This week's environmental news has been all about the oil spill in the Gulf. An offshore oil rig exploded and sank on… well, on Earth Day, actually. Never let it be said that the universe can't be really trite sometimes. The fire was put out fairly quickly, but not before the plume of smoke was visible from satellite imagery.
And then came the oil slick. Vast and horrible, the slick has been produced from days of the oil rig being un-capped, spewing its oil into the ocean. (And the Gulf is already in pretty bad shape - one of the world's most significant dead zones exists where the Mississippi dumps its fertilizer runoff into the Gulf.)
And this was just an "exploration" rig, not a production rig! BP has asked us to count our lucky stars it wasn't a production rig, or the oil spill would have been ridiculously worse. Hard to believe, but true: all this mess is from a little test rig, poking around out there to see what it can find. Apparently.
So now we have this giant slick floating around, and no useful way to contain it. Boats puttered around its edges trying to lay out pontoon lines to keep it contained. This hasn't been particularly useful, because the slick is so vast.
Next someone floated the idea of burning the slick. Oh great! But sadly, it's a valid option. The slick is floating directly towards two incredibly valuable wildlife refuges. And causing a huge disruption in shipping traffic and the commercial fisheries that work the Gulf for a living. And destroying wildlife in the Gulf, from hapless birds that land in it, to important sea life that requires surface area to live (like the plankton that form the basis of the ocean's food chain).
Meanwhile, the well just keeps pumping. BP has sent submersibles down to turn the crank to stop the flow, but it didn't work. There are various plans to cap the well, which will take between three to five weeks to implement. So I guess we just have to hunker down and get used to the new, oil-enhanced Gulf of Mexico.
It seems hard to believe that something like this could happen. It seems like there should have been safeguards to prevent it, or at least action plans ready to handle it. Obama is calling for safeguards and action plans, but sadly it's too little too late in this case.
Many people are comparing the likely economic impact of this oil spill to Hurricane Katrina. In fact it could end up being far worse, depending on how much oil pours out before they can cap it. The Coast Guard has bumped up its estimate to 210,000 gallons a day, which means that in 52 days (give or take) this spill will equal the Exxon Valdez spill's 11 million gallons. Will the well be capped in 52 days? Will we be able to burn that much oil off the surface of the ocean before then? Where will the smoke go? And how bad is this all going to stink? (Hint: it already smells pretty bad.)
And finally, I just want to drop a reminder that all of this was brought to you by our appetite for plastic and fuel.
And then came the oil slick. Vast and horrible, the slick has been produced from days of the oil rig being un-capped, spewing its oil into the ocean. (And the Gulf is already in pretty bad shape - one of the world's most significant dead zones exists where the Mississippi dumps its fertilizer runoff into the Gulf.)
And this was just an "exploration" rig, not a production rig! BP has asked us to count our lucky stars it wasn't a production rig, or the oil spill would have been ridiculously worse. Hard to believe, but true: all this mess is from a little test rig, poking around out there to see what it can find. Apparently.
So now we have this giant slick floating around, and no useful way to contain it. Boats puttered around its edges trying to lay out pontoon lines to keep it contained. This hasn't been particularly useful, because the slick is so vast.
Next someone floated the idea of burning the slick. Oh great! But sadly, it's a valid option. The slick is floating directly towards two incredibly valuable wildlife refuges. And causing a huge disruption in shipping traffic and the commercial fisheries that work the Gulf for a living. And destroying wildlife in the Gulf, from hapless birds that land in it, to important sea life that requires surface area to live (like the plankton that form the basis of the ocean's food chain).
Meanwhile, the well just keeps pumping. BP has sent submersibles down to turn the crank to stop the flow, but it didn't work. There are various plans to cap the well, which will take between three to five weeks to implement. So I guess we just have to hunker down and get used to the new, oil-enhanced Gulf of Mexico.
It seems hard to believe that something like this could happen. It seems like there should have been safeguards to prevent it, or at least action plans ready to handle it. Obama is calling for safeguards and action plans, but sadly it's too little too late in this case.
Many people are comparing the likely economic impact of this oil spill to Hurricane Katrina. In fact it could end up being far worse, depending on how much oil pours out before they can cap it. The Coast Guard has bumped up its estimate to 210,000 gallons a day, which means that in 52 days (give or take) this spill will equal the Exxon Valdez spill's 11 million gallons. Will the well be capped in 52 days? Will we be able to burn that much oil off the surface of the ocean before then? Where will the smoke go? And how bad is this all going to stink? (Hint: it already smells pretty bad.)
And finally, I just want to drop a reminder that all of this was brought to you by our appetite for plastic and fuel.
Creative Commons-licensed image courtesy of Flickr user U.S. Coast Guard.