

Ask HN: How can the oil leak (edit: was 'spill') be stopped? - ra88it

Is there a good idea out there that isn't being considered?
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jacquesm
There are lots of good ideas, but the fact is that the people that are trying
to solve this right now have:

1) tons of experience in deep sea work

2) a pretty good idea of the situation (which the rest of us mostly lack)

3) a very large budget and an inventory of resources at their disposal

4) are far from stupid.

So _if_ this is going to be solved in the short term I doubt it will be an
outsider.

Occasionally outsiders do come up with great solutions, one I remember was the
jet engine strapped to a tank to blow out the gulf war fires. That was sheer
genius.

[http://www.caranddriver.com/features/01q2/stilling_the_fires...](http://www.caranddriver.com/features/01q2/stilling_the_fires_of_war-
feature/big_wind_page_4)

~~~
jodrellblank
In Arthur C. Clarke's "A Fall of Moondust", there is an accident and a bus
full of tourists sinks into the lunar dust, is covered over and lost. This
presents massive engineering challenges as the dust is so fine, the location
unknown, resources limited to what's on the moon base, and the trapped people
have a limited air and water supply so there's a tight time limit.

There's a scene where they are trawling for suggestions from the public in a
TV show contest - people suggest ideas, and an a panel of experts rip the
ideas apart. A side effect is that it's a great publicity boost for the
difficulty of doing things on the moon and the achievement of having a base
there.

I wont spoil the rest of the book for you, but has anyone tried doing this
with the oil leak? Engaging the public in that kind of way, not just asking
for blog comments on a news article, but a real challenge in an X-Factor style
big-hype approach?

~~~
jacquesm
I wonder if the 'hive mind' is really that much smarter than an expert in the
field, but for brainstorming (which is what this is about) it might be useful.

I'd hate to be the BP exec to sign off on some harebrained scheme coined by a
non-expert, they'd have a problem even if it _did_ work.

It may come to that yet though.

------
_pius
One thing I'd like to point out: this is _not_ an oil spill. Rather, this is
an undersea gusher, an ongoing, uncontrolled oil leak that is dumping the
equivalent of the Exxon-Valdez Oil Spill into the Gulf of Mexico about _every
four days_.

~~~
jacquesm
Yep. It probably already is the largest man made ecological disaster and the
magnitude of it is still largely hidden from view.

It won't be for much longer. If I was living at the south east coast within
200 miles of the spill I'd be selling my property at a _very_ good price right
now.

