Money talks, chop, chop, chop

So here's a novel idea - pay us to not chop down the rainforest. Great idea in principle. It's easy to take money today and do the right thing. The problem arises when the next recession bites or demand gets so great that prices become too good to ignore. If the government is in trouble and can't balance it's books or needs a boost to it's coffers or gets a different leader who has pals in business (nudge nudge bush bush) then the temptation may be too great. When it's convenient money will talk and exploitation will set in. I remain a sceptic - we need a fundamental change in the rules of business and in the attitudes and expectations of people who are trapped in the vicious cycle that ever increasing growth demands.

The oil plot thickens

A few days ago I wrote about the oil leak on the Australian owned West Atlas oil rig in the Timor Sea. It turns out the rig has caught fire and has been abandoned. This is the Bloomberg report, which has more detail. The company, PTTEP has their own media release webpage.

I would be very interested to see the detailed report on what really happened here.
Could it be that the problem was easier to solve by getting the insurance companies to cover the costs (or part thereof) of shutting the facility down? Is this a case of a convenient accident? I sincerely hope not. Checks and balances in a properly functioning world: 1. The insurance companies don't want to get taken for a ride. 2. The HSE authorities will want to see that everything was done to prevent something like this happening.

The environmental impact is now even greater than before. Now that it is out of control I wonder how much worse it's going to get?

Follow up Review:
4 Dec 2009: First assessment and insurance action.
The investigation is being lead by David Borthwick (power and authority of a Royal Commission) and is due at the end of April 2010.

Other similar stories:
21 April 2010: Oil rig blaze off Louisiana leaves at least 11 missing