…On Setting Oil in the Ocean on Fire

Photo courtesy of NASA

Does anybody else think this is a bad idea?

I have another bad idea: let’s continue to use oil to power our world.

Question: are oil companies truly seeking the best interests of us all or are they ultimately, simply, just trying to protect their bottom line?

Final question (back to my original topic): If you set the oil on fire, will the fire spread all the way back to the off-shore well, consequently blowing up the offending broken pipe itself, along with the very oil source this company has tapped?

Okay, I lied. One more question: who foots the bill for this clean-up – the oil company or taxpayers?

Good overview article about this thing here: http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE63O27L20100426

It turns out that BP owns the well, and they’re responsible for the clean-up bill. Hardly enough, if you ask me.

One final comment: I *think* I *barely* remember when this other spill happened, about twenty years ago: https://www.scientificamerican.com/slideshow.cfm?id=exxon-valdez-20-years-later-oil-spill-prevention