Where is all the Oil?

Where is all the oil?

That is the question of the day. Now that the Deepwater Horizon/BP oil well spewing thousands of barrels of oil a day into the Gulf of Mexico has finally been capped, the visible signs of the oil spill are starting to recede. The friends of oil companies have started to crow "we told you all along" - the oil will dissolve, disappear, disperse, whatever, and we don't need to worry any more. No need to change our habits, no need for more regulations on the oil industry, and no need for a drilling moratorium.

So where did all the oil go?

According to Dan Froomkin's report, the oil indeed may have been dispersed, by the millions of gallons of toxic dispersant Corexit BP poured into the ocean to try to make it appear as if the oil spill wasn't doing any damage to the ecosystem. Of course, dispersant doesn't make the oil go away, it just breaks it down into smaller droplets, so that it can't be seen by humans. It can be seen by small animals, however, like shrimp larvae and small fish, who may mistake the small droplets of mixed dispersant and oil for food and eat it.And into the food chain it goes.

So where is the oil, we ask?

It is under the shells of blue crab larvae, as the scientists in Froomkin's report are finding. It is in the tiny stomachs of shrimp larvae and young fish. It is floating in millions or billions of droplets, mixed with toxic dispersant, under the surface of the Gulf where it can wreak its damage unseen by humans for a long time to come. And perhaps, it will be coming to a dinner plate near you. Bon Appetit, BP!

Drill Baby Drill: Majority Still Favors Offshore Drilling

FOXNews.com - Fox News Poll: 60 Percent Still Favor Offshore Drilling After Spill

An alarming poll from Fox News reports that a majority of Americans still support offshore drilling, even after the disastrous April 20th oil spill still leaking thousands of barrels of crude oil per day into the Gulf of Mexico.

According to the report:

"Though support for offshore drilling has dipped in the wake of the recent oil spill in the Gulf, a majority of American voters still favor increasing drilling in U.S. coastal waters, according to the latest Fox News poll.

The new poll finds 60 percent of voters favor increasing offshore drilling in U.S. coastal areas, while 33 percent oppose it. Last month, 70 percent favored it and 22 percent were opposed, and previous Fox News polls showed just over 7 voters in 10 favored increasing offshore drilling (71 percent favored it in 2008, and 72 percent in 2009)."

(See the poll results here and the summary statistics here.)

Since the oil slick the size of Delaware hasn't yet hit the Gulf coast, heart-rending images of dying otters and oil-saturated wetlands have not hit the media airwaves. Public outrage has apparently not been stoked by the abstract descriptions of looming disaster in the absence of concrete images. Even the idled fishermen have not provoked sympathy, perhaps because of their apparent business (funded by BP) in cleanup and prevention efforts.

It's a wonder what oil-company funded PR can do to a country.

Side note: Have you noticed one month after the coal mine disaster at the Upper Big Branch mine that "clean coal" commercials are nearly ubiquitous on TV? Just sayin'...

Making Cheap Coal Safe

As should be clear by now, coal is not cheap, despite what the coal industry wants you to think. The coal industry has America convinced that coal is plentiful, cheap, and potentially clean, part of a "greener" and energy-independent America. What they are not telling you is that it is cheap and plentiful, in large part, due to the lack of "expensive" safety measures for coal mines that would keep miners safe. Tragedies like the ones currently unfolding in West Virginia usually happen because mining companies decline to properly ventilate unused portions of the mine, allowing dangerous levels of methane gas to accumulate. Yes, ventilation would be expensive, potentially raising the cost of coal. But, I would argue, that is the REAL cost of coal. Corporations are being allowed to "externalize" their costs onto others, notably the environment (climate change, destructive mining practices) and tragically, miners who lose their lives in preventable accidents.

While it is too soon to say with certainty the cause of yesterday's blast that killed 25 and left 4 missing (as of this writing), but the history of the coal industry does not inspire confidence and many are asking questions. How much longer will coal miners pay with their lives?

More Fox News Idiocy on Global Warmin...

More Fox News Idiocy on Global Warming: Why the Rest of the World Thinks We are Out of Touch

Just happened to be flipping through the channels last night and catch a couple of minutes of Laura Ingraham on Fox News last night - apparently filling in for Bill O'Reilly on the O'Reilly Factor. I couldn't actually believe they were interviewing a scientist on Fox News about climate change! She started to say that global temperatures were rising when she was interrupted by Ingraham, who "corrected" the scientist, saying that in fact global temperatures were declining! The scientist tried to repeat and back up what every reputable scientist in the world knows, that global temperatures are rising, but she was cut off by Ingraham to go to commercial.

Of course, every journalist knows that scientists are wrong! There is no such thing as global warming!

If we just say it loud and often enough, it just might become true!