Environmental disaster, Maybe not

[old Grump]

“There’s just no data to suggest this is an environmental disaster,” said marine scientist and former Louisiana State University (http://www.washingtontimes.com/topics/louisiana-state-university/) professor Ivor van Heerden (http://www.washingtontimes.com/topics/ivor-van-heerden/), who also works as a BP (http://www.washingtontimes.com/topics/british-petroleum/) spill-response contractor. “I have no interest in making BP (http://www.washingtontimes.com/topics/british-petroleum/) look good - I think they lied about the size of the spill - but we’re not seeing catastrophic impacts. There’s a lot of hype, but no evidence to justify it.”


These observations came not a year after the Deepwater Horizon blew up, but a mere three months afterward, making them all the more blasphemous at the time. By now they’ve been amply vindicated, making the Obama team’s “moratorium” and more recent stonewalling on Gulf of Mexico drilling permits all the more preposterous.


I grew up in southern Louisiana and spend most weekends along the Louisiana coast hooking, spearing, gaffing, blasting and otherwise assassinating the raw ingredients of family meals. So I have more than a casual concern with the BP (http://www.washingtontimes.com/topics/british-petroleum/) oil spill.


The reasons this “disaster” fizzled out are many and were apparent to non-hack scientists from the get-go.


“People don’t comprehend how so much oil could break down in such a short time period,” explains LuAnn White (http://www.washingtontimes.com/topics/white/), a toxicologist with the Tulane University School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine (http://www.washingtontimes.com/topics/tulane-university-school-of-public-health-and-trop/) who also serves as director of the Center for Applied Environmental Health (http://www.washingtontimes.com/topics/center-for-applied-environmental-health/). “But we have natural oil seeps in the Gulf, and over 200 genera of microbes that break down oil already exist there.”


http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2011/may/27/from-worst-disaster-to-biggestembarrassment/
I was wondering how come I haven't heard any more horror stories from the Gulf Coast lately. Either the story isn't interesting anymore or things were getting better than the 'Sky is falling" people would have had you believe was possible.

[mriddick]

And people said I was crazy for saying the environmental damage would not be as great as many feared :)

[Cypher]

Pfffttt, didn't you hear that the hole left in the earth from the oil that escaped is going to cause the USA to explode.

[Schuetzenman]

I think Obama will one day mean traitor more than Benedict Arnold.

[Warthogg]

I think Obama will one day mean traitor more than ....

Dubya Brush.


Wart

[imanaknut]

All this spill really did was show people that there is so much oil under the Gulf that it is constantly seeping up from the bottom. Unfortunately nobody wants that to be made public.

[L1A1Rocker]

It is amazing to me that history has forgotten what transpired in the atlantic and on the eastern coast during WWII. Tankers were prime targets and the result was the entire east coast was black with oil from all the torpedoed tankers in the atlantic. There was no clean up effort by man - nature did a wonderful, and quick, job of cleaning it up all by itself.

[old Grump]

The oil is leaking constantly into the ocean bed and oil eating bacteria are always present. With a big spill it's messy, it's bad for the fish and wild life and the marine plants but the bacteria expand exponentially because of the extra food. When the oil is gone they will be gone. After effects sure but nothing is permanent. Walk away from a house and let it sit with no heat, no lawn care, no AC and see how long it takes to revert back to the scenery, only stone and concrete foundations last a long time. Abandon a highway or an airfield and it breaks up and goes to green quicker than you would believe unless you are one of those involved in the maintenance of a paved surface.

The tragedy of the oil spill was that it happened in the first place, that the first capping attempt failed and government agencies intent on enforcing their regulations were stepping all over each other and slowing down clean up efforts not helping it.

[studmuffin]

The only long term damage was caused by Odingo's drilling ban, that put a lot of people out of work and helped us enter a double dip recession.

[old Grump]

I was going to mention that but I was afraid his supporters would say I was picking on him unfairly. Besides what do we need all that gas for?

Oh yeah, I forgot about all his travels with his entourage and his honeybun and her entourage. Well all things considered maybe planes he flies in fly better with the oil from the prophet's blessed land. The rest of us can get bicycles and Mopeds.

We do have to clean up our act but that means getting dirty too. Right now China has us over a barrel over Rare Earth production, China has nothing we don't except our OSHA and EPA can't shut their mines down. Lithium we could get from Chili, I'd rather deal with them than the Chinese.

But Oil, I think we should pump our own, refine our own, use our own and plow some of that oil money into alternative power sources. Oil isn't the only thing we could get from the ocean. there is constant wave and tide activity that could be harnessed. If we aren't smart enough to figure out how then shame on us.