Mother Jones, 16 June 2010

"All the actions and few tid bits of information all lead to one inescapable conclusion. The well pipes below the sea floor are broken and leaking. Now you have some real data of how BP's actions are evidence of that, as well as some murky statement from "BP officials" confirming the same. "To those of us outside the real inside loop, yet still fairly knowledgeable, [the failure of Top Kill] was a major confirmation of what many feared. That the system below the sea floor has serious failures of varying magnitude in the complicated chain, and it is breaking down and it will continue to.

Online Opinion, 18 June 2010

The Chief Executive Officer of insurance giant Lloyds is warning that the world is facing a “period of deep uncertainty” over the decline of fossil fuels - and may soon be coping with $200-a-barrel oil.

Every US president since Nixon has talked about the need to get the United States off of foreign oil and moving toward energy independence. Jon Stewart recently captured this theme in a very funny, but troubling segment:

http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/wed-june-16-2010/an-energy-independent-future

The Age, 18 June 2010

BIG oil spills are no longer news in the Niger Delta, where the wealth underground is out of all proportion with the poverty on the surface. This once-verdant area has endured the equivalent of the Exxon Valdez spill every year for 50 years by some estimates. The oil pours out nearly every week, and some swamps are lifeless.