the Oil Spill

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JennyG

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I read today in the Daily Telegraph (generally a reputable organ) that the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico is dispersing much more quickly and with much less trauma than most experts predicted.
It's very good news if it's true. Is it true?
 
Well...I guess that is something that is *relative* to whom you are asking. Some expected great troubles and have seen none. Some, are totally devastated. And then there are those whose answer would be *relative* to which political party they hold. I am referring to the people who live and make their living by the Gulf. :)
 
It is not as bad as some of the experts said it would be. It is becoming rather obvious that the little microbes got involved. At least that is the opinion of many. Of course in Louisiana there are some areas of marsh that took a beating, but the wide spread catastrophe that was a 'certainty' has not occurred. Well, let me temper that: the catastrophe that has occurred is the economic disaster that has occurred due to the feds and the media scaring everyone away from the Gulf during the highest part of the tourism season. That is the big disaster. That and closing areas to fishing that did not need to be closed so quickly.

Yes, there are environmental impacts from the oil. However, this old ball was designed pretty well and it will heal itself rather quickly if allowed. One of the greatest potential environmental tragedies in this fiasco has been the dispersants used. They were not the normally used dispersants. Oh no. Those would never do. The environmentalists deemed them unsafe. So, a different type was used. These have never been used on this scale and apparently have created large mostly neutrally buoyant 'blobs' of goo that are shifting around subsurface. That may be the big ecological disaster if there is one. They can't track them well, they apparently are 'dead' meaning that they can't be digested by the little buggers that live in the ocean. This has never happened before so who knows. If BP, et al had been allowed to do what normally is done on a spill: burn booms, surface burn off, and normal surfactant dispersants, immediate skimming, and the like much of oil that has hit shore would never have gotten close, perhaps none. It would be extremely difficult to convince me that the meddling on the federal level was not intentional.
 
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Crude oil is like a bunch of little black snakes of different lengths. Imagine carbon atoms linked together. 3 in a chain is propane, 4 is butane, 9,10 and 11 are gas for your car, 14,15 and 16 long is jet fuel, 19,20 and 21 is diesel, 25 long and more are various greases etc...

When the reach the top of the sea, and the sea is warm, and the air is hot, and there's lots of wind, well, imagine if you went outside your door to the street on a hot, windy day and poured a gallon of gas on the pavement. Where would it be the next day? Could you find it? Could you collect it back into the one gallon gas can?

It's the same thing. Most of that oil is again part of the carbon cycle. Some you'll be eating, since fruits and veggies need it to make fat, starch, carbs, sugar and wood. Some you'll breath back out. Some will be taken in by alfalfa and be fed to cows and next year every hamburger everyone here reading this eats will contain a few atoms of those carbon molecules that blew into the sea.

Yawn. The biggest catastrophe in US history was, well, not that big a deal. As anyone with a basic understanding of science knew would be the case.
 
I live on the east coast of Florida but the only impact we have is some raised prices on some seafood I think, like clams or something I heard. You know I know a familey that owns a bar/gril/restraunt here that serves lots of seafood I could ask them about there prices.
 
Oh, my mistake! I always forget that Mobile is on the coast. Well, I'm glad you're not seeing any ill effects (environmentally that is - I know the economic situation is poor)
 
It is interesting how God works and how pagan men respond:

Gulf Oil Vanishing, EPA Seeks Injunction Against Nature

by Scott Ott

(2010-07-27) — The Obama administration today filed an injunction in federal court which would require an immediate halt to cleanup efforts in the Gulf of Mexico currently under way by the forces of nature.


The move comes as analysts confessed they’re having difficulty finding the millions of gallons which have spilled into the Gulf from a BP Deepwater Horizon well during the past month and a half.


Citing a variety of regulatory violations, including a failure to seek permits or to file paperwork in a timely manner, as well as use of non-approved cleanup techniques and biological dispersants, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) asked the federal judge to issue a cease-and-desist order until the government can complete a study of nature’s remediation efforts.


The study, funded by economic stimulus money in order to create jobs, will determine whether nature’s methodology comports with thousands of pages of federal regulation designed to protect citizens and wildlife from the harm often caused by activities that lack federal government sanction.
“If the oil continues to vanish at this rate without government approval,” said an unnamed EPA spokesman, “the American people face a threat worse than the initial spill: a crisis of confidence that could lead them to follow nature’s example, and to solve problems without waiting for action by the appropriate regulatory agency. I can assure you that nobody in Washington D.C. wants to see that happen.”
Click to expand...
 
Thanks, everyone. When I read the article my first thought was "must run it by the PB" - though I didn't realise, any more than Kathleen, that you live right on the doorstep, Lawrence!
Things are never what they seem, especially when it comes to science.
How increasingly crazy does it seem to see mankind giving all its trust and reverence to the men in lab coats.
 
I saw a report on Fox News that seventy five percent of the oil is gone. Where has it gone to? But that is good news.
 
Most of it evaporated to seeped back into the ocean floor from what I read. What happened to the 25 year doomsday scenario for clean up?
 
As unfortunate as the oil spill was, I think the biggest disaster was how it was handled. Between the media, the government, and BP, it's just been a series of blunders.

I saw one of those "De-Motivational" posters that said "Government - If you think the problems we create are bad, just wait till you see our solutions." Very fitting. :)
 
Economically , a disaster for many. Environmentally, not so much. This was "light crude" so it breaks up and evaporates quickly. To put in perspective I 've heard that if the new Cowboy's Stadium was the Gulf of Mexico, all of the spilled oil would be a 24oz. cup of beer.
 
Spent a week in Florida and never saw a drop of oil- not on the beach and not in the water. I went deep sea fishing off the coast. No oil anywhere and plenty of fish. If you had banned me from the news from the past few months, you wouldn't be able to convince me that an oil spill had occurred in the Gulf that was purported to be the biggest catastrophe in U.S. history.
 
I live on the beach in Destin, FL, and have seen only a single 2 inch tar ball - and that was in the beginning of July. Since then I haven't seen a trace of oil anywhere, on the water or on the sand, and our area was predicted to be hit pretty hard. The clean-up crew was stationed in the state park right next to my building. In 6 weeks I saw them do nothing other than stand around, eat lunch, and move the port-a-potties. They eventually left altogether a couple of weeks ago. It's a shame all the tourists were scared away...this area took a pretty big economic hit.
 
I was in Ft. Walton a week ago, just west of Destin. I'm missing the Back Porch for dinner.
 
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