One year after the 10,000 year BP environmental disaster, they can’t find the oil.
One of the biggest questions that remains a year after the Deepwater Horizon accident in the Gulf of Mexico is about the oil.
Unimaginable amounts poured into the waters of the Gulf and scientists have yet to agree on where it went and just what damage it may or will do.
“It may or will do”???? It may or MAY NOT do. And what about benefits? Maybe some oil munching critters have had a year long party.
The oil is in the stomachs of oil eating bacteria. There are quite a lot in the Gulf as they have evolved to consume vast amounts of oil from natural oil seeps in the region. The rest has been scooped up and dispersed.
The other factor is the issue they did not actually measure the flow but estimated the amount flowing.
Jimbo:
That is correct, the amount of oil that escaped is miniscule compared to global seepage from natural oil reservoirs. If humans did not extract and consume the oil it would contaminate the environment anyway. The same with coal and all its toxic substances.
It’s been an expensive year for oil and nuclear, $40b for oil and $26b for nuclear in accidents.
Andy
Yeah, because gasoline and electricity aren’t nescessities in modern society.
It stopped the ocean conveyor. Oh wait,that didn’t happen either.
lol, phew!! We narrowly escaped that impending disaster, too! Must have been divine Gaia intervention.
That is the ULIMTATE NIGHTMARE SCENARIO, horrible oil broken down into evil, DEADLY CO2 and then released into our atmosphere!! The weather is out of control!! We are all DOOMED!!
At least trees can breathe easier…. 😉
The oil went to the same place as the;
millions of homeless in the 80’s
the epidemic of heterosexual AIDS victims
Saddam Hussein’s oil fire’s long term environmental damage
The legions of SARS, Avian flu, Swine flu, etc victims
and any number of other over hyped catastrophic scenarios pushed in furtherance of some enviro-political agenda
Mike Davis:
Estimated amount says a lot.
I watched the undersea camera shots as the spill occurred. It seemed odd to me—I saw a lot of gas, and the color was light brown as it spewed out. I said to others at the time that it looked a lot like mud mixed with CO2. It should have looked black, by my reckoning.
My guess is that the “oil” was in essence methane, CO2, mud/silt, lower hydrocarbons like ethane and propane, with some oil thrown in. I would not be surprised if the “estimates” were not two magnitudes lower than the reality. Instead of 250,000 barrels there may have been 2,000 barrels, well dispersed with gas and dirt.
Even right away, there was little shore impact. Real oil floats. Should have gotten to shore if a million gallons or two were released as oil. Else we would have seen endless pictures of dolphins and shorebirds shining in the sunset. We would still be seeing these pictures everywhere. They don’t let a “good crisis” go to waste, remember. Thank God that did not happen, but the Gulf in any event, is a ravenous oil eater, as others have mentioned. Especially at the high water temperatures.
My ex. said we were like “oil and water”…..
Since oil floats, why do they keep mentioning all the oil that’s on the bottom destroying things?