There are a lot of good reasons not to nuke the oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico. One of those is not that it would be a violation of the test ban treaty, of which the US is a signatory. We should get out from under that, by the way, but until we do, if ever, I doubt that could be a serious drawback to such a plan, for the simple reason, if this ever happened, it would have nothing to do with conducting a test. It would not be testing a weapon, it would be the explosion of a nuclear warhead for a specific purpose which would have nothing to do with war, or with testing.
But that's really beside the point. There are all kinds of other valid reasons not to do something like that. One being, there's no assurance it would work, and on top of that, it would kill no matter how much marine life and, worse, render a large portion of seafood totally inedible for no telling how long. I'm not really so much concerned with radioactive mutants rising up out of the sea and wreaking havoc, but radioactive oil is quite another matter. If such contaminated oil made its way to our shores, onto our beaches and swamps, we have a whole new set of problems that would make the present situation look like child's play.
And then there's the prospect that the heat generated from such an undertaking would be considerable, hotter than the sun's surface in fact. That in itself might be inconsequential at such depths, and for what would be a very brief instant, but there's the residual problem of the overall increase in surface temperatures of the Gulf waters, at a time just heading into hurricane season, which is fed and influenced by, of course, warmth. Just a slight increase by as much as three or four degrees could have a major impact, and who knows how long it would last. It could double the amount and intensity of any hurricanes that come into contact with the affected area.
What could result is a series of hurricanes that could shoot up the interior of the country, starting out as level four or five and ending up shooting all the way up to Kentucky and beyond at levels two and three, in the meantime spouting numerous tornadoes and dumping tiny droplets of oil all along the way-radioactive droplets of oil at that.
Shit, if nobody can come up with a better idea that that we might well be better off just letting the damn well keep on spewing until it runs completely out.
This accident is a sterling example of the need for reasonable regulations, which are on the books, but which have been continually ignored, due to BP's untoward influence with regulators. Safety precautions were ignored, at obvious severe and hazardous risks to the operation and its employees, resulting in the loss of eleven lives. BP of course is notorious for this, and its beyond me why we even allow them to operate in the Gulf. There are plenty of American companies that I would imagine are just as capable of doing the job. Granted, BP has experience in the North Sea, but so what? What it really amounts to is, in my opinion, an agreement with Britain, to the effect that they get a certain percentage of our oil for their own needs. Well, nothing against the Brits, but we need all the oil we can produce here for our own needs.
Finally, this might not ever have happened if we would allow off-shore drilling in shallow waters, in addition to the North Slope of Alaska and at ANWAR, and other places where drilling is banned. If we did drill in shallower waters, people have the impression that our beaches would be ruined by the distant sight of row after row of off-shore oil rigs, which is of course ridiculous. The complaints about ANWAR are so absurd by this point they don't really even deserve further commentary, except for the fact that it too has limited our options to the extent that they have led to the present situation.
True, eventually we would be obliged to drill in deeper waters anyway, but it would be further down the line, possibly much much further. And by then, BP and other companies could have and doubtless would have developed a system for dealing with such emergency situations, one that would be for the most part unnecessary, but which would more than likely work well in the probably very rare if ever instances they might be needed. As it is, our insatiable appetite for energy-not oil, energy-has forced their hands before they had a cohesive plan in effect. That doesn't excuse their shoddy behavior in the matter of skirting safety regulations and insuring the proper maintenance of their equipment, by no means.
Nobody looks good in this mess. Obama looks so clueless, I have to wonder if his lethargy is a means of pushing for Cap And Trade in a way so as to not need that much help from Republicans, especially since Lindsay Graham walked out on the negotiations in a huff supposedly over the Health Care Reform Bill. Obama had earlier agreed to allow more drilling, but now of course he's declared a moratorium on that. Quite convenient, I would say.
