Mighty oil-eating microbes help clean up the Gulf

[Cancel 2018. 3]

That's cool. Your kid sounds like a brain!


Me too! I wish I had more biology and ecology background. Its way cool, and I'd be totally unstoppable with some ecology expertise. I'm always getting smoked by the ecologists I work with. Its hilarious!

maui wowie or columbia gold

you're alright cypress

 

[Mott the Hoople]

I don't know man, but this is an awesome article, linked below.

Part of the problem is that when people can no longer see the oil, everyone just stops worrying about it. Out of sight, out of mind. It's pretty much uncharted waters as to what the long term ecological consequences are, I don't think there's been much long term assessment and monitoring of major oil spills; aka, prince william sound. There's not been nearly enough data or long term assessment to know what the f went down. Which leads to people making a lot of assumptions, proclamations, and guesses, about what actually happens to the biosphere.


And as you can see with this article, just like the tobacco companies, and the climate denier corporations, these corporate dudes are going to fund their own groups of hired-gun scientists to try to put their spin on things. It corrupts the scientific process. The tobacco company scientists, and the climate deniers think tank "scientists" have, and are going to end up in the Science Hall of Shame. But posterity doesn't change the fact that corporate hired guns corrupt the scientific process. Presumably, the steps outlined in this article to have publically funded science step up to the plate will preserve the scientific integrity of the process. But, BP has a lot of money to finance some hired-gun scientists. Much like tobacco and oil companies funded the sh*t out of cancer-denying and climate-denier think tanks.

I'm not optimistic. How long was the correlation between smoking and heart disease, emphysema and lung cancer known before the government would admit to the correlation? 40 years? 50 years? By the time they did it was a national joke as in "Thank you Captain Obvious".

I suspect that this is what will happen here. My hunch is that there's a lot of talk but those who's property has been damaged, business impacted and health affected will be forgotten about now that the well is capped.

 

[Cypress]

I'm not optimistic. How long was the correlation between smoking and heart disease, emphysema and lung cancer known before the government would admit to the correlation? 40 years? 50 years? By the time they did it was a national joke as in "Thank you Captain Obvious".

I suspect that this is what will happen here. My hunch is that there's a lot of talk but those who's property has been damaged, business impacted and health affected will be forgotten about now that the well is capped.

true dat. The climate denier corporate-funded bandwagon has taken the same trajectory as the tobacco company"scientists".

My educated guess is that ecological monitoring and assessment will get a few years sustained funding, and then we will either get a Sarah Palin-esqe repubican congress or GOP president who has a penchant for de-funding public science, and the research will get slashed. ..... With the money probably being diverted to tax cuts for the wealthy, or another invasion of a country that doesn't threaten us. j/k

 

[Damocles]

Those regulations are there for a good reason, I am sure

Not necessarily. Imagine how much less of the microbes we might have with a bit less of the oil to feed them... Maybe enough to make it so oxygen might not be so much of an issue. Logic and reason shouldn't be left behind to ensure a heavy-handed regulation is followed even when it makes no sense to do so.

 

[Phantasmal]

Not necessarily. Imagine how much less of the microbes we might have with a bit less of the oil to feed them... Maybe enough to make it so oxygen might not be so much of an issue. Logic and reason shouldn't be left behind to ensure a heavy-handed regulation is followed even when it makes no sense to do so.

You are right and I was kidding Sm about the 15 ppm regulation, some regulations make no sense at all.

 

[DamnYankee]

Those regulations are there for a good reason, I am sure

Yes, to create a crisis that the government can solve by eliminating offshore drilling.

 

[DamnYankee]

They can by depleting oxygen. These are aerobic bacteria and in order to metabolise these large quantities of hydrocarbons they need lots of oxygen which could deplete the waters of oxygen leaving dead zones. That though is not a long term conserquence. Eventually the high numbers of bacteria would dissipate and oxygen levels would return to normal. What's of more concern to me is that these large numbers of bacteria are now contaminated with high levels of very toxic and carcinogenic compounds that will enter the food chain in massive numbers and will accumulate and concentrate higher up in the food chain. This could have profound consequences within this ecosystem and for organizms that depend on this ecosystem for food.....like humans.

One more reason why Your Obama should have waived the stupid EPA rule requiring 15ppm discharge.