Also see this video by Hurrican CreekKeepers: <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uG8JHSAVYT0">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uG8JHSAVYT0</a><br><br><p align="center"> <b><font color="#006699" face="Arial, Helvetica,
sans-serif" size="5">Is Gulf oil rig disaster far worse than we're being
told?</font><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="3"><br>
</font></b><font color="#006699" face="Arial, Helvetica,
sans-serif" size="3"><b>Natural News</b></font> </p>
<p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="3"><a href="http://www.silverbearcafe.com/private/05.10/oildisaster.html">http://www.silverbearcafe.com/private/05.10/oildisaster.html</a></font></p><p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="3">(NaturalNews) Reports
about the massive Gulf of Mexico oil spill have been largely
underestimated, according to commentators, including Paul Noel, a
Software Engineer for the U.S. Army at Redstone Arsenal in Alabama. He
believes that the pocket of oil that's been hit is so powerful and under
so much pressure that it may be virtually impossible to contain it. And
Noel is not the only person questioning the scope of this disaster.<br>
<br>
A <a href="http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/2010/0501/C-mon-how-big-is-the-Gulf-of-Mexico-oil-spill-really" target="_blank">recent story from the Christian Science Monitor (CSM)</a>
reports that many independent scientists believe the leak is spewing
far more than the 5,000 barrels, or 210,000 gallons, per day being
reported by most media sources. They believe the leak could be
discharging up to 25,000 barrels (more than one million gallons) of
crude oil a day right now.<br>
<br>
The riser pipe that was bent and crimped after the oil
rig sank is restricting some of the flow from the tapped oil pocket, but
as the leaking oil rushes into the well's riser, it is forcing sand
with it at very high speeds and "sand blasting" the pipe (which is
quickly eroding its structural integrity).<br>
<br>
According to a <a href="http://blog.al.com/live/2010/04/deepwater_horizon_secret_memo.html" target="_blank">leaked National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
memo obtained by an Alabama newspaper</a>, if the riser erodes any
further and creates more leaks, up to 50,000 barrels, or 2.1 million
gallons, per day of crude oil could begin flooding Gulf waters every
day.<br>
<br>
When this disaster first occurred, the media downplayed
it. BP spokespersons were quick to claim that the leakage was minimal
and that crews would eventually be able to contain it. But as time went
on, it became clear that things were not under control and that the
spill was far more serious than we were originally told. (Gee, sound
familiar? Remember Katrina?)<br>
<br>
Yet some of the media reports still seem more like press
releases than actual reporting because they continue to repeat what the
public relations cleanup crews (pun intended) would <i>like</i> the
public to believe rather than what's actually happening. Reality, it
seems, has a nasty habit of interfering with corporate spin.</font></p>
<p><font color="#006699" face="Arial, Helvetica,
sans-serif" size="3"><b>Cap and trade becomes "cap and pray"</b></font></p>
<p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="3">The
New York Times yesterday reported that <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/04/us/04spill.html?pagewanted=2" target="_blank">BP is working on a large containment dome</a> that is
intended to cap the leak and catch the escaping oil so that it can be
safely pumped to the surface. Meanwhile, crews are said to be working on
fixing the broken blow-out preventer valve that should have stopped the
leak from happening in the first place, but they have been unsuccessful
thus far.<br>
<br>
Almost every report says that BP is doing everything it
can to contain the spill and stop the leak, even though the company
claims it is not technically at fault. According to <a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1270917/BP-vows-clean-Gulf-Mexico-oil-slick-3-months-cap-leak.html" target="_blank">an article from the U.K. Daily Mail</a>, BP's CEO Tony
Hayward recently responded to the cleanup efforts by explaining, "This
is not our accident but it is our responsibility to deal with it."<br>
<br>
Swiss-based Transocean is the company that actually
owned and operated the sunken rig. It manned the rig with its own crew
and BP just leased it from Transocean (which makes you wonder why BP is
so willing to take full responsibility for everything).<br>
<br>
BP says that it's working on a relief well, but that it
could take up to three months to complete. Until then, the company is
trying several different approaches to at least slow the leak and
hopefully stop it altogether. <br>
<br>
Mind you, almost all of the information about the spill
from day one has come directly from BP which obviously has every
incentive to downplay the true environmental destruction that could be
caused by this oil spill.<br>
<br>
Even the word "spill" is incorrect. This isn't some ship
of oil that spilled into the ocean -- it's a "volcano" of oil spewing
from the belly of Mother Earth herself. It's under extremely high
pressure, it's spewing a huge volume of oil directly into the ocean, and
there so far seems to be no human-engineered way of stopping it (short
of setting off an underground nuclear bomb near the well site).</font></p>
<p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="3"><b><font color="#006699">Addressing the unanswered questions</font></b></font></p>
<p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="3">According
to the CSM article, environmental risk models are normally performed
for pollutants like crude oil, yet not one model has yet been released
for this incident by BP or the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
Many are wondering why this crucial information has not been made
public. Could it be because the results of the model might seem too
catastrophic?<br>
<br>
Neither has there been an adequate explanation given for
exactly <i>why</i> the oil rig exploded... twice! Some reports indicate
that the crews responsible for properly cementing the well casing
didn't do it right. Others suggest that the oil deposit was just too
large and under too much pressure for the equipment to handle it. (Be
careful where you poke around the planet if you can't handle what comes
out, right?)<br>
<br>
It's also important to note that, according to <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/04/us/04spill.html?pagewanted=1" target="_blank">a recent New York Times article</a>, Halliburton was
actually the company responsible for all the cementing work on the rig,
which brings a third party into the picture.<br>
<br>
BP's federal permits allowed the company to drill up to
20,000 feet deep, but according to one of the workers who was onboard
the rig during the explosion, drilling in excess of 22,000 feet had been
taking place. This same worker is said to handle company records for
BP, but BP has denied these allegations.<br>
<br>
BP has declined to comment, however, on other
allegations that the spill happened because it chose not to install
necessary deep-water valves which would have acted as a last resort seal
of protection in the event of an emergency.<br>
<br>
Several other allegations include suspicions that the
crews allowed gas to build up in the well bore and that the rig operator
tried to detach too quickly from the well, causing a disruption.<br>
<br>
BP, Halliburton and Transocean have all indicated that
they are continuing to investigate the situation. When companies
investigate themselves, however, the truth rarely comes out.</font></p>
<p><font color="#006699" face="Arial, Helvetica,
sans-serif" size="3"><b>The possibility of an extinction event?</b></font></p>
<p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="3">It's
hard to say exactly what's going on in the Gulf right now, especially
because there are so many conflicting reports and unanswered questions.
But one thing's for sure: if the situation is actually much worse than
we're being led to believe, there could be worldwide catastrophic
consequences.<br>
<br>
If it's true that millions upon millions of gallons of
crude oil are flooding the Gulf with no end in sight, the massive oil
slicks being created could make their way into the Gulf Stream currents,
which would carry them not only up the East Coast but around the world
where they could absolutely destroy the global fishing industries.<br>
<br>
Already these slicks are making their way into Gulf
wetlands and beaches where they are destroying birds, fish, and even
oyster beds. This is disastrous for both the seafood industry and the
people whose livelihoods depend on it. It's also devastating to the
local wildlife which could begin to die off from petroleum toxicity.
Various ecosystems around the world could be heavily impacted by this
spill in ways that we don't even yet realize.<br>
<br>
There's no telling where this continuous stream of oil
will end up and what damage it might cause. Theoretically, we could be
looking at modern man's final act of destruction on planet Earth,
because this one oil rig blowout could set in motion <b>a global
extinction wave</b> that begins with the oceans and then whiplashes back
onto human beings themselves.<br>
<br>
We cannot live without life in the oceans. Man is
arrogant to drill so deeply into the belly of Mother Earth, and through
this arrogance, we may have just set in motion events that will
ultimately destroy us. In the future, we may in fact talk about life on
Earth as "pre-spill" versus "post-spill." Because a post-spill world may
be drowned in oil, devoid of much ocean life, and suffering a global
extinction event that will crash the human population by 90 percent or
more.<br>
<br>
We may have just done to ourselves, in other words, what
a giant meteorite did to the dinosaurs.<br>
<br>
<em><font color="#990000" size="2"><b>About the author:</b> <small>Mike
Adams is an award-winning natural health author with a strong interest
in personal health, the environment and the power of nature to help us
all heal He has authored and published thousands of articles,
interviews, consumers guides, and books on topics like health and the
environment, reaching millions of readers with information that is
saving lives and improving personal health around the world. Adams is a
trusted, independent journalist who receives no money or promotional
fees whatsoever to write about other companies' products. He has created
over 100 CounterThink cartoons and produced several popular hip-hop
songs on socially-conscious topics. He's also a noted technology
pioneer and founded a software company in 1993 that developed the <a href="http://www.arialsoftware.com/">HTML email newsletter software</a>
currently powering the NaturalNews subscriptions. Adams is currently the
executive director of the <a href="http://www.consumerwellness.org/">Consumer
Wellness Center</a>, a 501(c)3 non-profit, and pursues hobbies such as
Pilates, Capoeira, nature macrophotography and organic gardening. Known
on the 'net as 'the Health Ranger,' Adams shares his ethics, mission
statements and personal health statistics at <a href="http://www.healthranger.org/">www.HealthRanger.org</a></small></font></em></font></p>
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Helvetica, sans-serif" size="3"><br>
</font></p><br clear="all"><br>-- <br>"A human being is part of the whole called by us universe, a part limited in time and space. We experience ourselves, our thoughts and feelings as something separate from the rest. A kind of optical delusion of consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from the prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty. The true value of a human being is determined by the measure and the sense in which they have obtained liberation from the self. We shall require a substantially new manner of thinking if humanity is to survive." ~ Albert Einstein, 1954 <br>