Deepwater Rig Explosion: Never-Before-Seen Footage Of The Fire From National Geographic (VIDEO)

The National Geographic Channel has exclusive, never-before-seen footage of the Deepwater Horizon rig after the fatal explosion that occurred on April 20th. NGC cameramen were on the scene within hours of the blast. Collaborating the the Coast Guard, NGS is making this never-seen clip available online and aired a full one-hour program about the blast called 'Gulf Oil Spill' Thursday night.

WATCH:

Comments

[don quixote12]

02:50 PM on 05/24/2010

Excellent posts here have already said it so well, and all can add (sorry if this has already been posted) is teh link to a Facebook group to Boycott BP Oil.
http://www.facebook.com/boycott.bpoil#!/boycott.bpoil?v=wall

It's not much, but communicating with others of like mind and refusing to add to BP revenues is at least a start.

[galaxyhiker]

02:44 PM on 05/24/2010

4.Be prepared to see absolutely nothing change at any level due to what happened here.The oil companies are omnipotent by virtue of them being the only pushers who have what the addicts want. That insures we get the same results that you get with any addiction. I would say 'wake up folks' but I said that when Reagan first ran for office and what did that get me.

[galaxyhiker]

02:44 PM on 05/24/2010

Some things to ponder.
1. The Hero of people like Rush Limbaugh and all the clones was Ronald Reagan
Simply look back at what he did to smash any efforts by Jimmy Carter to advance an alternative to oil. He despised renewable energy. He soothed enough of the gullible to adopt his cult like love of crude oil and his brand of conservatism
Now ask yourselves would Ronald Reagan or anyone who agreed with his twisted philosophies be worthy of anything except scorn?
2, We have created a society whose very existence is on life support from the intravenous feeding of crude oil to this beast. At best the supply is barely keeping up. In spite of the extreme nonsense from the Right, that we have vast supplies of oil on land that we are restricted from drilling for,the easilly accessed and adequate supplies of oil are just not out there. BP spends at least 50 times more to explore at depths of 25,000 feet because their crazy or is it that they drill where the oil is?
3. Be prepared to see this BP scenario played over and over as the crude oil addicts continue to do anything to get 'the fix' while ignoring alternatives and ignoring the fact that waiting till we run out of oil before making fundamental changes in how we power our society will simply insure that man will be as extinct as the dodo bird or at best live like Mad Max.

[don quixote12]

02:54 PM on 05/24/2010

Well said!!

[X C I T I Z E N]

10:53 PM on 05/22/2010

Citizens, remove your badges and be free!

[pinkibus]

12:12 PM on 05/22/2010

Every time you object to the high price of green energy you contribute to this. Every time you allow congress and the senate to be dominated by lobbyists you contribute to this. Every
time you think America can't afford to switch to green energy you contribute to this. Osama bin Laden is laughing his head off.

[jerrypl]

12:43 PM on 05/22/2010

Beautifully stated!!!

The energy corporate oligarchy has incredible power. It is time to stop it.

http://eye-on-washington.blogspot.com

[wdw505]

02:32 PM on 05/22/2010

agreed.......we should cap this well to stop the waste of oil........then drill close to that same site as we no there is oil there......and the profits go to the oil recovery from the environment

[KIVPossum]

05:44 AM on 05/22/2010

If anyone can prove THAT'S a fire from 5000 bbl a day I'll kiss their a55 on main street and give them a half hour to draw a crowd

[Cynth]

10:25 AM on 05/22/2010

Fanned for this (and for other comments, too)!

[fishskicanoe]

11:53 AM on 05/23/2010

That's the diesel fuel burning. There 750,000 gallons on board the rig. At the time of the video the oil pipes were already lying on the ocean bottom, a mile down. It took 5 days until enough of the oil made it to the surface to make people realize that the safety shut off valves (BOP valves) had failed and that there was an oil leak problem.

[fishskicanoe]

11:54 AM on 05/23/2010

There *were* 750,000 gallons. D'oh.

[DrBlunt]

05:26 AM on 05/22/2010

Shameful & pitiful!

[fuelie]

05:01 AM on 05/22/2010

Does anyone want to bet that the BP CEO will still get a handsome bonus at the end of the year instead of being fired for negligence and incompetence?

[LeaderofMen]

09:17 AM on 05/22/2010

That's a guarantee.

[Billy Jack]

09:03 PM on 05/23/2010

and a medal

[textynn]

04:30 AM on 05/22/2010

BP Oil Spill.... the Musical

Toxic Love (Extended)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cg-Wm25T6Qs&feature=PlayList&p=74F51CDB54D970E8&playnext_from=PL&playnext=1&index=42

[mike72]

04:25 AM on 05/22/2010

Hey, according to the head of Tea Party head, Rand Paul, it is UNAMERICAN to not supporting BRITISH Petroleum.

[DAWK]

03:39 AM on 05/22/2010

PICTURE OF SHORELINES, OIL STAINED-SAD,BEACH RESIDENTS: OH-BOO-HOO!! LOOK AT ALL THAT BEACH FRONT PROPERTY LOSING IT'S VALUE.
B P AND OUR FED REGULATORS ARE TO BLAME,BUT-WAIT ,THERE COULD BE A SOLUTION TO ALL THIS.
HOW ABOUT THE PRESIDENT 'FORCING-INFORCING'..... B P INTO OFFERING BIG BUCKS FOR 'CLEANED OR GLEANED - UP OIL,BY THE BARREL OR DRUM?? ALL TAKERS ARE INVITED!!
LETS SAY ALL THOSE BEACH FOLKS GET BUSY IN THE BUSINESS OF CLEAN UP, FOR SAY.....500 DOLLARS A BARREL FOR ANY SPILLED OIL? IT COULD BE OIL SANDS,YOU KNOW,LIKE OUR OWN TRILLIONS OF BARRELS OF OIL SANDS,NEVER YET EXTRACTED IN COLORADO? AND OIL MIXED WITH SALTWATER,OR OIL SIPHONED FROM INLAND SWAMPS-WETLANDS? JUST GET THAT SPILLLED OIL ANY WAY YOU-CAN!!
IMAGINE ALL THE UNEMPLOYED FOLKS GETTING INTO THE ACT; BUT, B P MUST SET UP PAY STATIONS AT ALL THEIR SERVICE /GAS STATIONS,WHERE THE EMPTY BARRELS CAN BE GOTTEN AND THEN-FILLED.
THIS WOULD BE LIKE A GOLD RUSH FOR SPILLED OIL AND B P CAN THEN REFINE THE THOUSANDS OF CITIZENS RESCUED-GUSHED-OIL. THEN BE MADE TO GIVE IT BACK, AS FREE GAS, TO LOCAL GOVERNMENTS,WHO ARE SUFFERING.
SCHOOL-KIDS COULD DO A FIELD TRIP,DIGGING OIL SANDS-CHURCHES , ON SUNDAY,COULD JOIN IN,GET THEIR HANDS DIRTY,AT 500 BUCKS A BARREL!!
HOW ABOUT IT 'MR.OBAMA-HE SCARES-ME'..... PRESIDENT?? DID I NOT JUST GIVE YOU AN 'EASY-OUT' NO COST TO THE FEDS??

NOW,'GET-CRACKIN' LIKE THEY SAY IN THE OIL BIZ.

[KIVPossum]

05:42 AM on 05/22/2010

Dawk, I'm gonna print this out and frame it. A work of art like this is something to be treasured; a rare piece of top quality gibberish. The fact it is in all CAPS, with a casual approach to spelling and punctuation, only enhances the beauty.

[treetracker]

09:58 AM on 05/22/2010

LOL - Perfect response. Somewhere in there he overlooked the word "toxic."

[stefiz]

10:36 AM on 05/22/2010

fanned!

[its miller time]

03:31 AM on 05/22/2010

National Geographic show on May 27, 2010, if it's NG it's going to be TV.

http://channel.nationalgeographic.com/episode/gulf-oil-spill-5488/Overview

[its miller time]

03:35 AM on 05/22/2010

In fact, visit the website right now, you won't be disappointed.

[Cloud7Raymaker]

01:54 AM on 05/22/2010

Take a long hard look at that oil rig fire that burned for days in Nat Geo's video... that's not on-site fuel that's burning, that's basically the leaking pipe spouting off the rig. Now does that look like 5000 or 50,000 barrels a day of oil shooting into the air? Keep in mind 5000 per day is ~200 barrels per hour or about 4 barrels per minute.

4 barrels a minute would be a nice bonfire but it's not going to be the size of an oil rig and hundreds of feet into the air. I'm sure BP knew this from the start as well. The longer this disaster goes on the more furious I get with the behavior of large corporations like this and specifically with BP.

They messed up big time and the best they can do is pretend it's not as bad as it is, as if they're living in the world of "perception is reality." Ya know what? No, reality is reality and someone's going to have to start paying for behavior like this.

[treetracker]

10:10 AM on 05/22/2010

Very good points! What I simply cannot understand is the huge number of people who are still willing to continue this drilling. If BP had spent as much on renewable energy that they did on drilling for oil, we have the alternatives in place now. Instead they spent less than 1/2 of 1% just so they could make commercials to make themselves look good. The natural gas companies are doing it now. "Look how clean we are" and "We're oh so patriotic Americans" - our consumers even buy "American appliances" -- like American appliances are still made IN this country. What they don't want you to know is the process they use - fracking - will end up contaminating surrounding ground water poisoning wells, streams, etc. I suppose when they've finished destroying the planet for the rest of us, they'll have some giant facility for them and theirs that they can filter the air, keep it cool and grow enough to live off for themselves. The rest of us can choke to death on the pollution they'll leave us to eat and breath.

[Cloud7Raymaker]

10:59 AM on 05/22/2010

Well, as we're finding out BP is the "Wal-Mart" of energy production. Solar & wind are expensive investments and BP can't even be bothered to install working batteries in a safety device to prevent a multi-billion dollar disaster.

On another note, I saw in another article that 5k barrels a day equates to about 210,000 gallons per day. That's less than 150 gallons per minute, about the same volume of fuel as 6 full-sized SUV fuel tanks. Does that fire in the video above look like it's feeding off 6 tanks of fuel a minute two days into the disaster?

[maab76]

01:00 PM on 05/22/2010

They are continuing the process of global garbage dumping that was a hallmark of the early explorations of North America. Look at how many of the early manufacturing plants were located on rivers supposedly to provide cheap and convenient transportation of both supplies and finished products. The school essay competitions dealt with clean water and awarded students at the local, state, and national levels for accurate reporting and for thoughtful solutions to the problems. Not much changes, does it?

[treetracker]

12:39 AM on 05/22/2010

Just wait for it --- next we'll be told how safe nuclear plants are today. That is until someone puts $ over safety --- as all corporations do. And those responsible for oversight will sooner or later end up being controlled by ideologues who think private business has all the answers and government has no role in regulation. The cycle will yet again be repeated only the next time it will take place in some state near where people live and many will die. I won't be just the marine life, as sad as that already is.

[LeaderofMen]

09:22 AM on 05/22/2010

New nuclear power plants WOULD be safe, because the technology has advanced so greatly since the last one was built in the US. It's the WASTE products that they're not containing properly that is the real issue.

[treetracker]

09:37 AM on 05/22/2010

Yeah, just like BP and the rest convinced everyone they could safely drill. I can safely drive a car, too - until I have an accident. Nothing is without risk. The question is how much risk are you willing to accept? Me, not so much.

[ArmchairRevolutionary]

10:32 AM on 05/22/2010

Learn about thorium. It is our only realistic way of getting of coal and oil.

[SimianNation]

11:54 AM on 05/22/2010

SimianNation FYI: (From: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thorium )

Thorium (pronounced /ˈθɔəriəm/ THOHR-ee-əm) is a chemical element with the symbol Th and atomic number 90.

Thorium is a naturally occurring, slightly radioactive metal. It is estimated to be about three to four times more abundant than uranium in the Earth's crust. It has been considered a waste product in mining rare earths, so its abundance is high and cost low.

Thorium was successfully used as a breeding (fertile) source for nuclear fuel – uranium (233) in the molten-salt reactor experiment (MSR) from 1964 to 1969 (producing thermal energy for heat exchange to air or liquids), as well as in several light-water reactors using solid fuel composed of a mixture of 232Th and 233U, including the Shippingport Atomic Power Station (operation commenced 1957, decommissioned in 1982), but a thorium-uranium mix was only used at end of life to demonstrate Th-to-U breeding. Currently, the Japanese Fuji project and officials in India are advocating a thorium-based nuclear program, and a seed-and-blanket fuel utilizing thorium is undergoing irradiation testing at the Kurchatov Institute in Moscow.[2][3]

Advocates of the use of thorium as the fuel source for nuclear reactors state that they can be built to operate significantly cleaner than uranium-based power plants as the waste products are much easier to handle.[4]

[cee2slc]

11:53 PM on 05/21/2010

Holey fuc*in s**T. There's your crude awakening, yo

[stefiz]

10:38 AM on 05/22/2010

that pretty much says it all!!