Also, any impact on hurricane season?
The oil gusher will last into the hurricane season, and at some point it is likely to drift into the Gulf of Mexico’s Loop Current which will take it out of the Gulf, onto Florida’s east cost and up the Eastern Seaboard of the United States.
Story: Could oil slick hitch a ride out of Gulf of Mexico? By Andrew Freeman. The Washington Post.
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Ralph Maughan
Dr. Ralph Maughan is professor emeritus of political science at Idaho State University with specialties in natural resource politics, public opinion, interest groups, political parties, voting and elections. Aside from academic publications, he is author or co-author of three hiking/backpacking guides, and he is past President of the Western Watersheds Project.
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This has been such devastating news. I just can’t fathom how bad this could potentially be. I understand that this is going to have tremendous impacts on people but I am tired of the fact that the bulk of the coverage seems to focus just on that fact when the real victims are the wildlife. The humans will survive this but the wildlife won’t.
We humans are brought up to feel compassion & concern for our own kind (althought that wasn’t always the case especially when you think about the aftermath of Katrina) and I’ve found if you speak too loudy about the welfare of wildlife after a disaster like this (or even a few cows are dead out of millions and 500 + wolves paid and are continuing to pay the price) you can get some strange looks. As though my priorities are really screwed up.
There’s no way to know how many of the regular readers and posters have been out on the high seas recently , but here’s what I saw when I was chugging around the Indonesia archipeligo a few years ago. Oil slicks everywhere. A constant sheen on the water, punctuated by unbelievable amounts of floating garbage and plastic. In fact, one of the dirtiest beaches I have ever walked on anywhere not near Tijuana Mexico was Kuta Beach , a few miles from the airport on the idyllic isle of Bali. The sea lanes near Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore have a phenomenal amount of ship and cargo boat traffic, and they leave a trail of hydrocarbon slime in their wake like banana slugs. And the stuff really travels. Even relatively calm seas have consistent currents , like conveyor belts.
You’d have to see it to believe it. But it’s real.
thank you for this post as I don’t believer the average person realizes the extent of world wide pollution. Having said that however we need to realize hat this catastrophe is on the magnitude of 5000+ gal a day. …. you don’t burn that much in your F-350 (I’m guessing here, but not much) in a year
The thought of this coming up the east coast is pretty horrifying.
I found this link about trash washing up on remote beaches and killing albatross.
http://www.chrisjordan.com/current_set2.php?id=11
Drowning in plastic: The Great Pacific Garbage Patch is twice the size of France
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/environment/5208645/Drowning-in-plastic-The-Great-Pacific-Garbage-Patch-is-twice-the-size-of-France.html