Gulf of Mexico oil leak

[heathen]

Seeing as I've heard a lot of people say this is the greatest ecological disaster ever... (dunno if that's true or exaggeration)

I don't know if it is worse than Chernobyl, but it sure tries very hard.

 

That's what I was thinking. Chernobyl is the worst ecological disaster ever... so far. If this thing reaches Chernobyl levels, the entire world ecology as we know it will be radically changed, probably forever.

 

Actually from natures point of view Chernobyl was not a disaster at all. Recent studies into the flora and fauna in and around Pripyat shows that while all forms of life have high radiation, mutations are much rarer than anticipated. Life around the blast area seems to have been unaffected by radiation, which probably means that we really need to reassess our models on radiation and its affects on living oranisms. Chernobyl was more of a humanitarian disaster.

 

This is by far the worst ecological disaster.

 

On a more uplifting note, the top politicians of Louisiana are asking people to pray for the oil spill to magically go away since nothing they've done has helped so far. Might as well give up and put your trust on the big boss himself, huh :lol:

 

 

edit: I'd say modern fishing is the worst ecological catastrophe in the making. If we keep the current pace up, in a few decades most commercially fished species will have either vanished or diminished close to extinction. This will create a huge imbalance and a void in the ecosystem and will change the ocean as we know it.

 

Oh and then there's the huge garbage rift the size of Texas in the pacific...

Edited June 20, 2010 by heathen

[Gorgon]

Well if the oil spill manages to kill off species which only live in that area, they are gone for good. It would be like the meteor which wiped out the dinosaurs, hermit crab style. Fishing diminishes populations, it doesn't eliminate them as far as I know.

[Calax]

but it can lower them to a point where they don't have enough genetic diversity to survive.

[heathen]

Well if the oil spill manages to kill off species which only live in that area, they are gone for good. It would be like the meteor which wiped out the dinosaurs, hermit crab style. Fishing diminishes populations, it doesn't eliminate them as far as I know.

 

What Calax said. Add to that that this is a global phenomenom, not a local one.

[mkreku]

http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastro...010/06/22/damn/

[Gorth]

http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastro...010/06/22/damn/

Damn indeed

 

Maybe they should just build a huge sand barrier going all the way from Florida down to Venezuala... otherwise they are going to be pumping oil up from New York harbour soon

[Oblarg]

Well if the oil spill manages to kill off species which only live in that area, they are gone for good. It would be like the meteor which wiped out the dinosaurs, hermit crab style. Fishing diminishes populations, it doesn't eliminate them as far as I know.

 

Haha. Let's see if you still think that when the bluefin tuna is extinct in a decade or two.

[Gorth]

I know, should probably have been posted in the funny stuff thread.

 

How does the old saying go? Don't cry over spilt oil.

 

Seems like it isn't really front page stuff anymore, yet they haven't really plugged the leak for good yet, have they?

 

[Raithe]

I suppose that's somewhat better then the football fans that were chanting "You can't go swimming any more! You can't go swimming any more!" at the American soccer team during the world cup...

[Gfted1]

Seems like it isn't really front page stuff anymore, yet they haven't really plugged the leak for good yet, have they?

 

 

Getting closer.

[Gfted1]

Update.

 

BP: No oil leaking into Gulf from busted well

 

Jul 15, 3:50 PM (ET)

 

NEW ORLEANS (AP) - BP says oil from its broken well has stopped gushing into the Gulf of Mexico for the first time since April.

 

The announcement Thursday came after company officials said all valves had been shut on a new cap over the busted well in an experiment to stop the spill.

 

Kent Wells, a BP PLC (BP) vice president, said at a news briefing that oil stopped flowing into the water at 2:25 p.m. CDT.

 

It was a long-awaited milestone in one of the nation's worst environmental disasters. While not a permanent solution to plug the busted well, the success in capturing the oil spewing out was welcome news.

 

The crisis began when BP's deepwater rig exploded, killing 11 workers.

 

The cap is not a permanent fix. BP is drilling two relief wells so it can pump mud and cement into the leaking well in hopes of plugging it for good.

[Enoch]

Yeah, the risk at this point is that the tremendous pressure in the borehole will push up through other cracks and leak elsewhere on the seafloor.

[Calax]

The relief wells SHOULD solve the problem more permanently, pulling pressure from beneath the current one. Requires a PILE of serious drilling to get there (My dad's a Geologist involved in other environmental cleanups atm)