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San Francisco is My Home

12
Nov

Oil spill in the Bay

Author: kris, Category: Nature, News

On Wednesday, an oil tanker ran into the Bay Bridge and sprang a leak, releasing an estimated 58,000 gallons of oil into the Bay. (The Coast Guard initially, bafflingly, estimated this as 140 gallons.)

This disaster reads like something Aaron Sorkin might write. The Mayor is out of town, so we’re under the control of an acting mayor. The city’s offer of personnel to help with cleanup was essentially ignored by the (apparently criminally incompetent) Coast Guard. Birds are dying off left and right, the oil is becoming thinner on the water and harder to scoop, and because of its hazardous nature the scores of volunteers showing up are not permitted to help. All we need is a screwball comedy premise involving Sam Seaborn and a call girl and we’ve got ourselves a fine episode of The West Wing.

Here’s an image of the oil spill, courtesy of Kurt Rogers from the SF Chronicle:

ba_oil_spill_0299_kr.jpg

One Response for "Oil spill in the Bay"

  1. Brandon

    November 12th, 2007 at 2:11 pm

    1

    One of the ways Oil corporations convince Americans that oil is the best energy source available is by insisting that current technologies guarantee the safest, cleanest, and most secure means for drilling and transporting oil. The public relations machine run by oil companies is so smooth, it has been successful at staving off government investment in renewable energy technologies, auto industry investment in more efficient automobiles, and attempts to block drilling in America’s most serene natural habitats. Again and again we are all duped by this enormously powerful industry that acts as the perpetual victim while reaping the world’s largest revenues in history.

    http://greenpieceblog.blogspot.com/2007/11/oil-spills-on-2-coasts.html


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