Mental health, public health, global health. New and interesting developments in technology and the arts. Meditation research. And occasionally cute animals.
Catching Elephant is a theme by Andy Taylor
Price Tags Needed for Gulf of Mexico’s Ecology
Of all the inadequacies revealed by the Deepwater Horizon catastrophe, maybe none is as fundamental as the failure of companies, markets and government to put a price tag on natural assets.
From deep-sea fishing grounds to shallow-water nurseries to hurricane-blunting wetlands, multiple Gulf ecosystems have demonstrable utilitarian and economic value. Yet except for one think tank, nobody has tried to calculate that value.
Why the Gulf Oil Spill Isn't Going Away
In early August, a high-level U.S. government official asserted that more than three-quarters of the oil from the Gulf spill was “gone”—based on preliminary National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) estimates. Since then a fiery backlash has erupted from independent scientists who have been tracking and studying the spill.
“The oil budget NOAA came out with was just a joke, a fairy tale scenario,” said Samantha Joye, a marine biogeochemist from the University of Georgia and one of the first researchers to detect and measure the deep plumes of oil. “I understand why people want it to disappear, but who in their right mind would believe that? It makes absolutely no sense.”
Scientists Find Thick Layer Of Oil On Seafloor
Scientists on a research vessel in the Gulf of Mexico are finding a substantial layer of oily sediment stretching for dozens of miles in all directions. Their discovery suggests that a lot of oil from the Deepwater Horizon didn’t simply evaporate or dissipate into the water — it has settled to the seafloor.
Oil spill's human health impacts might extend into the future
Scientists are still assessing the ecological damage wrought by the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico earlier this year. Other researchers, however, are looking at subtler signs of the disaster’s potential impacts on human health.
Failing f***ing booming school.
The BP Cover-Up
BP and the government say the spill is fast disappearing—but dramatic new science reveals that its worst effects may be yet to come.
Unf--k the gulf
Cleaning up the gulf…one dirty word at a time.
You are not authorized to see these pictures
via abcsoupdot and many others:
Pictures from the gulf coast oil spill. Sickening.
All photographs and text are copyright of their respective owners. They are being reproduced under the Fair Use exception to copyright law, 17 U.S.C. § 107, as it is for educational purposes and is intended as political commentary on important social events of the day.
In addition, use of such images is also protected under the First Amendment to the United States Constitution. Specifically, reproduction is protected under the “Mai Lai/Zapruder line of cases”, since:
(1) The images are of historical significance;
(2) They show facts which cannot be conveyed effectively in any other manner, and
(3) Therefore the Constitution trumps copyright law.
I look at these pictures and I understand why people resort to eco-terrorism.
Via my buddy Thain — BP, completely clueless, fails at f***ing booming school.
Warning: Lots of profanity.
![abcsoupdot:
Photograph by Chris Combs
From National Geographic:
On July 1 machete-wielding coastal geologist Katie Brutsché cut pits (such as the one pictured at lower right) into layers of Pensacola Beach sand to reveal oil invisible—and largely inaccessible—to cleanup crews, whose focus is on the surface oil, such as those seen at lower left.
This “weathered” oil—mainly tarballs and tar mats—began washing ashore around June 23 in Pensacola. (See pictures of Gulf oil atop Pensacola Beach.)
Waves buried much of the oil under new layers of sand, particularly this week, when Hurricane Alex spawned rough seas around the Gulf. (See “Hurricane Alex Pushes ‘Worst Oil’ Ashore; Cleanup Slowed.”)
[…]
During a series of digs, oil patties and tarballs were found just beneath beaches dirtied by the Gulf of Mexico oil spill. The discoveries suggest that toxic oil lies hidden under even “clean” patches of beaches along the U.S. Gulf Coast—and that oil-spill cleanup crews are only scratching the surface.
Because the buried oil is both harder to clean and slower to break down, it could be a long-lasting threat to beachgoers, both animal and human, experts say.
Nice: my university gets a shout-out.
Boo: FCKING OIL.](http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2010/07/photogalleries/100705-gulf-oil-spill-beaches-florida-nation-pictures/#oil-under-pensacola-beach-digging_22935_600x450.jpg)
Photograph by Chris Combs
From National Geographic:
On July 1 machete-wielding coastal geologist Katie Brutsché cut pits (such as the one pictured at lower right) into layers of Pensacola Beach sand to reveal oil invisible—and largely inaccessible—to cleanup crews, whose focus is on the surface oil, such as those seen at lower left.
This “weathered” oil—mainly tarballs and tar mats—began washing ashore around June 23 in Pensacola. (See pictures of Gulf oil atop Pensacola Beach.)
Waves buried much of the oil under new layers of sand, particularly this week, when Hurricane Alex spawned rough seas around the Gulf. (See “Hurricane Alex Pushes ‘Worst Oil’ Ashore; Cleanup Slowed.”)
[…]
During a series of digs, oil patties and tarballs were found just beneath beaches dirtied by the Gulf of Mexico oil spill. The discoveries suggest that toxic oil lies hidden under even “clean” patches of beaches along the U.S. Gulf Coast—and that oil-spill cleanup crews are only scratching the surface.
Because the buried oil is both harder to clean and slower to break down, it could be a long-lasting threat to beachgoers, both animal and human, experts say.
Nice: my university gets a shout-out.
Boo: FCKING OIL.
Oil Spill Threatens Native American Water Village
The town of Grand Bayou, Louisiana, has no streets and no cars, just water and boats. And now the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico threatens the very existence of the Atakapa-Ishak Indians who live there. “We’re facing the potential for cultural genocide,” says one tribe member.
Oil-Coated Gulf Birds Better Off Dead?
Some experts—citing traditionally low survival rates for rescued birds—are controversially arguing it would be better to immediately and humanely kill the suffering birds. In a Spiegel Online article last month, German biologist Silvia Gaus argued that workers helping birds caught in the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, should “kill, not clean.” Gaus said studies show that more than 99 percent of rehabilitated birds will die anyway as a result of oil exposure, mainly due to kidney and liver damage caused by oil ingestion.
Portrait of a BP Executive.
Scientists say the Gulf oil spill could get into the what’s called the Loop Current within a day, eventually carrying oil south along the Florida coast and into the Florida Keys. Nick Shay, a physical oceanographer at the University of Miami Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science, said Monday once the oil enters the Loop Current, it likely will end up in the Keys and continue east into the Gulf Stream. Shay says the oil could affect Florida’s beaches, coral reefs, fisheries and ecosystem within a week. He described the Loop Current as similar to a “conveyor belt,” sweeping around the Gulf, through the Keys and right up the East Coast. Shay says he cannot think of any scenario where the oil doesn’t eventually reach the Florida Keys.
Oil Spill To Hit Florida Keys: Will Hit Loop Current Within 24 Hours
It figures that just when the semester ends and I finally start getting some time to go to the beach, they get covered in oil.
(via apsies)
(via abcsoupdot)
