The Consequences of This Oil Spill are just now Beginning to be Understood by the Public...

[Blackhatjack]

For most Americans if it is not covered on TV it is off their radar.

But as pictures of wildlife and marine lives lost in most horrific ways begin to filter onto the tube, Public attention will pick up.

Next there are going to be a lot of businesses closing with those owners and their employees out of work, you can expect more public demonstrations that will be covered.

As the food chain is affected people will begin to realize this affects them directly, unlike disasters that have geographic borders(ie. hurricanes, tornados). When they can no longer find seafood for purchase, or only at 2-3 times the 'normal' price, people will pay attention.

And as people begin to realize that the food chain is affected and that the shortages because of oil contamination will last for years, that will make people start to realize this is serious.

Unemployment numbers are going to jump precipitously as those in the tourism businesses are directly affected(ie. hotels, restaurants, shops, entertainment venues, etc.).

The price of oil is bound to be affected as other offshore drilling platforms are shutdown for safety inspections and implementation of new procedures. When the price of gasoline goes up and does not come down anytime soon, that will really get their attention.

So far, the BP oil spill is just a curiosity to many members of the public. But that is changing by the day and hour.

North Carolina officials just announced today we expect the oil to reach our coast in 2 weeks. And we are already tapped out financially as the Legislature just passed a budget that will have a $500mil hole in it because Congress voted to remove that provision for states from its appropriation legislation. So how do you finance the needed protections to our priceless outerbanks, beaches, sounds, estuaries? IF you take it from reserves earmarked for Hurricane preparedness, we are really taking a gamble with the Hurricane season just started.

Oh I think People KNOW about the BP Spill.... But they are just now beginning to understand the consequences and how this is going to affect them and their way of life.

[notadmblnd]

1. correction, if it's not in their backyard, it's not on the radar.

[daa]

2. Look out Cape Hatteris this summer nt

[bdamomma]

3. and even here.

http://www.royalgazette.com/rg/Article/article.jsp?articleId=7da624230030000§ionId=60

I better enjoy our beautiful beaches now.

[Ganja Ninja]

4. There's still plenty of time left if they haven't caught on already.

Perhaps a visit to an oil covered beach next spring will drive the point home.

[blindpig]

5. Wait until next Spring...

when migrating neotropical song birds have had to transit the Gulf twice with the marshes dead, it's going to be a Silent Spring.

Kill Capitalism

[xiamiam]

6. I'm sitting here crying over this..telling myself to back away from my computer

bathe the gulf in white light..like my friend suggested...but i am so pissed..so utterly disappointed that this is left in the hands of fuck ups who dont give a damned about the environment..as a bp rep said" its small in comparison to the gulf"...screw him... a disaster unfolding slowly in front of our eyes..ominous..i can barely stand the stress of it..the same stress that lived behind my eyes for months when the first gulf war was televised..

intuitively, i know .... the planet as we know it will be forever changed..just as the socio-economic landscape has changed...pissed and helpless to do anything while i watch understaffed antiquated efforts to mitigate oil coming into ecosystems and beaches..

its a nightmare

[waronbanks]

7. America after the oil

is very dark and scary prospect. I am not sure this already frayed nation can take what we are about to witness.

Rage is growing and in 3 months when the oil is still spewing and our whole southeastern coastline is ruined the country will react. Where that reaction takes us is the unknown.

[Major Hogwash]

8. Because most of the public is willfully ignorant - they don't want to know.

Bush admitted the other day that he approved waterboarding as a form of "enhanced interrogation."
Nobody even blinked.

Half of California could be on fire.
Nobody in the Midwest would even care.

Massive tornadoes could rip through Kansas and Oklahoma.
People in the Northwest would yawn.

As long as it doesn't affect them personally, those people don't really give a shit.

The Afghanistan War has gone on for 9 years and now has 1000 dead American soldiers.
But, for the most part, only the military families are sacrificing anything for that war.

The Iraq War, another stupid lost cause war with 5000+ dead, same result.
Only the families of those serving ever wonder what the hell we are still doing there.

But, if a Miss America contestant slips on stage, man, it is all over these forums, the blogs on the internet, the Twitter, the Facebook, and 14 cable networks will run footage of it over and over and over again until we're sick of it.

[Hestia]

9. I disagree - a couple of weeks ago I was at our state MG convention and the disaster

at that time was the number one topic and I didn't bring up the matter. This was across all age spectrums. People have been talking about it here practically since it happened., I don't know what ya'll discuss. People aren't ignorant, we are just told we are and it becomes a self-perpetuating circle.

[Trillo]

10. The ripple economic effects are likely to be sobering.

Yet, BP wants affected people to file claims.

When seafood prices climb, will BP pay the difference in costs to any who file such a claim? Or would those market based fluctuations be considered 'Not BPs fault,' even though they're directly responsible for the disruption of supply in the supply/demand market sense?

One of the things I worry about is how this company, if its market capitalization falls, becomes subject to bankruptcy and takeover. Thus, there's a strong argument for Obama to seize all its assets, and keep those assets working for the people they've harmed: to prevent such a hostile takeover or even dispersal of assets to other 'private' corporations who have no responsibilties for BPs obligations to the commons or general welfare.

The people need checks each and every month from this company for its poisoning of the ocean(s). A bankruptcy and or hostile takeover imperils that.

OTOH, if this economic ripple becomes so large that we do see a breakdown of the economy, we might see a world where all debts are discharged because there is no longer any money!

[Trillo]

11. Also, the company "selling off" assets to pay claims

will in the short term boost their cash on hand for claims but simultaneously imperils their long-term abilities to cut those checks each and every month.

In this case, it's important to look to the long term.

[flamingdem]

13. They spun off the US disaster as an arm of BP today, not good, shocked investors nt

[Blackhatjack]

14. So now it is time for the US to suspend all their drilling permits until sufficient bond is posted..

to pay all claims related to this spill.

[donheld]

12. Almost