Gulf Coast Oil Spill

[Bring_Back_Shantz]

Reabsorbed is probalby the wrong word.
Diluted is what they mean.

How do you think these spills get cleaned up?
They protect as much coastline as they can, clean up what does come ashore, and they let the rest dilute out into the water column. It's impossible to clean it all up.

[Cowperson]

Originally Posted by fotze

Back to the topic, I would be curious how that volume of oil compares to volume of the water in the ocean that it occupies. i.e. total volume of spill - recovered volume = remaining. Is the oil volume only .00003% of the total volume, like a grain of salt in a pool? Not sure?

Someone earlier said there were 92 million gallons of oil on the loose.

I said there were 643 quadrillion gallons of water in the Gulf of Mexico.

Get your calculator humming.

Cowperson

[Azure]

My calculator doesn't calculate that big of numbers.

[zarrell]

Originally Posted by Azure

My calculator doesn't calculate that big of numbers.

Mine gave me 0

[IliketoPuck]

Originally Posted by Cowperson

Someone earlier said there were 92 million gallons of oil on the loose.

I said there were 643 quadrillion gallons of water in the Gulf of Mexico.

Get your calculator humming.

Cowperson

Reminds me of this thread. Would also likely give your calculator fits.

http://forum.calgarypuck.com/showthread.php?t=93467

[Cowperson]

Originally Posted by zarrell

Mine gave me 0

Me too.

I guess we know what happened to all the oil.

Mathematics.

Cowperson

[Canuck-Hater]

And after all this, the Oil companies still think its a good idea to keep drilling.

[Hack&Lube]

[Bring_Back_Shantz]

Originally Posted by Canuck-Hater

And after all this, the Oil companies still think its a good idea to keep drilling.

Yup, 1 accident is clearly a great reason to stop drilling altogether.

There is clearly no way for anyone to learn anything from all of this, we should stop all oil and gas drilling altogether.

Seriously dude, this is the price you pay when you've got an economy that's dependant on fossil fuels, and unless you live completely off the grid, and don't drive, then statements like yours are at least a little bit hypocritcal.

[Shazam]

There are in fact oil eating bacteria.

Most of the oil's probably sinking.

Or aliens.

[Pinner]

URGENT: Fox News is being told by the Homeland Security director for Jefferson Parish, La., that a new oil leak has sprung up in the Gulf of Mexico after a boat struck an oil well in the early morning hours on Tuesday.

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2010/07/27...l-gulf-mexico/

[Pinner]

Another one...Fwak!

On Monday, a 30-inch oil pipeline sprang a leak in Kalamazoo County, Mich., and it has now released more than 800,000 gallons of oil into Talmadge Creek, a tributary that flows into the Kalamazoo River

http://www.aolnews.com/surge-desk/ar...gency/19570815

[Azure]

Point.

100 million gallons of oil cannot ruin 625 quadrillion gallons of seawater; that ratio is only 1:6,250,000,000. You probably have more oil in your drinking water...

[Barnes]

Originally Posted by Shazam

There are in fact oil eating bacteria.

Most of the oil's probably sinking.

Or aliens.

I spilled 2 litres of 80w90 gear oil in the back of my Jeep and even after removing the carpet and scrubbing the floor pan with Dawn (works on ducks) the smell was unbearable and everything on the floor pan was greasy.

I bought this spray that said it had bacteria that eats oil and turns it into water. I sprayed it on and within 5 minutes, ALL of the oil was completely gone. I really didn't think it would work even a little bit but it got rid of all of it.

[Pinner]

Originally Posted by Azure

Point.

100 million gallons of oil cannot ruin 625 quadrillion gallons of seawater; that ratio is only 1:6,250,000,000. You probably have more oil in your drinking water...

Where you gonna get a blender big enough to mix it up ?

[Azure]

Do you need help with the bold key?

[photon]

Yes, please stop with the bold posts.

[Pinner]

Originally Posted by photon

Yes, please stop with the bold posts.

Really sorry about that.

You OK ? Again, I'm really sorry.

[Azure]

President Obama has called the BP oil spill "the worst environmental disaster America has ever faced," and so has just about everyone else. Green groups are sounding alarms about the "Catastrophe Along the Gulf Coast," while CBS, Fox and MSNBC slap "Disaster in the Gulf" chryons on all their spill-related news. Even BP fall guy Tony Hayward, after some early happy talk, admitted the spill was an "environmental catastrophe." The obnoxious anti-environmentalist Rush Limbaugh has been a rare voice arguing that the spill — he calls it "the leak" — is anything less than an ecological calamity, scoffing at the avalanche of end-is-nigh eco-hype.

Well, Rush has a point. The Deepwater explosion was an awful tragedy for the 11 workers who died on the rig, and it's no leak; it's the biggest oil spill in U.S. history. It's also inflicting serious economic and psychological damage on coastal communities that depend on tourism, fishing and drilling. But so far — while it's important to acknowledge that the long-term potential danger is simply unknowable for an underwater event that took place just three months ago — it does not seem to be inflicting severe environmental damage. "The impacts have been much, much less than everyone feared," says geochemist Jacqueline Michel, a federal contractor who is coordinating shoreline assessments in Louisiana.

Yes, the spill killed birds — but so far, less than 1% of the birds killed by the Exxon Valdez. Yes, we've heard horror stories about oiled dolphins — but, so far, wildlife response teams have collected only three visibly oiled carcasses of any mammals. Yes, the spill prompted harsh restrictions on fishing and shrimping, but so far, the region's fish and shrimp have tested clean, and the restrictions are gradually being lifted. And, yes, scientists have warned that the oil could accelerate the destruction of Louisiana's disintegrating coastal marshes — a real slow-motion ecological calamity — but, so far, shorelines assessment teams have only found about 350 acres of oiled marshes, when Louisiana was already losing about 15,000 acres of wetlands every year.

The disappearance of more than 2,000 square miles of coastal Louisiana over the last century has been a true national tragedy, ravaging a unique wilderness, threatening the bayou way of life and leaving communities like New Orleans extremely vulnerable to hurricanes from the Gulf. And while much of the erosion has been caused by the re-engineering of the Mississippi River — which no longer deposits much sediment at the bottom of its Delta — quite a bit has been caused by the oil and gas industry, which gouged 8,000 miles of canals and pipelines through coastal wetlands. But the spill isn't making that problem much worse. Coastal scientist Paul Kemp, a former Louisiana State University professor who is now a National Audubon Society vice president, compares the impact of the spill on the vanishing marshes to "a sunburn on a cancer patient."

Marine scientist Ivor Van Heerden, another former LSU prof who's working for a spill response contractor, says "there's just no data to suggest this is an environmental disaster. I have no interest in making BP look good — I think they lied about the size of the spill — but we're not seeing catastrophic impacts," says Van Heerden, who, like just about everyone else working in the Gulf these days, is being paid out of BP's spill response funds. "There's a lot of hype, but no evidence to justify it."

Read more: http://www.time.com/time/nation/arti...#ixzz0v5bF7zdy

[Cowperson]

Originally Posted by Azure

The disappearance of more than 2,000 square miles of coastal Louisiana over the last century has been a true national tragedy, ravaging a unique wilderness, threatening the bayou way of life and leaving communities like New Orleans extremely vulnerable to hurricanes from the Gulf.

Read more: http://www.time.com/time/nation/arti...#ixzz0v5bF7zdy

I would agree Louisianans and other citizens along the Gulf Coast have done more to ruin their environment than BP has ever done.

BP's misfortunate - and that of the Gulf - is they did it in 100 days or so instead of a creeping century. Tends to focus attention more closely.

Cowperson