Tuesday, May 11, 2010

Who is winning the battle in the Gulf of Mexico?

So far, if the Gulf disaster was only science fiction, we could say the giant representing the Gulf is hammering the giant representing mankind.

In real life, however, though BP engineers are fighting valiantly, they have suffered setback after setback against the wily wiles of the Gulf’s frigid and inky depths.


["Man vs Nature - who will win?"]

The most recent setback - an operation to place a massive metal containment dome over the larger of the two leaks.

The result - BPs massive blowout continues to spill almost 1 million liters of crude per day into the Gulf.

BP Oil’s next plan:

“On the containment side, we’re working two options; one is a smaller dome - we call it the top hat - and the second is to try to find a way to tap into the riser, i.e., the piece of pipe the oil is flowing through,” BP chief operating officer told Reuters (press service).

So, mankind will pull out a top hat and a riser from its arsenal.

The Gulf's giant quietly waits, a mile down on the ocean floor, with frigid water and inky blackness on its side.

Who will win?

***

Already there have been losers, with more to follow, I imagine.

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