Personally, here on the West Coast, I don't see the MSM spinning this thing like you say Doc. In fact, if you ask me, there's far too little information being given out about this, and most of the time the rig story is buried behind the bomb that never blew, or some other local horse crap. Plus, the information being released is FAR too conflicting.
If you think this is not going to have some very serious repercussions environmentally, economically, and psychologically for this country you are very seriously deluded. Of course, that also depends on how much oil is really gushing up out of that well head and for how long.
ELE??? No, not necessarily. Drinking a shot glass of sweet crude might not kill you either...but I guarantee, it's certainly going to disturb the balance of things. Anyone on here NOW, spouting this garbage based on "BEING around oil all their life" BLAH BLAH BLAH, BEFORE this is over...Well it's like seeing a hurricane forming off the coast and saying
"I've seen rainstorms before, it's nothing to worry about..."
Your logic and your argument are completely flawed, and way too premature.

Doc...GREAT POST!

I disagree with you to some extent, but still a great first hand account.

I have also experienced what you describe, but that in itself is a crime! It should be unacceptable! The West, and the US in particular has a ton of fairly new health complications that are unexplained. We have been ingesting this stuff either through the air, water, or fish supply for years. It is still toxic and unacceptable.

Now, the current scenario has the added problem of gumming up 100's or 1000's of miles of shoreline, wetlands, nesting grounds, and killing mammals that breath by surfacing through the muck to get air. This will be devastating.

Just last night, some news channels were agreeing with you that it naturally disperses, and that a lot of sealife is capable of processing the crude without dying. For example, Oysters process this stuff, and it is retained in their flesh. It concentrates in about a 10:1 ratio. So, if they ingest a drop of it over and over through time, and then they get harvested in the Apalachicola Bay, and brought to my favorite Oyster Spot, Barnacle Bills, and I eat about 2 dozen of them, then that is 24 Oysters x 1 drop x 10:1 ratio, equals 240 drops of crude oil ingested! Now, if I also happen to eat some fish that week, and breath the ocean air, and swim at the beach, etc., etc. I wonder what my ingestion rate is. Am I consuming a quart a week? A gallon a month?

They will suspend all fishing and Oystering in these bays, and it will crush industries. Plus, there were already water-usage lawsuits in place. Apalachicola Bay for example is in a lawsuit with Atlanta, GA over watershed runoff. If they suspend Oystering in the Bay, Atlanta will use it as ammunition to keep more of the fresh water, and thus change the salinity of the Bay, and having a ton of unintended consequences.

This spill will destroy industry, wildlife, beaches, real estate and economies. Then, opportunists will take advantage of the situation to get their own special projects approved and destroy more of the coastline industries. Then, oil companies and insurance companies will capitalize on the opportunities presented. Then, the government will make a political statement by taking a hard stance and winning political points, all the while financing the very people they are regulating and punishing. EVERYONE INVOLVED GETS RICH EXCEPT THE WILDLIFE, RESIDENTS, AND BLUE COLLAR WORKERS, AND BEACH ENTHUSIASTS! WE GET SCREWED AS USUAL!!

Hi all this is my first reply to a post here on ATS.

Just wanted to let u guys know and i dont know if u allready know this

OIL SPILLING IN NATURE IS NEVER AND I MEAN NEVER A GOOD THING.
IF IT'S 1 LITER OR 1000 LITERS OR A MILLION LITERS!!!!!

And i agree with the OP on the green media #.
But i think its time and i think it has bin time for many years now to stop poluting nature in any way.

TruThS33Kr

I like this thread. Seems oil spills are far more common then we are led to believe. Thanks for the info doc.

Out of interested, who exactly is suggesting this oil spill - which looks like being even worse than the Exxon Valdez disaster - is an extinction level event? Do they really think all humans along with most other life on the planet is all going to die?

It's an ecological disaster for the Gulf coast - as the Valdez was for the Alaskan coast.

There is oil leaking from most oil rigs and most ships in the ocean, but each spill is vastly smaller and it's only when a huge amount is concentrated in one small area that we humans start to appreciate just how little respect we show our planet.

Originally posted by getreadyalready
For example, Oysters process this stuff, and it is retained in their flesh. It concentrates in about a 10:1 ratio. So, if they ingest a drop of it over and over through time, and then they get harvested in the Apalachicola Bay, and brought to my favorite Oyster Spot, Barnacle Bills, and I eat about 2 dozen of them, then that is 24 Oysters x 1 drop x 10:1 ratio, equals 240 drops of crude oil ingested! Now, if I also happen to eat some fish that week, and breath the ocean air, and swim at the beach, etc., etc. I wonder what my ingestion rate is. Am I consuming a quart a week? A gallon a month?

Your math is not making much sense to me. Where are you getting that every oyster you eat has 10 drops of crude oil in it? Because of a 10:1 ratio? If anything, I would assume that ratio is water (10 parts) to oil (one part). So, if there were 10 drops of water in your oyster, there would be one drop of oil. But, as vast as the oceans are, I don't see any way even that ratio would be possible. Where are you getting this "ratio" from? Source?

I tried to find info about this, but the only relevant link I could find was to your post.

Has anyone even been to the site yet?

All I am getting is the feed from the corporate and government propaganda departments.

I think they blew up a rig, poured some oil around, and now will use it to stop America from drilling oil in the Gulf.

A few months later China will take over operations.

Scam.

I agree there are probably more oil spills in the world from ships and rigs and whatever that we are being told off.

But i disagree with the point made by the OP thats its all naturall and will disolve eventualy (it probably will).
Every oil spill is 1 to much.
Its not good for nature at all even if its a natural resource.

And probably the green media is going to exploid this to jack u off ur hard earned dollars or euro's.

But the thing is this whole oilconsumption world we live in is bin long overdue.

TruThS33Kr

Okay, If I understand it correctly you claim that a little oil is fairly harmless.. Like acid rain. Not desirable but nature overcomes it. So when a little rain becomes a lot of rain, you get floods.. Like in Tennessee, right? So rain can actually become a problem. Do you agree with me there?

Now if we take a 'little' bit of oil leaking on a daily basis that adds up to a lot but still, the crude that is toxic evaporates quickly and the crude that doesn't, but also is less toxic, remains and washes ashore. This nature can deal with, up to a point. Now, I agree that they don't exactly know how much oil there is being leaked but it is a hell of a lot more than little leaks that you show on the example photo.

No, this gusher is 5' wide and the oil is coming out under great deal of pressure. They failed to repair it and there will be hundreds of thousands of gallons gushing out but could be as much as 2 million. It is an astonishing amount of oil as the pics of the slick shows and the bad thing is, it won't be contained until at least three months from now.

There is now an awful lot of oil that nature has to deal with ALL AT ONCE and yeah it will cause death, destruction and economic malaise.



[edit on 4/5/10 by Lebowski achiever]

Well geee wizzz Doc, i'm convinced.

Sign me up for a dozen gulf coast oysters and a few of them "male Blue Crabs exhaling thick brown globs" YUMMM!!!!

On the other hand i'll stick to nice clean AUSTRALIAN sea food if it's all the same to you.

I'd say you've got to be kidding. Not every news story is a hoax - this threat is real and an ecological disaster in the making.

If you don't believe it, I'd suggest that you go down to the Gulf yourself and volunteer to help out on one of the fishing boats that are helping to contain this massive spill.

Originally posted by Doc Velocity

And that's why it's my firm opinion that this "catastrophic" oil leak in the Gulf is a bunch of hogwash. Another environmental hoax being perpetrated in order to advance the Green Agenda

What an odd and cynical argument you put forth. One that is premised on the idea that we're being polluted and poisoned for decades and that somehow this spill isn't that bad in comparison. It is an argument that is essentially based on asking one to concede that the existing and ongoing Gulf pollution is acceptable. In your attempt to minimize the grave consequences of this massive spill, you have in fact made the perfect case for the "green agenda" and for alternative energy.

You're a hippie environmentalist and you didn't even know it.