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Lesson of The Week-  

Quote of the Day: 


“The day that we’ve been fearing is upon us.”

      -Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal:

 

 

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Smile, laugh and enjoy your life and learning!

 Aloha- I usually don't like to talk about negative and terrible things but I know many of you have been following this story and might be able to use some vocabulary and information to discuss the topic.  This is the largest oil spill in US history and is thought to be a major environmental disaster.  How long it will continue and what will be the cost both in money and in adverse effect to the envirnment still remains to be known. Read on.

Theme:  The BP Oil Spill

Reading

Writing

 Grammar Revisited:   Adjectives of Shock & Horror

 

 

 

 

 

 

Listening

The Deepwater Horizon oil spill, also called the BP Oil Spill, the Gulf of Mexico oil spill or the Macondo blowout, is a massive ongoing oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, now considered the largest offshore spill in U.S. history.

 

The spill stems from a sea floor oil gusher that followed an April 20, 2010 oil well blowout and catastrophic explosion that killed 11 platform workers and injured 17 others on the Deepwater Horizon offshore oil drilling platform off the Louisiana coast. The oil rig had been leased by BP plc from its owner, Transocean Ltd.

 

The gusher, estimated at 12,000 to 100,000 barrels (500,000 to 4,200,000 US gallons; 1,900,000 to 16,000,000 litres) per day, originates from a deepwater wellhead 5,000 feet (1,500 m) below the ocean surface. The amount of oil being discharged has been a matter of ongoing debate.

 

The resulting oil slick covers a surface area of at least 2,500 square miles (6,500 km2), with the exact size and location of the slick fluctuating from day to day depending on weather conditions.  Scientists have also discovered immense underwater plumes of oil not visible from the surface.

 

Experts fear that the spill will result in an environmental disaster. The spill has damaged the Gulf of Mexico fishing industry, tourism industry, and extensive marine and wildlife habitat.

 

Crews have been working to block off bays and estuaries, using skimmer ships, anchored barriers, floating containment booms, and sand-filled barricades along shorelines. There are a variety of ongoing efforts to contain the spill at the wellhead and recover outbound oil before more comes ashore along beaches and estuaries of the Gulf of Mexico.

 

The U.S. Government has named BP as the responsible party in the incident, and officials have said the company will be held accountable for all cleanup costs resulting from the oil spill.

If you had a chance to speak with the CEO of BP and make a 2 minute comment what would it be?

Write it, practice it, and speak it.

 

 

 

 

Put together your thoughts and then present your comment to your class. Ask for feedback from your teacher and classmates.

 

 

 

 

Please answer the following questions in your journal.  Try to write in complete sentences and give detailed answers.

 

1.  What is your opinion regarding this oil

     spill?

 

 

2.  Do you belive the company (BP)should

     be fully responsibilty for ther cost of

     the clean up and why?

 

 

3.  What impact does this type of disaster

     have on fishing, tourism, wildlife and

     water quality?

 

 

4.   Do we need tighter regulation to

      prevent these type of disasters?

 

5.  In your words, what is the gist of the

     situation?

 

 

It's:                                 It's a:

terrible                                     mess

shocking                                   total disaster

unbelievable                              terrible situation

unimaginable                             horrendous sight

horrific                                     

unprecedented

overwhelming

disgusting

irresponsible

 

 

Speaking

 

Obama gets testy over oil spill, says critics 'don't know the facts'

By Josh Gerstein
Politico
Updated: 05/27/2010 04:30:19 PM CDT

Tackling an environmental crisis quickly becoming one of the most serious political threats to his presidency, President Barack Obama insisted today that critics of the federal government's response to the oil spill in the Gulf "don't know the facts." "Those who think that we were either slow in our responses or lacked urgency don't know the facts. This has been our highest priority since this crisis occurred," Obama said during a rare news conference in the White House East Room. "We understood from Day One the potential enormity of this crisis and acted accordingly." Amid escalating complaints of buck passing between the well's owner, BP, and federal officials, Obama made an unequivocal declaration that the government is heading up the relief and cleanup response. "The American people should know that from the moment this disaster began the federal government has been in charge of the response effort," he said. "Make no mistake: BP is operating at our direction." Obama also said he takes responsibility for shortcomings at the federal agency that oversees oil drilling, which granted BP the permit for the Deepwater Horizon drilling, but said there's no evidence that corruption and other problems at the Minerals Management Service during the Bush administration have continued on his watch.
Interior Secretary Ken "Salazar came in and started cleaning house, but the culture didn't change at MMS, and I absolutely take responsibility for that," Obama said.
Addressing another concern of some critics, Obama also showed public emotion about the leak that jeopardizes tourism and fishing along the Gulf Coast. "Every day I see this leak continue, I am angry and frustrated," he said. "This oil spill is an unprecedented disaster. The fact is that the leak is a mile under the surface where no human being can go, but we are relying on every resource ... to work to stop it. We'll take ideas from anywhere, but we're gonna stop it," Obama said. If there were any doubt of the political difficulty facing Obama in confronting the underwater disaster, it was right there on the TV screen. Fox News, CNN and CNBC all showed Obama's news conference with a split-screen or inset shot of the pipe gushing oil into the Gulf of Mexico. Obama gave a nod to the political perils of the ongoing crisis — which Republicans already are trying to call "Obama's Katrina," in a reference to Democratic criticism of President George W. Bush's handling of the hurricane that devastated New Orleans in 2005.
"I realize that this entire response effort will continue to be filtered through the typical prism of politics, but that's not what I care about right now. What I care about right now is the containment of this disaster and the health and safety and livelihoods of our neighbors in the Gulf Coast," he said. "And for as long as it takes, I intend to use the full force of the federal government to protect our fellow citizens and the place where they live. I can assure you of that," Obama said. Obama's press conference came on a day of fast-moving developments related to the spill, as the White House redoubled efforts to convey that it is aggressively tackling the problem. Obama, who just a few months ago was promoting more offshore drilling and insisting that it was "not risky," extended to six months a current 30-day moratorium on new leases. He also halted new openings in Virginia and the Gulf and, in a move particularly sought by environmentalists, postponed plans to allow new exploration this summer off Alaska. In the most significant spill-related personnel move to date, the head of the Minerals Management Service, the Interior Department office that oversees oil leasing and rig regulation, resigned, sources said. An official statement from Salazar said the MMS chief, Elizabeth Birnbaum, "resigned today on her own terms and on her own volition." At the news conference, Obama said he was not aware of the specific circumstances of her departure. Obama also announced that the federal government has approved, in part, a proposal by Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal to create artificial sand barriers offshore to prevent oil from reaching the coast. Meanwhile, there were signs that BP's latest effort to shut off the well, a so-called top kill procedure involving pumping mud and then cement into the well opening, might be bearing fruit. Coast Guard Commander Adm. Thad Allen told NPR that the technique had stopped oil and gas from emerging from the well, but there could be no assurance of the operation's success. However, government officials also acknowledged that the scope of the disaster already appears to have exceeded the impact of the Exxon Valdez spill in 1989. The U.S. Geological Survey announced Thursday a new estimate of the spill at 12,000 to 19,000 barrels a day — far higher than the most recent official and BP estimate of 5,000 barrels a day.
Birnbaum is not the first senior MMS official to leave in the wake of the spill. The official who headed up the MMS's offshore drilling office, Chris Oynes, resigned earlier this month as congressional and media scrutiny of the regulatory system grew more intense.

Oil Spill Facts:

 

Over 35 million total gallons spilled.

 

Over 140 miles of coastline hit by oil.

 

Almost 90,000 square miles of gulf fisheries have been closed.

 

This spill is the largest in US History nearly trippling (3X) the Exxon Valdez.

 

In 2009 BP made $14 Billion in profits.

 

This is what it looks like.