Deepwater Disaster: The Untold Story
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Deepwater Disaster: The Untold Story

2011, Environment  -   27 Comments
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Ratings: 7.95/10 from 42 users.

Deepwater Disaster: The Untold StoryHorizon reveals the untold story of the 87-day battle to kill the Deepwater Horizon oil blowout a mile beneath the waves - a crisis that became America's worst environmental disaster.

Engineers and oil men at the heart of the operation talk for the first time about the colossal engineering challenges they faced and how they had to improvise under extreme pressure.

They tell of how they used household junk, discarded steel boxes and giant underwater cutting shears to stop the oil. It's an operation that one insider likens to the rescue of Apollo 13.

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ramuyko
ramuyko
11 years ago

The oil company is one of the richest companies around the world. It's common to see advertisements related to technological improvements made by these companies. In recent years, they have begun to explore and extract oil into the oceans. However, in 2010, in the golf of Mexico, a large quantity of oil have been spilled into the sea, which spent 87 days to be solved and was responsible for terrible environmental consequences. After all, this technology showed that it was not quite as reliable as we thought it would be.

Many people who have worked repairing this catastrophe thought that it would be impossible to stop the leak. Problems like this make us wonder if everything may be solved with money. The USA government said that the BP Oil company which was responsible for this disaster would pay for each damage caused, it was estimated that they have spent over 6 million dollars a day to clean up all this mess. In such cases, both environmental damage and technological knowledge to solve the problem will not be settled with money. Experts from all over the world gathered to solve this problem and nevertheless it took 87 days to be solved.

From that time onwards, some people on media claimed that the disaster could have been solved three weeks earlier. Personally, I believe that it is a waste of time to figure out how much time could have taken if they had tried the right solution from the beginning. The technology to solve this kind of problem did not exist although the one to extract the oil from the oceans did. The 87 days the experts took to solve the problem was the quantity of days in which they took to create the technology necessary to solve such a problem. A common misconception for people is to think that having the technology to accomplish some task means to have the technology to settle a consequence of this task, this is not necessarily true . For this reason, it is extremely important to understand all the consequences that a particular action may bring over time.

I've always wondered what might happen if the mankind suddenly disappeared from the Earth. How much time would take to rust the metal buildings which prevent the oil to escape into the oceans? I am no expert in this field and maybe I do not have sufficient knowledge to predict what might happen, but the fact remains that there are metal buildings inside the sea and it is only a matter of time before these buildings start to rust, even if it is going to take a long time, someday, it will certainly happen. The oil is also responsible for the majority of greenhouse effect gases emission and, as if this was not enough, when we extract oil from the deep sea, it represents a great environmental risk for the oceans and
its forms of life.

Today, we live within the capitalist system, people rely on money to achieve their objectives and our society continues to invest in unsustainable resources as the oil. However, when an unexpected disaster takes place the money might be useless to solve and to replace the environmental damage occurred. Also, it's even worse when the man is the one responsible for this disaster. A new vision for how people live and what are our resource priorities is necessary to make of the world a sustainable civilization. We have to understand that money does not solve all our problems.

bumpercrop
bumpercrop
11 years ago

On the panhandle side of the gulf in Florida, the oyster beds have collapsed. The mainstay marketable fish, mullet, has fry half the size of normal. The reason given is that the drought stricken Atlanta metro area is siphoning off too much water from southern flowing river systems. This acidifies the bay. Many coastal citizens are on septic systems. Many of these systems are aging and seeping into our natural aquifers. We are paying the price for apathy and overpopulation of our species.

Atescoop
Atescoop
12 years ago

What is the deal? This is not : "Deepwater Disaster: The Untold Story"

Dilpreet
Dilpreet
13 years ago

Absolutely disgusting in behalf of BP. They received it extremely lightly.

Xbow
Xbow
13 years ago

Thats what we need brain dead bimbos like Dr. Samantha Joy calling the shots. The task was to stop the spill and minimize the damage not to beat it to death in conference and do nothing. This was her moment in the sun! And Obama didn't have a clue and showed what kind of a piss poor leader he is.

Shannon Elizabeth Staley
Shannon Elizabeth Staley
13 years ago

Not bad but WAY too easy on BP. Qulaity is good, but it was done for BP or by BP......They fail to mention that they tried all the same things on the well compromise in the 70s in Mexico. They also fail to mention that in applying for the drilling rights, they lied and stated they they did, in fact, have solutions to any accident or rupture/etc....in this new deep water environment. They clearly did not. People are financially ruined and are not being paid for their losses timely. We still do not know the full impact of the dispersants or of the oil spill, either. And why was the only one woman in the whole film? Because it is the worst of the good ole boys in this industry and they don't like working with women. This better get posted......

Gene_RottenBerry
Gene_RottenBerry
13 years ago

It's like when I went skydiving once and wasn't paying attention when I packed my parachute. I didn't feel I had to pay attention - because who ever died jumping out of an airplane? Someone told me to bring a small backup parachute, but those cost money so I didn't want to. To my great surprise my parachute didn't open properly. I was in the hospital for ten years recovering from that accident. Now when I go parachuting I don't worry about anything because what could happen? Even if it does happen again. I can always go to the hospital I guess. I don't know really - I'd rather just not think about it now. Maybe later.

KarpKomet
KarpKomet
13 years ago

i agree...watch the 60 minutes report instead.

Manu K
Manu K
13 years ago

The beginning is somewhat abrupt, are the initial few scenes
missing?

Shaun_Dana
Shaun_Dana
13 years ago

After seeing this Doc i feel so thankful that BP did ALL that they could do to stop this "oilcano". Where would we be without BP??? Then i watched NON BBC sources...... youtube the 60 minutes show about this, like third_person said to, wow, it's BP's fault for the accident and BP's fault for not getting it capped as quickly as possible, SHAME ON YOU BP!

Holly
Holly
13 years ago

Ooo Jools Holland.

Guest
Guest
13 years ago

I bet the gulf coast people hurt by the oil slick will get fairly compensated by BP 6.66 seconds after Exxon pay's its spill bill to the people of prince william sound. They have been waiting 8070 days to be compensated for their lost income. The only good thing about this spill is the goverment decided to cut funding to the Energy Information Administration, in the hopes that suspending auditing of major oil and gas companies would give them the incentive to care about the enviroment and to take the moral high ground in clear and present danger when building/maintaning mission essential infrastructure for america. Laissez Les Bon Temps Roulez.............

eugler
eugler
13 years ago

While this was interessting in terms of the technology applied, the BP propagande was almost too much to bear. I usually appreciate horizon docs but with this I lost most of my respect for the programm. Potraying BP like the noble knight fighting the evil dragon instead of the people trying to curb their own f--k up was disgusting. There was not even a hint to the question whether it is a justifiable idea to drill for oil in such dephts. The celebration of the great technological achievement was the entire focus, they didn't even forget to mention that of course the next catastrophy will be no problem anymore. I was one comparison to the moonlanding away from throwing up.

third_person
third_person
13 years ago

I'm a huge fan of BBC Horizon, and am dismayed to see it used as a PR vehicle for BP. 60 Minutes had an excellent report on the incident, which included the many warning signs that the BOP was damaged, as well as evidence that the drilling programme was far riskier than it needed to be.

Ramus73
Ramus73
13 years ago

Mmmmm drill a hole you can't reach, very intelligent.

Irishkev
Irishkev
13 years ago

These are the same "experts" who want to route a high pressure gas pipeline through an unspoiled conservation area in the west of Ireland, all for the benefit of the Irish people of course. Check out Shell To Sea folks and see how they treat the natives. Its a real eye opener.

far spam
far spam
13 years ago

BP (British Petroleum) pays tax to British government.

BBC (British Broadcasting Corporation)(Horizon) receives money from the British government.

Conflict of interest?

Would another program made outside Britain portray the same story in a different light?

Would time be given more to the environmental damage caused? Or interviews of the people who died or were effected? Who was to really blame?

Its incredible how at the end they hinted that oil was still down there to be had. Planting the seed for a come back.

Be careful of the BBC it is a very powerful propaganda tool!

leonardobdas
leonardobdas
13 years ago

made sense to me:

1) it is hard to execute a plan without testing it
2) it is correct to try the safest options first
3) science is imprecise
4) managing information is absolutely necessary
5) having a plan only after a disaster hit....... well it is just human to be lazy? I think it is just that there is no way to learn without proper field testing is it?