Calif. declares emergency over oil spill

Dozens of birds killed or hurt; herring, salmon, smelt also threatened

SAN FRANCISCO - Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Friday declared a state of emergency in the San Francisco Bay area, where hundreds of workers have been trying to contain a 58,000-gallon oil spill that has coated beaches and birds for miles along scenic coastline.

Source: www.msnbc.msn.com...



Forget... what if religion never existed.... what if oil never existed?

Poor California. First the fires, then the writer's strike threatening to put a huge dent into the economy, and now this.

Originally posted by ModernDystopia
Poor California. First the fires, then the writer's strike threatening to put a huge dent into the economy, and now this.

Now that you put it that way

Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm..................................

I want to say upfront that any accident leading to contamination of the environment is upsetting to hear about.

Now, to the facts of the matter...the average backyard swimming pool is 20,000 gallons. This is two swimming pools in a HUGE amount of water.

Please note the ONE picture showing contamination is taken straight down, limited view, of a small, very small area of water surface.

MEDIA RUN RIOT!

Sorry, I don't think 58,000 gallons of oil can make an environmental catastrophe. A slight clean-up with some one needing to pay up, yes. Arnie's end of the bay proclamation...don't think so.

[edit on 11-9-2007 by Valhall]

reply to post by Valhall


Dont ask for my sources but I seem to recall reading somewhere that one gallon of oil contaminates a million gallons of water.

Edit to add I was just thinking tonight how odd that this seems to coincide with NBC and their 'green' week of programing and news stories.




[edit on 9-11-2007 by 11Bravo]

Oil is thicker than water and therefore incomparable!

Vote Ron Paul!

It actually tends to form an emulsion contained to the surface (this is created from the incompatibility of the oil and the seawater), and only a small amount of it can densify and start sinking. So the clean up should basically be centered on scooping up the blobby goo on the surface.

I don't want my comments to come off as if this isn't bad news...it is. Any time some one contaminates the ocean with oil, it's bad. But this is NOT an environmental catastrophe...by any means.

Originally posted by ModernAcademia
Oil is thicker than water and therefore incomparable!

Vote Ron Paul!

Oil is lighter than water as well...therefore floatable.

2 swimming pools in the entire ocean may not seem like much, but as oil floats, and therefore spreads on the waters surface it will cause more damage rather then be contained in a 2-community-swimming-pool sized area.

it doesnt take that much oil to destroy a beach, it also depends how close to the sure it is, tides and so on.
58000 gallons of oil along the beach isnt a nice thing.

it may not be the biggest disaster in the world of this kind, but, in my honest opinion, a single gallon of oil in the ocean is a bad thing. (more of a symbolisation of man's disregard for Earth than because of the damage it causes, but still)

I agree. There's over 700,000,000 gallons of oil that contaminates the oceans each year...that should concern us a lot.

I went ahead and figured the surface area on this (assuming 1" thickness on the film). It comes out just over 93,000 sq. ft. that's about 1-2/3 football fields.

[edit on 11-10-2007 by Valhall]