There’s all manner of speculation about the huge amounts of natural gas boiling up in the Baltic from the NordStream I pipeline. Tucker Carlson squeals that Biden did it to help his fascist buddy in Ukraine. Others speculate that some undefined terrorist group did it for some unannounced reason, or even that Vlad the Terrible did it as a pretext for cutting Europe’s gas supply off altogether – or to force their hand on NordStream 2. There’s overheated panting about it being “an act of war” and about madmen pushing the world to the brink of a nuclear exchange.
Excuse me. Everyone step back and take a breath, because the real reason is probably far more prosaic.
For seventy years and more in the Workers’ Paradise the phrase “They pretend to pay us, we pretend to work” was the operational theory in the workplace. On-the-job accidents caused by people showing up to dangerous factory floors blotto from the liter of vodka they had for breakfast was a leading cause of death. Slipshod work was commonplace: ask anyone who has owned a Lada for any length of time. ”Preventive maintenance” was an unknown concept.
Soooooooo……
It’s entirely possible that the Baltic Sea Jacuzzi is an entirely foreseeable event. Maybe the seam at the pipe joint was a little dirty. Maybe the guy watching the pressure gauge was sleeping it off. Maybe the concrete weight holding the pipeline down came down a little too hard. Maybe the last inspection pig ran through a little too fast to see a developing problem.
It ain’t like we’re dealing with people who have a spotless safety record here. The former Soviet Union is littered with the wreckage of chemical plants whose daily operation without spontaneously obliterating themselves was a major miracle. And often, luck ran out.
So before looking for saboteurs or spies or agents of sinister powers, look for the guy with the half-bottle of vodka in his coat pocket.
