I'm mad as a hornet!!! (totally off topic)

[Topo]

Not having enough dirt with the "Prestige" (!?) fuel spill, now the surveillance satellite cameras have detected in the same area another long oil spill. Apparently, the captain of another tanker passing by, have decided to exploit the mess caused by the "Prestige" for clean his tanks!!!

This criminal don't realize that with his acts, apart to the direct damage to the environment, he's driving to ruin lots of fishers and their families...

Oh, the Government should send a frigate and tow the tanker to port, jail this scum (and lost the key), and impose heavy fines to the shipowner.

Sorry about the verbal relief, people, but things like this really make my blood boil

 

[jon-monon]

I'll agree that's a good reason to be MAD

No reason for that kind of behavior. Basically theft. He's costing others a lot of money to save himself a little. Worst yet, he is robbing from the poor to pay the rich (himself).

 

[Ralph]

That's a terrible story, Javier. Sorry to hear about the second intentional spill. I've heard reports of the first oil spill in the news but having contact with you on this forum makes the impact more real and immediate. What an interesting side benefit of The Gauge.
Ralph

 

[Topo]

Jon & Ralph, thanks for the words. With the instant communication media of today is not easy not to feel concerned by the catasthropes going around the world. Then, you realize such crazy (and such good, too) we are everywhere...

There is no year without one of these dinosaurs bursting here or there and spitting around all the black thing. 'Exxon Waldez' in Alaska, 'Erika' in France, another whose name I don't remember in South-Africa, now 'Prestige' in Spain... After come the usual TV images: oiled birds, belly-up fish, and people with the look of be seeing its future so black as these birds.

When oversized penny-pinch companys with bad practices cause such environmental mess like this, their money-doped managers run like the hell, only leaving behind trials that last forever, flocks of lawyers, destroyed natural resources and a trail of people with their lifes ruined.

Too many times, the politicians are trapped by the usual dilemma: "Hey, Mega-Contaminator Corp. is breaking a gazillion of environmental laws, but, if I fine them too much, they will close the plant and I will get 800 unemployeds voting hangry against me. No way, man!".

All oil spills are a nightmare for the affected people, but to make the things worse in this particular case, most of the fishers in that area are seafood gathers, and they earn the 80% of their annual income just in this months previous to Christmas (of course, this little detail won't stop these low life scums if they can save some bucks out of undone needed repairs or safe tank-cleaning).

I'm having a bad day trying to imagine the "merry" Christmas that a lot of people will have.

 

[Rusty Stumps]

This is bad, no doubt about it BUT!

Worse goes on every day right off our own shores. What I'm talking about is the Cruise industry.

See they don't bring their trash back with them. Now think about it, how many people sail on just one of those ships? How much garbarge and trash is generated by that many people in just one day? What do they do with it?

They dump it out into the ocean! I was on a cruise in the caribean and stood at the rail one evening and watch as they threw tons of garbage out a side door just about 20 feet from the waterline. We had a trail of trash a good mile long behind us. Figure what that is doing for the enviornment!!!

 

[Matthyro]

In my humble opinion, most of these disasters are caused by profit motives. No or poor maintenance seems to be a major factor. High risks taken in order to max the $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$.
That's greed. The corporate world today is in jeopardy for their flagrant abuses of their employees and the people in general. It is no wonder that the disrespect for these so called leaders is growing by leaps and bounds.
Our sympathies are with you Javier. Lets hope your government aceives some success in dealing with these criminals

 

[60103]

Rusty:
Check out books by Dudley Pope, specifically Convoy and Decoy. He mentions in there that submarines could find convoys by following the garbage trail, even telling which way they were going.
I think most of these, "accidents" isn't the word, are caused by cheapness or shortcuts -- the shortcuts may be money saving by companies or time saving by employees.

 

[jon-monon]

I was horrified last night, once again, to see the black birds being pulled out of the goo. I'm not even a bird lover. I'm not an enviro-natzi, but that was sad. Again.

RS - that's S.O.P. for all types of ships. Always has been. AC Carrieres are floating cities, 5000 men (and womens nowadays), all popping, wiping, and tossing it over the side. I believe it is out weighed by trash from the land lubbers tho. They dump barges full daily.

 

[spitfire]

I hope they catch that criminal who dumped the second load of cr*p and prosecute the SOB.
Regarding the cruise ships, I saw a program on tv a few months ago about a huge "floating city" that is being built for the super-wealthy to enable them to be "citizens of the world". Sounds kind of cool until you realize that its main purpose is to avoid responsibility for paying any taxes, for environmental issues, and to avoid having to walk past those annoying homeless people.
When you think about the waste that would be generated by a city of thousands of caviar-eating multi-millionaires (as I did with dismay when I saw the show), and dumped straight into the ocean, it's enough to make you wonder why such things are legal.
Personally, I'm hoping for a giant iceberg - now that the Antarctic ice shelf is falling apart, there should be plenty of those!

Grrrrrr
Val

 

[Topo]

Some greedy and stupid beings should do a service to the human species and take themselves out of the gene pool. Something is very wrong if we let them to poison our food and use our home as a dumpster, all for have them save money and live out of their sh*t. Maybe, to certain degree, we all are responsible for not put the enough heat under the politician' a*s for which we have voted.