Gulf Of Mexico Ocean Fire

Overview

Gulf Of Mexico Ocean Fire refers to an underwater fire caused by a ruptured oil pipeline in the Gulf of Mexico. The striking clip led social media users to remark how the fire was a sign of the imperative need for drastic action on climate change and capitalism, while others made jokes akin to those made about the excavator digging out the Suez Canal boat about the apparent futility of boats attempting to put out the underwater fire with what looked like water.

Background

On July 2nd, 2021, Manuel Lopez San Martin posted video of a fire raging underwater in the Gulf of Mexico at the Ku Maloob Zaap region (shown below). The fire was caused by a ruptured oil pipeline, and raged because "enough stream of natural gas [methane and probably other wet gas components like ethane and propane] in the one place to sustain the fire and keep it churning," according to Cnet.^[1]

Developments

Later on July 2nd, Lopez San Martin posted a video of the extinguishing effort taken on by Mexico's state-owned oil company, Petroleos Mexicano, or Pemex. The video showed boats spraying the burning section of the water with nitrogen.^[2] The fire was extinguished after five hours, and Pemex has said no oil was spilled into the water after the fire, and there were no injuries.

The fire led to outrage on social media, as people viewed the clip as evidence that climate change and the lightly regulated oil industry were causing great harm to Earth. Several Twitter users quipped about how public pressure on individuals to lessen the effects of climate change, such as the directive to use fewer "plastic straws," was futile in the face of the ocean fire. Twitter user @PleaseBeGneiss^[3] joked "was it the plastic straws" in response to the video, gaining over 37,000 retweets and 285,000 likes (shown below, left). User @spochadoir^[4] wrote, "Drinking your McDonald’s through one of those dusty fucking paper straws knowing the actual ocean is literally on fire and there’s not a single real change being made to do anything about the destruction of the planet," gaining over 3,500 retweets and 37,000 likes (shown below, right).

Object Labeling Memes

The clip of the boats putting out the fire was turned into an Object Labeling meme by many social media users, with captions referencing the futility of small efforts to tackle major problems. User @Checarina^[5] posted an example referencing climate change, gaining over 182,000 retweets and 760,000 likes (shown below, left). User @menganita79^[6] posted an example with the labels "me" and "my problems," gaining over 1,300 retweets and 6,000 likes (shown below, right).

Search Interest

External References