SpawnPoint - Where Game Begins

I've just been reading about the possible long term effects of the spill in New Scientist. Apparently it all depends on the composition and amount of oil that reaches the coast, in particular the coastal marshes.

Previous spills show that the amount isn't the main thing when it comes to long term consequences. This spill is expected to be around 90-195 million litres, Exxon Valdez was 40 million litres and the area is still recoving. From that it might sound like this one will be far worse, however 5 years after the Ixtoc Well in Mexico spilled 530 million litres they "had to look hard to see any lasting effects". The Florida barge spilled 700,000 litres and the effects are still being felt 40 years later.

The difference between the previous spills is what was spilled and what kind of environments were effected. Exxon spilled heavy crude that coated rocks and inlets that were havens for seabirds and marine life and the cold conditions meant it took longer to break up. The Ixtoc well spilled light crude onto empty beaches where it degraded into a fairly harmless hard tar. The Florida barge spilled refined fuel oil that is particularly toxic onto sensitive salt marshes.

Some good news about the Deepwater Horizon spill is that it will be exposed to the elements for days or weeks before making landfall, meaning that the most toxic elements are likely to become greatly diluted or evaporate. The main concerns are for cold water coral, bluefin tuna as it's their spawning season and what will happen if the oil reaches the marshes or coastal estuaries. The marshes are already in trouble as a result of engineering projects that reduce the water they get and the coastal estuaries are nurseries for shrimp and a type of herring that are both key to the regions fishing industry.

One uncertainty is about the effects of the dispersent when combined with oil, while one study shows it shouldn't penetrate sedements deeply and should be easily removed, another shows that the combination of the two is more toxic to invertibrates than the oil alone would be.

There really needs to be a full review of all aspects of deep sea drilling. There was a very similar failure of the safety device on another rig not long before this one, and although the resulting spill was no where near as serious, that shows this isn't a one off freak accident. More and more drilling is being done at great depth, like some oil fields discovered off the Falkland Islands are around twice as deep as the Deepwater Horizon was drilling, so the industry definitely needs more safety features and a plan B if things go wrong. It's not just the oil industry that needs to change, the licensing requirements need to be much stricter, no more free passes.

Yeah I agree with you X, there's a lot of blame put on certain people in BP. The pressure must be enormous. I for one would never be able to live up to such expectations.

My fear has been for years that we are fast approaching "peak oil" if we haven't reached it already. The problem I see stems, from what I perceive, from the government being in bed with big oil....yes the Dems too. The other problem is that these "super corporations" often times seem to have more power and resources than the Federal Government itself....which scares the hell out of me. It is bad enough having a power hungry government in charge, but at least they make attempts to help our people. Big corporations like BP could give two craps about us, they only care about their profit margin, stock value and if they will be able to pay good dividends to their stockholders. The false empathy they "feel" or show for the people in the Gulf smacks to me of a criminal only expressing remorse when they are caught. They gambled drilling a well that deep, "doubled down on 12" so to speak, and got a face card. Now they are trying to do damage control, both financial and political.

I hear a lot about how this is American's fault for consuming too much petroleum products. To that I say BS. What choice do we have? I can't buy a vehicle that will serve my business that doesn't run on gas or diesel. Boeing and even Airbus don't make electric jumbo jets. The transportation of a large amount of the goods in the US is by semi truck which I don't know of any really that don't run on diesel. How many "green options" do transportation companies have for that?

I recycle, use the canvas type store brand bags you can buy for my groceries, don't drive places that aren't necessary, maintain my vehicles to get maximum gas mileage, use wood heat in the winter, buy in bulk when feasible, make vehicle purchases based on dependablitiy and gas mileage, ect. I believe most Americans are doing that as well.....some maybe out of financial necessity....but doing it none the less. I don't think it is fair to lay this on the Americans themselves, but on big business and government that we really don't have much say in who runs either. The big corps choose their own and the only choice we get in government is what the Dems and Reps choose with an independent thrown in occasionally as a "sacrificial lamb". Both the corps and the government do whatever the hell they want. The only way either listens is if you have enough money or a big enough, loud mouthed, group that can hurt them politically or financially. Other than that, you(we) get ignored.

There is a storm coming for sure. I think the first indication of when it is at our shores will be when they admit peak oil, if they will. If you think our, and the world's, economy is bad now, wait until the world figures out that we are on the downhill side of petroleum availability. Right now I feel sorry for my, and everyone else's, kids. They are the ones that will have to pick up the pieces.