Quote:
Originally Posted by kaisersozei
Before I post this, let me start by saying that I lived in New Orleans for years, fished the Gulf, vacationed regularly in the Pensacola/Mobile area--still have friends there, and I honestly feel for what they are facing.
Having said that...
The Gulf is a big body of water. Really big. As big and as bad as this spill is, how much of the Gulf will it really impact? Based on this link, it looks like under 10% is being directly touched by the oil. Impact on coastal waters is going to be greater, maybe 25% of the US Gulf Coast? But this is just showing how far the oil spill stretches--the oil is still mixed with water, and there's a lot more water out there than oil. Not even sure how to calculate the dilution factor. The graphic and news media would lead you to believe that the whole coast line is getting painted with oil, and it extends from surface to floor like some big, black blob.
Again, I'm not insensitive to the plight of those who live and work in the affected areas. I'm just wondering how much of the doom-and-gloom/end of the world rhetoric is justified, and how much of it is because... well, bad news sells. Just trying to get a perspective.
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You have some very good points especially about the media blowing this out of proportion to what is going to happen to the coastline east of Louisiana. Frankly, by the time that any of the oil actually hits the beaches of Alabama and Florida, it will have "weathered" and that means that instead of the waves of oil like that washing into the Louisiana wetlands and beaches, they will see tar balls and small blobs of it on the beaches. Oh, and weathered means the more volatile elements of the crude has evaporated/dissipated so it's not as dangerous or harmful.
What's actually happening in Louisiana is tragic because short of the accident never happening there was little that could be done to prevent the damage. They could have had all the boom in the world and every skimmer in the country down here and oil would still have reached into the sensitive wetlands. Not being a defeatist, just a realist from having spent a lot of time working on oil spill cleanup when I was in the Coast Guard.