September, 02 2010, 03:09pm EDT
Latest Gulf of Mexico Explosion Again Illustrates Danger of Offshore Drilling, Urgent Need for Moratorium on All Operations
TUSCON, AZ
Today's explosion
in the Gulf of Mexico serves as another tragic reminder of the
inherent danger of offshore drilling and the urgent need for a
large-scale moratorium on all offshore oil and gas drilling
operations until human safety and protection of the environment can
be assured. The explosion - which injured at least one of the
thirteen people who were forced to escape into the ocean - comes
less than five months after BP's Deepwater Horizon disaster
and as the Obama administration considers lifting a moratorium on
deepwater drilling. That moratorium covered only a small fraction of
the more than 3,600 oil and gas production operations in the
Gulf.
"Sadly, today's news comes as no
surprise. Offshore drilling in the Gulf of Mexico is like playing
Russian roulette. It's not a matter of if something will go
wrong, it's a matter of when," said Kieran Suckling, executive
director of the Center for Biological Diversity.
"It's time the government put all
offshore oil and gas operations - whether they're exploratory wells
or production operations - on hold until we know they're safe. The
price we've already paid for BP's Deepwater Horizon is too
high. We cannot risk any more disasters."
Today's explosion was at a platform owned
by Mariner Energy in about 340 feet of water. It's about 100 miles
off Louisiana's coast and 200 miles west of where the Deepwater
Horizon rig exploded April 20, leading to the spill of some 200
million gallons of oil in the Gulf. The Obama administration has
been under intense political pressure to lift the moratorium put in
place after the spill began.
"Clearly, this is not the time to let
this industry return to business as usual. BP's catastrophe
certainly made the case for that, and this morning's explosion only
drives the point home," said Suckling.
At the Center for Biological Diversity, we believe that the welfare of human beings is deeply linked to nature — to the existence in our world of a vast diversity of wild animals and plants. Because diversity has intrinsic value, and because its loss impoverishes society, we work to secure a future for all species, great and small, hovering on the brink of extinction. We do so through science, law and creative media, with a focus on protecting the lands, waters and climate that species need to survive.
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UN Chief Warns of Israel's Syria Invasion and Land Seizures
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United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres said Thursday that he is "deeply concerned" by Israel's "recent and extensive violations of Syria's sovereignty and territorial integrity," including a ground invasion and airstrikes carried out by the Israel Defense Forces in the war-torn Mideastern nation.
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Israel claims its invasion and bombardment of Syria—which come as the United States and Turkey have also violated Syrian sovereignty with air and ground attacks—are meant to create a security buffer along the countries' shared border in the wake of last week's fall of former Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and amid the IDF's ongoing assault on Gaza, which has killed or wounded more than 162,000 Palestinians and is the subject of an International Court of Justice genocide case.
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Addressing the assassination of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson and conversations it has sparked about the country's for-profit system, longtime Medicare for All advocate Sen. Bernie Sanders on Wednesday condemned the murder and stressed that getting to universal coverage will require a movement challenging corporate money in politics.
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Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.)—a co-sponsor of Sanders' Medicare for All Act—similarly toldHuffPost in a Tuesday interview, "The visceral response from people across this country who feel cheated, ripped off, and threatened by the vile practices of their insurance companies should be a warning to everyone in the healthcare system."
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Reporters Without Borders' (RSF) 2024 roundup, which was published Thursday, found that at least 54 journalists were killed on the job or in connection with their work this year, and 18 of them were killed by Israeli armed forces (16 in Palestine, and two in Lebanon).
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