In the on-going slow-motion environmental disaster there’s good news and bad news. First, the bad news:
Scientists are finding enormous oil plumes in the deep waters of the Gulf of Mexico, including one as large as 10 miles long, 3 miles wide and 300 feet thick in spots. The discovery is fresh evidence that the leak from the broken undersea well could be substantially worse than estimates that the government and BP have given.
“There’s a shocking amount of oil in the deep water, relative to what you see in the surface water,” said Samantha Joye, a researcher at the University of Georgia who is involved in one of the first scientific missions to gather details about what is happening in the gulf. “There’s a tremendous amount of oil in multiple layers, three or four or five layers deep in the water column.”
The plumes are depleting the oxygen dissolved in the gulf, worrying scientists, who fear that the oxygen level could eventually fall so low as to kill off much of the sea life near the plumes.
Right now we’re performing a huge, uncontrolled experiment in the Gulf of Mexico. We’re pouring enormous amounts of oil, chemical dispersants and dispersed oil into the ocean. We really have no idea what effect this is going to have but it can’t be good. We’re used to pictures of oil-covered birds and shoreline. This time we have oil-covered shrimp, krill and plankton.
In a significant step toward containing a massive Gulf of Mexico oil leak, BP said a mile-long (1.6 kilometer-long) tube was funneling crude Sunday from a blown well to a tanker ship after three days of wrestling to get the stopgap measure into place on the seafloor.
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Kent Wells, BP’s senior vice president for exploration and production, said during a news conference that the amount being drawn was gradually increasing, and it would take several days to measure it. Company spokesman Mark Proegler at the joint spill command center in Louisiana had initially said the tube was containing most of the oil coming from the pipe, which is contributing an estimated 85% of the crude in the spill.
I hope this works. The first step is to stop the leak, then we can assess the damage.
For an extra special bonus, “energy expert” Sarah Palin speaks:
And here’s part of a Palin speech on the topic:
“After inheriting a good pro-development GOP plan that opened up both coasts for drilling, the Obama administration halted development … and now we’re gonna study, more study of the South Atlantic and parts of the Gulf of Mexico … my goodness, folks, these areas have been studied to death … I have seen so many, many studies! I say, let’s send the White House this message: that, you know, we can save taxpayer time, save money and announce: there is oil and gas down there, and we can produce it safely and responsibly! We don’t need more studies, we need more action! Because energy produced in America is security for America, and it is jobs for American workers, jobs that can’t be outsourced. Let’s drill baby, drill, not stall, baby, stall!”
Yep, you read that right. We don’t need to study anymore, just drill! Obviously, we know all about how to stop oil spills in deep water since we were able to stop the leak right away…oh wait… Well, we do know the effects of oil on marine life…uh, move along…