Academic Task Force Formed to Help With Response to Oil Spill in the Gulf of Mexico

[lunatica]

Source: Oil Spill Academic Task Force

The Oil Spill Academic Task Force (OSATF) is a consortium of scientists and scholars from institutions in the State University System as well as from four of Florida’s private universities working in collaboration with the Florida Department of Environmental Protection (DEP). The OSATF brings together expertise and resources to assist the state of Florida and the Gulf region in preparing for and responding to the Deepwater Horizon oil spill.

Major activities of the OSTAF include:

* Coordination of activities with state and other academic resources in Florida’s institutions of higher learning
* Serving as a clearing house of information on faculty research expertise and capabilities for local, state and federal agencies
* Providing a communication conduit for researchers within the task force and throughout the region.

This website is designed to provide information on the Academic Task Force, links to partners and other resources.

Read more: http://oilspill.fsu.edu/index.php

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For those interested in the scientific task force work done regarding the BP Oil Gusher this site is theirs, the Oil Spill Academic Task Force (OSATF), in plain English.

For those who don't know, universities are where the latest research is done by the brightest minds in the country. They're not all Academia. And all those scientist researchers in the universities know all the scientists in their fields in the other universities all over the world. And they all communicate with each other. If I'm correct the internet itself was started by these scientists so they could communicate with each other. It wasn't until much later that the internet was available to the rest of us.

[postulater]

1. Great news. We need the best minds in the world on this one.

If only there was more policy based on science rather than politics and money.

[lunatica]

2. Meanwhile the media covers nothing but the politics

It isn't that Americans are getting stupid as much as we're being dumnbed down by a sensationalism seeking media. Sarah Palin and the teabaggers are so much juicier stories.

[NJCher]

3. was wondering where this was

Thanks for posting it. As a person who works in academia, I was wondering about the formation of such a panel.


Cher

[papadog]

4. Kind of Late, Isn't It?

This reminds me of the BP video on YouTube. I think we need strong backs and strong prosecutions at this point. We can analyze this until the whole Gulf is full of oil but what's the point. We know what to do, get tankers thier to suck up the oil and drill the relief wells. We're doing that, the only problem is we should have had the tankers headed there on day 2.

[skip fox]

5. Good thinking. Let the Federal Gov. learn by example: A Presidential Crisis Center!

If Obama would treat the crisis as a real catastrophe he would do well to consider creating a Presidential Crisis Center like a mini-Manhattan Project (but highly public) which would:

--Fly in experts on the wetlands, on health, on oil flow, on cleanup, etc., as well as the best engineers and lawyers (especially to coordinate the various states with claims) and house them in one area. (In a city along the Gulf . . . The best knowledge comes of being in the area, not treating isolated problems from behind desks at various univeristies.)

--Be housed in a large enough building that all the best minds will be under a single roof (or small area) and can intermingle, brainstorm, etc.

--Have a core division which would work on nothing but streamlining (cutting red tape, getting things dones, etc.) and have the head of that division in constant contact with the governors of the Gulf states.

--Have partially public video conferences with Obama and the heads of all divisions weekly.

--House fairly regular presidential visits with high exposure.

This is not theater! (At least in large part, but it would definitely help him politically. And an essential job of a politician is to become elected or re-elected.)

Various experts living close together in the area will creatively come up with more effective and efficient solutions to the myriad problems that will surface over the next several months or years.

Let BP pay!

(The division on streamlining, headed by a Ken Feinberg-quality administrator, is essential both politically and pragmatically.)


June 20
Lafayette, LA