Scientists: Spill Could Reach Fla. Keys by Sunday

Scientists: Spill Could Reach Fla. Keys by Sunday

www.newsmax.com

University scientists are forecasting that oil from the spill off Louisiana could reach Florida's Key West by Sunday.

University of South Florida researchers said Tuesday the southern arm of the massive spill has entered or is near the so-called loop current, which circulates in the Gulf and takes water south to the Florida Keys and the Gulf Stream. The Gulf Stream could eventually take the oil up Florida's Atlantic coast.

Twenty tar balls were found by the Coast Guard off Key West on Monday. They are being tested to see if they came from the Louisiana spill or elsewhere. Tar balls can

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Related AboveTopSecret.com Discussion Threads:
Iran offers help in fighting Gulf of Mexico oil leak
Gulf Oil Spill More Than 10X Greater Than Thought: Experts

This disaster is so tragic, yet we haven't even begun to see the consequences from it. Starting next week, it looks like it is going to start reaching the beaches in mass.

I think that once oil starts floating into harbors, on beaches and into people's view, we might start taking this thing seriously, though I'm not holding my breath.

How is the government and the oil industry going to play it down then, when people start to actually experience it? I hope, and I could only wish that we start to hold those responsible, accountable. Now is the time that we need to focus on this spill, with all the help that we can get, so that we can get this under control and minimize the damage that is yet to come.

--airspoon


www.newsmax.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

The oil is bad, but the methane problem is more likely worse, as bad as the oil is. check these threads:

Gas Leak in Gulf 3000 Times Worse Than Oil Leak:

www.abovetopsecret.com...

Gulf spill: is the methane a bigger problem than the oil?:

www.abovetopsecret.com...

[edit on 18-5-2010 by apacheman]

Just to let everyone know.

There are about 300,000 jobs dealing with fishing and tourism along the Gulf of Mexico. This is the republican answer for job creation. Stripping all safety nets for profits creating this disaster.

Say goodbye to many of those jobs and to know that BP is capped at $75 million for incidental damages. Who ever came up with that law needs to be drawn and quartered.

reply to post by apacheman


I have actually read about the methane but to me, it seems as if the methane will eventually dissapate into the atmosphere (please correct me if I'm wrong), wherease the oil is going to get into all the precious wetlands that will be next to impossible to clean up.

A while back, I had posted a thread on Iran offering to help and I think it should not even be a question anymore. We can certainly use all the help we can get.
www.abovetopsecret.com...

--airspoon

reply to post by airspoon


There's hugely more methane dissolving into the water than oil floating in it or on it. The methane displaces oxygen, creating dead zones in the sea. Worse, it reduces hydrostatic pressure, lowering the hydrate stability zone, allowing more methane hydrate to dissolve.

A worst-case scenario involves a massive methane hydrate sublimation event that would be locally catastrophic.

For the science and details see the threads I've mentioned, especially the latter one.

Drill baby drill, right? RIGHT???

reply to post by SeekingAlpha


Just so you know, the Democratically controlled administration is the one that FAILED to properly oversee BP. TOTAL and complete failure because Zero was in the hip pocket of BP.

reply to post by expat2368


Mhhh, yeah...blame the democrats

As we know from our own comment threads right here on this very blog, right-wingers are expert at taking a few facts from situations that appear to be superficially similar but really aren't upon reflection or closer examination and using them to attack liberals. And so, in the last few days, the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico has become Obama's Katrina. Um...look, I'm as pro-pelican as the next guy, and obviously I don't mean to gainsay the scope of this environmental catastrophe, which will end up being staggering. But Katrina killed about 1,500 humans. And no, it's not George Bush's personal fault that they died, either. But I still rate Katrina a far bigger tragedy for that reason. And now it turns out, according to an environmental lawyer whose interview on Ed Schultz last week is getting a lot of circulation, that this leak may well be traceable in part to...Dick Cheney. How? It's hardly as far-fetched as it sounds.

From the Wall Street Journal:

The oil well spewing crude into the Gulf of Mexico didn't have a remote-control shut-off switch used in two other major oil-producing nations as last-resort protection against underwater spills.

The lack of the device, called an acoustic switch, could amplify concerns over the environmental impact of offshore drilling after the explosion and sinking of the Deepwater Horizon rig last week...

... regulators in two major oil-producing countries, Norway and Brazil, in effect require them. Norway has had acoustic triggers on almost every offshore rig since 1993.

The U.S. considered requiring a remote-controlled shut-off mechanism several years ago, but drilling companies questioned its cost and effectiveness, according to the agency overseeing offshore drilling. The agency, the Interior Department's Minerals Management Service, says it decided the remote device wasn't needed because rigs had other back-up plans to cut off a well.

The U.K., where BP is headquartered, doesn't require the use of acoustic triggers. The Journal's report doesn't come out and say this, but the environmental lawyer, Mike Papantonio, said on the Schultz show in an interview you can watch here that it was Cheney's energy task force - the secretive one that he wouldn't say much about publicly - that decided that the switches, which cost $500,000, were too much a burden on the industry.

Source

Really, both the DP and RP are basically the same thing. They all pretend to be against each other or do things differently but they really don't. They keep us distracted by trying to pretend that they are fighting over relatively unimportant cosmetic issues, while ultimately having the same goal of helping corporate and special interests at the expense of the American people. Best term I have found is, "Republocrats". So, with that being said, it is both the Republican and Democrats fault.

Although the whole "drill baby, drill" was chanted by Republican voters and not wanted Democrat voters, our elected leaders wanted whatever the corporations told them to want, regardless of what they told you. Obama of course was against this very drilling issue or at least that was his supposed platform, yet like everything else he promised on the stump, it turned out to be a huge lie. Trust me, there are far more devastating consequences that we will face due to the lies of our government and elected officials. This relatively *little incident will look like a walk in the park to what will eventually happen to our great republic due to the hijacking by TPTB.

Just my 2 cents.

--airspoon

reply to post by apacheman


Hey Apacheman you are certainly thorough with your links related to this subject. I found the links to the methane particularly enlightening.
I would suggest all those interested for educational,scientific,and journalistic
information to follow the rabbit. This is a deep hole.

Even though all the arrows point towards a multitude of conspiracies,
I always leave room for Occams razor. In this case greedy screw up or
negligence.

Lets hope for the planets sake, that this will be fixed soon...
Resulting in stopgaps that will prevent this from ever happening again.
I.E. The toy box of good things will finally be opened.

It was one thing when it was "only" the central Gulf states at risk, but once it threatens the beaches and tourist haunts of Florida and the East coast, I suspect the reaction is going to be several fold greater.

Not that it will do any good. This thing makes me think of a balloon that has been popped. There's no way to stop it from deflating.

It is looking like there is no way of stopping this oil and methane from escaping either until its all out.

reply to post by apacheman


Thank you for those links. I have read through them and they are very compelling. What a disaster!



reply to post by wayno


I agree, people will care way much more, only when it affects there own lives. Though by then, it will be that much worse and that much harder to contain. We have really bit off way more than we can chew.

I grew up in New Orleans (though I live far away now) and so used to fish out of Venice, LA all of the time, out of the same areas currently affected. In fact, I was just fishing in Barataria Bay a couple of years ago. It saddens me that I won't be able to take my children fishing there. I guess we sacrifice a lot for TPTB.

--airspoon