Featured Top Yadda: Below are excerpts from the discussion on Pinyadda around this VFZ Filmmaker article, “James Cameron : BP Turned Down Help”. On Pinyadda you can follow breaking news from thousands of sites & blogs across the web on topics like: Oil, Environment, Energy Policy.
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Cheryl Morris pinned this to Twitter.
BP turned down Cameron’s deep sea expertise and contacts…
Bill McBain pinned this.
Good. I’d be furious if I were an engineer that had spent decades in the environmental or energy sector and my bosses (or the Obama administration) forced me to try to implement the pipedream ideals of some hollywood blowhard. I really like James Cameron’s movies, but I think he should stick to what he knows.
I’m not going to ask Ellen Pompeo to scrub in on my grandfather’s kidney surgery.
Cheryl Morris pinned this to Bill McBain.
Really? I’ve been reading more about it. He (and by he I mean his friends, many of whom are engineers, too) actually have a lot of experience in depths even lower than the well. Robots and underwater vehicles and moving things really precisely in that context.
My take is that BP turned it down because they don’t want Cameron grabbing unbelievable footage (perhaps to make a movie with down the road) if he were to help.
Not sure what BP’s reasons were for declining his help and contacts, but in my personal opinion they should take the time to vet ideas and brainstorm more since they clearly are at a dead end. And especially considering they’re taking the time to put together and execute on a huge social media strategy to help their reputation… would much rather they spend the time and energy solving the problem and sitting with Cameron’s top-notch contacts and highly creative people.
Ben Jewell pinned this to Cheryl Morris.
The Abyss was cool but I think his real expertise is now in mining on other planets.
Anton Fewa pinned this.
The fact is BP refused his help because they still hope to get all that oil back. We have microbes that can break down the oil and turn it into food for marine life rather than killing them… BP’s engineers are being payed to think of ways to collect the oil and STILL make profit off of it. People should be furious, yet I still drive by and see people buying gas at BP.
http://www.opposingviews.com/i/oil-spill-idea-microbes-can-eat-the-oil-in-six-weeks
Josh Whinery pinned this.
this is just terrible James Cameron is the perfect person to help solve this problem. You can read my rant on another article I responded to yesterday dealing with the same..
Colin Kennedy pinned this to Twitter.
Hmmm. Anton, I don’t know much about the bacteria, but it DOES sound like something out of a Cameron film… Maybe the creatures in The Abyss are just colonies of them?
Releasing a non-native species always has risks – microbes could have an unforeseen risk on the environmental system – but does it outweigh the damage the oil will do?
As for Cameron’s assistance, even if he were to get down there with a camera to monitor the situation, or he knew some top-tier ROV pilots, he’d be making a difference.
Refusing resources is often a bad move.
Chris Ercoli pinned this to Facebook.
BP turned down Cameron’s deep sea expertise and contacts…
Cheryl Morris pinned this to Anton Fewa, Colin Kennedy.
Do you know by chance if these microbes have been featured in larger media outlets, or if there is a particular group advocating for their use? I am surprised I haven’t read about it before. And you’re probably dead on in regard to BP trying to collect the oil.
Also, have you read anything about Halliburton’s involvement? I know BP is getting the brunt of the blame, but weren’t they contractors in the gulf well when it exploded, doing the cementing.
Colin does pose a good question – have there been any long term studies on the microbes? …Perhaps they could move on to eating the plastic in the Atlantic when done with the oil. : ) Regardless I presume microbes would be safer than pouring on more chemicals that have been shown to make rats eyeballs fall out after several mins of digesting the chemicals. YUM- count me out of eating seafood.
Chris Ercoli pinned this to Cheryl Morris.
And now enters common sense (although large-scale applications sound a bit far fetched)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k5SxX2EntEo
Cheryl Morris pinned this to Chris Ercoli.
Wow. Thanks for sharing that – it does look too easy/good to be true. I like the idea of cleaning up oil and concurrently providing farmers with some much needed revenue.
So this video was posted May 5th and has 1.5 million views… 2nd most viewed video on YouTube when searching for “bp oil spill” or “gulf oil spill”. I’d like to say this is the power of social media, but has the idea moved past the video to be implemented/tested at a larger scale? Doesn’t appear so looking at the comments.
Chris Ercoli pinned this to Cheryl Morris.
I actually came across that video through an email from my father… and let me say… my father is never on top of the news! So it’s making it’s rounds.
But from my understanding, the oil isn’t just located on the surface, but in larger pockets underneath the surface. I’m certain it’s not so cut and dry.
Anton Fewa pinned this.
“But from my understanding, the oil isn’t just located on the surface, but in larger pockets underneath the surface. I’m certain it’s not so cut and dry.”
That’s their excuse for continuing use of a chemical dispersant to collect all the oil. What a joke.
Ben Jewell pinned this.
I don’t think the math adds up for caring about collecting surface oil. Current estimates are that 46 million gallons have been spilled into the gulf. There are 42 gallons in a barrel of oil, so ~1,100,000 barrels. Current price estimates for a barrel of crude are 75$. So say they could gather all the oil currently on the surface, the value is only around 85,000,000$ Seeing they have already spent over a billion trying to clean up and lost billions in market share from falling stock prices, I doubt they care about collecting the oil on the surface for profit. They need to worry about collecting the oil coming from the leak so it doesn’t get any bigger. Not that I’m defending BP, I think they are a bunch of fools, but to think James Cameron could come in and magically fix everything is about as believable as Avatar…
seth hayward pinned this.
I think BP probably turned down Cameron’s offer because they had to know Cameron would go rogue with the fantastic footage he would shoot. Cameron’s underwater cameras would/could capture evidence that BP is lying about the flow rate. At the very least, it would provide more publicity to the spill.
BP is desperately trying to control how this spill is spun – note that they got the White House to straight up believe the spill was only doing 5,000 barrels a day for a whole month. BP had to know it was far more than that, but they needed to keep it quiet.
If I were Cameron, I’d give BP the finger and send the subs down myself.
Phil Arscott pinned this.
I don’t care who they’re talking to, but they need something new. FAIL, FAIL, FAIL, FAIL is not a good track record for the BP engineers. I think that they have the best ability to come up with a solution, but that doesn’t mean that no one else has it.
Austin Gardner-Smith pinned this to Twitter.
Should BP have taken James Cameron’s help?
Chris Ercoli pinned this.
Honestly I think BP would have gotten more negative press if they did take his help.
Anton Fewa pinned this.
If you believe the current estimates for the amount of crude oil you are being naive. BP has not once been truthful about the amount of oil leaking.
Linda Smith pinned this.
I know that on the surface it sounds absurb to have a film director solving catastrophic environmental problems but what Cheryl points out is accurate, as the result of his film efforts he has done much research and information gathering with experts in the field. Why not, at the very least, tap into and explore his contacts. BP is keeping everyone at arms length because they do not want to control what information gets out and what doesn’t to protect themselves both financially and legally. It’s a clear cut case of the rat guarding the cheese, and I cant for the life of me understand how it has been allowed to continue.
Linda Smith pinned this.
make that “BP is keeping everyone at arms length because they want to control what information…” I get so exorcised when I even think about this my fingers go nutty!
Will Flanagan pinned this.
Cameron just wants to plug his poneytail into the hole.
Anton Fewa pinned this.
“Cameron just wants to plug his poneytail into the hole.” Funny you say that, hair actually can absorb oil rather well 
History shows us that BP will avoid paying for this disaster as much as possible:
http://climateprogress.org/2010/05/27/exxon-valdez-bp-oil-disaste/
sanj k pinned this.
cameron’s ideas can’t be any worse than what bp has come up with! though cameron should have just used google to upload his story…http://www.google.com/crisisresponse/oilspill/
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