At the BP hearing on Thursday, 'the public rebuke was broken only by Republican Joe Barton of Texas, who seemed to think that although they facilitated the worst environmental disaster in American history, BP had endured enough.

"I do not want to live in a country where any time a citizen or a corporation that does something that is legitimately wrong is subject to a shakedown," said Republican Barton.

The "shakedown," Barton said, was President Obama's insistence that BP set up a $20 billion fund for claims filed by Gulf Coast victims; a fund that would be paid out without the oil giant's supervision.

"Barton, by the way, has received $317,000 from the oil and gas industry donations since 2007. Most of the members on the committee have received a total of $1 million-plus since the start of last year -- $1.316505 million since Jan. 2009.

"NOTE: Barton has since been forced to apologize for his...um...apology to BP.

"Well coached by BP lawyers, Hayward deflected all the questions about allegations that the company cut corners and ignored safety measures to save money.

"Your answer 65 times that 'you don't know' doesn't leave us with confidence," snapped Rep. Peter Welch.

"One of the only straight answers Hayward promptly provided during the hearing led Rep. Mike Doyle, to consider changing his career choice:

"My compensation last year was recorded, I think, at $6 million dollars," said BP’s Tony Hayward.

And the Americans say that BP's long-term, reckless disregard of safety is threatening the Gulf with an oil spill many times larger than the Deepwater Horizon oil rig explosion.

“The BP Atlantis, an oil platform in the Atlantic, is so fraught with safety problems that even BP management admits another catastrophic accident is possible. Yet BP continues to spend millions of dollars lobbying federal officials who then turn a blind eye to safety violations. Meanwhile, BP continues to operate the Atlantis -- a disaster just waiting to happen.” Stay tuned!

Kris Sayce's solution to this calamity appears to be creating an artificial calamity which can then be turned into social mayhem which in turn opens the door for the manipulators' to make even more profit from ecological & social disasters. A great human indeed ! Probably gets nominated for a Nobel Prize.

The majority of land around cities is privately owned and look what that system has done to nearby creeks, rivers and estuaries. And yes, Kyoto is taking private land away from farming families.

There is dire urgent need to overcome local state and national media gagging of information about all environment damage incidents. Knowledge allows for constructive debate and solutions. For real news see:

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE65D3Z220100614

It is not just most of the oceans and seas that we hold in common. It is the entire Planet. While individual nations hold their sovereignty the Planet and its atmosphere appears to be deteriorating in a way inimical to human (and other species) survival. Whether we agree or not with the writer's thesis, he is raising the vital issue of how we maintain what we hold in common. I am not convinced that more private ownership of bits of the Planet is the way forward.

How do do assign property rights and design a market? A system of ocean pollution permits? Given the absence of international agreement on an emissions trading scheme, perhaps regulation. A reassignment of international waters? Tough one.

The tough one is the grey matter between human ears. For example what has a CO2 emission trading scheme got to do with reducing sewage nutrient pollution in the ocean and oil well accidents?