media.

Can't wait for the day I buy a piece of land to build my own Shangri-La.

[NYC_SKP]

21. If we had any kind of meaningful media outlet, we'd all have known about this.

I guess it's taken so long to turn into such a mess, one hole at a time, it's gone unnoticed until the BP gusher.

[Wednesdays]

23. Whoa

[Cha]

25. Thanks SKP..this is priceless information..KR~

[cliffordu]

26. Kickettey

[lunatica]

27. This is depressing

It almost makes me want to just give up any hope at all. We might as well learn to live in a garbage dump.

[dmr]

28. Kick

[Cetacea]

29. Imagine the amount of pipes there must be

on the gulf floor. Sickening.

[NYC_SKP]

31. Well over 33,600 miles of pipeline, some of it 60 years old now.

The data excerpt below is from 2007:

. As of January 1, 2007, there are 3917 producing
platforms, of which about 1,962 are major platforms (954 of these are manned by personnel),
roughly 33,600 miles of pipeline, and some 152 companies that are active in the Gulf.”

http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:ib...

Some of these are more than 60 years old.

Everything decays, everything breaks eventually.

[charlesg]

35. Above map says 3,701 active oil platforms; 43,656 miles of oil pipelines

[NYC_SKP]

37. Amazing isn't it? You and I look out over the gulf and see water, waves, birds.

Underneath it is some crazy endless maze of aging tubes and valves filled with oil.

All just waiting to decay and to fail.

[Cetacea]

40. I wonder how many ships come and go in a given year

and what the volume of their pollution output is.

[NYC_SKP]

41. Not sure, but a LOT of tankers bring OIL into ports, like Texas City.

From Venezuela, Saudi Arabia, etc., and from the refineries it goes on throughout the states, along with gulf oil.

I don't have numbers, but you can be sure there are significant numbers of ships.

[Imagevision]

30. All we need now is another Katrina and Obama will start stuttering again

Obama, what happened to all those leadership qualities? oh, I get it, reality stepped in.

[bhikkhu]

54. The reality being that 99% of voters drive cars

...and in spite of all the hullabaloo about oil spills, the number of people giving up their cars in response to an oil industry disaster isn't enough to elect a medium-sized town's mayor. A leader can lead, but we can't cast too much blame when he simply gives people what they all consistently demand.

[FailureToCommunicate]

66. See post 58 below...

[Chemisse]

32. I had NO idea it was this vast, this pervasive

It sickens me to see what humanity has done and is doing to our one and only precious planet.

[Tsiyu]

36. Stunning

and infuriating

Like most of Big Money's behavior

K & R

[sabrina 1]

38. How did this go unreported for so long?

Is this happening elsewhere also? Are there more areas underneath the ocean off the shores of other countries that look like this?

I think we have the answer to Obama's sudden 'evolved thinking' on Offshore drilling! I guess he found out that the claim that there was not enough oil to make it worthwhile drilling offshore, was a lie.

Thank you for this information ~

[NYC_SKP]

46. It could be a remarkable documentary, couldn't it?

I wish Planet Green or someone would produce a documentary.

The possibilities for using CGI to reveal what's out there, like the view if the water was removed and different failure scenarios, are considerable.

Of course, Planet Green is run by Discovery, and they have more important things to do, I guess.

Many Link TV or Free Speech TV or one of those.

It needs to be done.

[sabrina 1]

60. It would, absolutely.

What about Kevin Costner? He certainly has the money and maybe the contacts, particularly considering his interest and knowledge about this, to maybe help get someone to do a really good documentary.

Other possibilities are Michael Moore, Steven Spielberg who airc, has a home on the East End of LI and anyone who lives out there is very concerned about the destruction of the ocean.

But thank you for the information, it is shocking ~

[suzie]

50. It hasn't been unreported. The information has always been there.

I used to google it up all the time after Katrina and Rita, when all we heard about was "those worthless Louisianans"--who only go offshore and work in the oil business.

But who seemed to deserve the derision of their Northern brethren who heat their homes with the products that come out of the Gulf, but could only talk about "Why does anyone choose to live there?"

[sabrina 1]

62. Funny, you seem to hear things no one else hears. I'm one of

'Northern Brethern' you speak of and throughout that whole tragedy never once heard such a comment from anyone, not ONCE alont the lines of what you are claiming, nor did I ever see one online. That is an outrageous charge which you need to back up.

You don't know much about your 'Northern Brethern', about as much as you seem to know about anything else.

Most Northerners knew there were some oil rigs in the Gulf of Mexico, NO ONE, and I bet that includes most Floridians and other Southerners, had any idea of the extent of drilling and the number of pipes and rigs that were out there.

And if you knew, where was your outrage???? I didn't see an OP from you, like this one eg.

If I had known this I would written about it, why didn't you?

You did know about the deadly explosion at the BP Texas Refinery in 2005 that killed 15 workers and wounded, some permanently, at least 70 other workers? What kind of citizen and particularly Democrat is aware of what you are claiming you were aware of and keeps it to themselves??

NO ONE knew about this other than people in the industry AND our politicians and possibly some members of the press who were clearly afraid to talk about it too much. Except for Greg Palast.

[suzie]

63. Really? You must not venture beyond DU much.

Because I assure you that I was astonished at the hostility toward South Louisianans and the people who would comment on "Why do they live there" "Why don't they just move"--across the internet. The media talked a lot about the production of oil and natural gas out of Louisiana after Katrina. A lot--but people like you weren't listening to that?

I say "Northern Brethren" because when I looked at their place of residence, it was often in one of the rustbelt cities of the North, where there's a pretty fair consumption of petroleum and natural gas products in the winter.

NO ONE knew how many rigs there are--among Southerners? Really? You lambast me for outrageous charges and then jump right in with your own?

Perhaps it might surprise you, but people from all over the South go and work offshore. Lots of people have relatives and friends who've worked on some aspect of the oil business.

When hurricanes make a difference in your life, you hear about rigs. When you are concerned about drilling off your own shores, you know about rigs. When you've taken a cruise and watched the rigs pass by, you know there are rigs in the Gulf.

It's not been a particular secret, no matter how uninformed you've been.

[sabrina 1]

64. I have relatives who work on oil rigs, off the coast of

California, Washington State and LI. How does that affect what anyone knew about what is reported in this OP?. Do you know how many rigs and pipes etc. are off those coasts? I don't but please share your superior knowledge with the rest of us.

As for hurricanes, I have relatives and friends in Florida and other Southern states, and we have hurricanes in the Northeast, or didn't you know that?

I could literally see oil rigs in the LI Sound 'from my house' but still have no idea how many are out there. Knowing there are oil rigs, and knowing people who work on them, does not make an expert out of anyone on how many there are. And since this escalation took place over the past ten years or so, it was the media's job to inform the public. And I have been told, that there was a concerted effort made to keep this information out of the media.

But I will be checking now that I see how many are in the Gulf that a vast majority of Americans did NOT know about. And yes, we have friends who work in the oil industry, and even they were not aware of the extent of the drilling that has gone on off the coast.

I suppose you'll tell us next that you are so informed because you knew what Cheney cooked up in those secret energy meetings ~

As for the rest of your nonsense, it is standard diatribe, very old material mostly learned from rightwingers, Rovian tactics so old they long ago lost their effectiveness which is why I have advised you to get some new material.

[truedelphi]

39. Excellent, amazing and sickening OP. n/t

[Skidmore]

42. And some would say that the President did all of that within

the past 16 months. My, he's been busy.

[Lerkfish]

43. thanks for the informative, and scary, post.

[secondwind]

44. This puts Rush Limbaugh's accusation that Obama is to blame for all of this to rest!

He recently claimed that the BP oil spill was Obama's fault because they "were not allowed to drill closer to shore".......

[stuntcat]

47. kick k/r

kicking this might imply I have hope for our species, like we'll learn and care.. just, whatever

[scentopine]

48. Informative post ! Thanks! -nt

[DrZeeLit]

49. Wow... that map is quite the eye-opener. It's a wonder this hasn't happened many times AND

it's inevitably going to happen.... again....and ....again....and again.

Billions of dollars.
Billions.
How does anybody fight that?

[NYC_SKP]

51. That's exactly what I thought. There are more disasters to come.

How can there NOT be?

[bluesmail]

59. I'm thinking domino effect. My mind won't even go there. (eom)

[lonestarnot]

52. kick

[Blacksheep214]

55. The planet will be fine!

I can't say the same for the biological life forms living on it.

Who would have thought that the series 'Life Without People' would have such a happy ending?

"We have met the enemy and he is us!" Walt Kelly

http://www.igopogo.com/we_have_met.htm

[stuntcat]

61. oh I was fixin to get mad!

usually when I've seen people saw "the planet will be fine" then that's the end of their concern. Over and over on DU I've read assheads let that be the end of the argument, pointing out humans can't erase a planet. i thank them for solving everything
But then you include the rest of the life forms. That's what I care about. With all I've seen from humans lately, my only hope is for the rest of the species. The sooner we burn out, the better.

[bluesmail]

56. Peak Oil... Thanks NYC_SKP for one of the more informative

posts on DU. I'm not ever going to get the vision of all those tens of thousands of miles of pipelines out of my mind. K&R (I feel numb).

[bluesmail]

57. In the Gulf of Mexico, where there are fatal hurricanes. Greed trumps logic. (eom)

[FailureToCommunicate]

58. And all that drilling & degradation for a measly 2% of "our" oil reserves. Stay on land

and get off the water! And get off our greed for more oil!

Thanks for posting SKP.

[pengillian101]

65. You're right, I had no idea. n/t

[suffragette]

67. K&R

[ShamelessHussy]

68. yikes - i wonder why none of us see these kinds of images on our teeVee?

i'm sure it is all part of the leave no billionaire behind program the elite are running with great success thus far.

if we were living in a sane world, i think a moratorium would be issued on every active deep sea well until each and every one was inspected, and we perfected a proper response to blow out disasters.

[stuntcat]

69. kickity

[NYC_SKP]

71. Kicking this.

To keep it handy in my list of replies.