Once again, I am reminded that the word "pundit" comes from merging the word "pun" meaning a half-assed word game, with the word "idiot", meaning a damnable fool. That's not actually where the word comes from; the sanskrit word payndita, which means "learned man", but that's where the word should come from, none the less.

Yesterday, Mark Davis, the Dallas/Fort Worth talk radio host (WBAP), was filling in for Rush Limbaugh, and he proclaimed that we don't really know whether the oil spill is BP's fault, and that we should be trying to find out who's really responsible so we "can scapegoat with some manner of accuracy". Until then, he points out, "it's just a really bad thing that happened," adding, "Sometimes, things just happen."

But That's Immaterial

The face that we don't know exactly what happened is immaterial. It's BP's well, and thus, legally BP is at fault. Every business owner knows that if they are legally responsible for their employees' actions. For that matter, if some drunk steals the delivery truck and commits suicide by deliberately running into someone else, the business is responsible for the damage done in that stolen truck.

This morning on Morning Joe, they had an environmental advocate who was appalled that two months ago, Obama was calling for more drilling, when we didn't know the risks involved.

That's Not Reasonable, Either

Really? We didn't don't know the risks? There have been 267 significant oil spills in the Gulf of Mexico alone. There have been 140 in the Northeast US. And there was crude oil in the water long before there was offshore drilling. Five centuries ago, explorer Juan Cabrillo sailed into what is now Santa Barbara, California, and remarked on the oil he saw bubbling out from a natural seep. The Chumash Indians scooped and skimmed up the oil, which they used to waterproof their boats.

And the Deepwater Horizon spill in the gulf isn't "the biggest natural disaster in history." Not yet, at least. Originally, we thought there was 1,000 barrels per day being released. At that rate, we'd have about 600,000 gallons of crude. At the later estimate of 5,000 gallons per day, we'd have 6 million gallons by now. The Exxon Valdez spilled 10 million gallons. It appears that it's higher than 5,000 barrels per day; some activists are claiming it's 50,000 per day. I tend to think they're probably overestimating it, for the same reason I think BP is underestimating it, but even at 50,000 barrels per day, it's 60 million gallons of crude so far.

Not The Largest Disaster, By Far

That's a lot - but in 1991, there was a spill of 520 million gallons of crude off Kuwait. It would take nearly a year to match that spill at the highest estimated rate.

For a long time, people were asking, "What's happening to all this crude oil?" The fact is, not all crude oil is the same. The stuff from the Exxon Valdez was very heavy gunk. The oil from the Gulf of Mexico is very light, containing a lot of benzene. Benzene is basically the same thing as gasoline. When it hits the surface, a lot of it evaporates into the air. That's not to say that it's harmless - but once it's in the air, sunlight breaks it down relatively quickly. It's the heavy fractions, the oil and tar, that creates the biggest threat to fisheries and other wildlife.

It seems like every reporter and pundit is either selling the industry version of events or the environmentalist version of events. It'd sure be nice if we could get some intelligent news coverage - but as a former newspaper owner, I can't claim that I'm holding my breath. Most reporters are pretty stupid when it comes to science and technology - not that they're any great shakes when it comes to anything else.

Other Bloggers On Related Topics:
BP - Deepwater Horizon - Mark Davis - Morning Joe - oil spill