You might laugh now....wait 'til you are used to seeing them at Ivar's ;)
I have been reading a lot lately about how the oil spill in the Gulf is progressing. Here's an excerpt from the arguably fish hugging, earth loving folks at "EarthJustice.org". Regardless of the "politics" involved, they bring to light some good points...have a look and see if you learn anything new. (the full article can be found here UnEARTHED)
"...We already know what untreated oil does to us and the environment. It is a thick, suffocating mass that kills and maims mostly in upper water columns and as it comes ashore, is visually horrifying and creates economic havoc in the tourism and fishing industries. Dispersants are supposed to neutralize some of that harm, but what we are seeing with this Gulf spill is unlike anything we've seen before.
Even without dispersants, the oil likely would be found throughout the water column because it is flowing from a mile deep at hundreds of miles per hour. But, dispersants have been injected directly into that oil as it escapes and have been spread by boat and plane across hundreds of square miles of surface. BP tried to convince us that most of that oil disappeared, but scientists have found clouds of oil particles and droplets miles wide and long, hovering at various depths from the sea floor where many creatures dwell to surface waters where most fish and other animals feed and spawn.
One plume is 15 miles wide, 3 miles long and about 600 feet thick. Scientist Samantha Joye of the University of Georgia, who led an expedition tracking the oil plumes, says: "The primary producers—the base of the food web in the ocean—is going to be altered. There's no doubt about that. We have no idea what dispersants are going to do to microorganisms. We know they are toxic to many larvae." Of special concern is the larvae of the endangered western bluefin tuna, which spawns exclusively in these Gulf waters. Of no less concern is the harm we all have seen to oiled birds, turtles, dolphin, and fish.
And then there are the long-range potential impacts on human health. Dispersants don't eliminate oil, they make it less visually obvious by breaking it into small pieces spread over a vast area and throughout the depths. This makes the oil/dispersant droplets available to all the life forms that may ingest it and in turn are ingested. Anything in the oil or attached to it are thus entering the food chain. We know about oil's toxic components - human carcinogens like napthalenes, benzene, toluene and xylenes—but we don't know about the dispersants that are partnering with it.
Nalco, the manufacturer of Corexit, put out a release trying to allay concerns about the ingredients in its dispersants, but its statement raises more concerns than it answers. First, it asserts that all of the ingredients "have been determined safe and effective by the EPA." While the Food and Drug Administration makes such determinations for drugs, the Toxics Substances Control Act is so weak that it does not require that EPA make such safety findings before chemicals are allowed on the market. That is why a diverse health, environmental, and labor coalition (including Earthjustice) are calling for an overhaul of that law.
Second, Nalco tries to prove that the dispersant's ingredients are safe by pointing to their presence in cosmetics, lotions and stain blockers. That offers little comfort. Cosmetics and lotions often contain phthalates, which have been associated with reproductive impacts and endocrine disruption. And some stain blockers contain ingredients classified as cancer-causing or neurotoxins...."
(Now, then...doesn't that sound lovely? I think it's time to run away and hide in a cave. )
So...water columns full of huge clouds of tiny droplets of chemical infused oil...scary thought if you eat seafood at all.
Scary, too, for the future of the seas. Just plain scary.
At the moment, it's effecting the Gulf, but eventually, these happy little clouds of fun will disperse around the world's seas. As they hit the currents that move around the globe, they will infect much of the worlds oceans.
How will it change things?
Who knows? But you can be sure that it will change...it has already.
We already pollute the hell out of the seas and oceans and lakes and rivers and ponds.
...but this time...this time, we see it happening in living color.
And we know.
We know that things are changing, and we should know that there's little to be done about it really.
It's sad and it's angering. And it makes me feel so damn incapable. You can blame BP all you want. They have their share of responsibility here. But so do you. So do I. So, stop blaming and start trying to figure out what we are going to do to help all these people and animals adjust to a life that will never again be as they've known it. And how we'll help ourselves in the process.
Just sayin'
Magic and Goofy
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