Gulf Oil Spill: What Obama Is Overlooking - Dan Froomkin/HuffPo

[WillyT]

Gulf Oil Spill: What Obama Is Overlooking
Dan Froomkin
First Posted: 06-15-10 06:40 PM | Updated: 06-15-10 07:40 PM

<snip>

When it comes to mitigating the effects of the oil spill, President Obama, like his administration's federal response, has focused on the country's coastlines.

Meanwhile, government agencies have repeatedly underestimated the amount of oil spewing into the Gulf of Mexico. (The newest estimate, released Tuesday afternoon, is 35,000 to 60,000 barrels a day, some seven to 12 times the original estimate, and even so, "the upper number is less certain," according to Energy Secretary Steven Chu.)

The administration only recently -- grudgingly -- acknowledged that much of the oil continues to lurk under the surface, potentially with catastrophic consequences in the months, years and decades to come.

As a result, some marine scientists worry that Obama is basing his conclusions on what's visible, and doesn't really get, even now, just how bad things really are in the Gulf.

Heightening that concern is Obama's new conviction, first expressed Monday afternoon after touring a staging facility in Alabama, that "in the end, I am confident that we're going to be able to leave the Gulf Coast in better shape than it was before."

That is a "ridiculous statement, and worrying," said Susan Shaw, the director of the Marine Environmental Research Institute. "Obviously he has no idea of the consequences, or doesn't want to."

Partly because of the extraordinary sluggishness of the government's response to the sub-surface oil hazard -- a vigorous research initiative only really kicked off last week, some seven weeks into the ongoing disaster -- scientists are a very long way from being able to quantify the damage in the deep ocean.

But they know this much, as Jackie Savitz, a senior scientist with the ocean conservation group Oceana, put it: "The damage is going to be a lot worse than we can see. The oil that's washing up on shore, that's just the tip of the iceberg."

Unlike any other major spill in the nation's history, this one is coming from a blown-out well nearly a mile beneath the surface. The unprecedented use of more than a million gallons of dispersants has made the oil yet more soluble in water. The result is less oil on the surface, and on the coastlines -- at least for now -- but way more oil hovering in the water column, sometimes at great depths.

Out in the deep ocean, sea turtles and other animals are ingesting the oil thinking it's food, larvae from threatened species such as bluefin tuna are inevitably dying in a toxic soup, and so are the tiny but essential organisms that sit at the bottom of the food chain.

"It's really impossible to fully gauge the magnitude of the impacts," Savitz said. "We just know they're big."

"If all you care about is what gets on the beaches, that's one thing," said Shaw. "But we're now poisoning the ocean itself. The deep ocean is what's at risk."

"We're destroying the food web and we're poisoning what's left," she said. "If we remove the bottom of the food web, then everything else on top is going to crash."

<snip>

More: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/06/15/gulf-oil-spill-what-obama_n_613330.html

:shrug:

[provis99]

1. Trick question: How do you clean oil out of wetlands?

Answer: you can't. Its there forever.

[dgibby]

7. As soon as the grasses die off,

the wetlands will cease to exist. That's the only way to get the oil out of the wetlands. We are sooo screwed!

[G_j]

2. Did BP write the speech?

"in the end, I am confident that we're going to be able to leave the Gulf Coast in better shape than it was before."

[dgibby]

6. Unfuckingbelivably stupid statement from such an intelligent man.

What the hell is he thinking? The mind reels....

[truedelphi]

16. A friend of mine once remarked that one of the hallmarks of O's personality is

That he lacks "imagination." If you have some authority figure, like a BP exec, explain something to Obama then he accepts it verbatim. He doesn't think outside the box too often, and doesn't seem to have anyone who does think outside of the box bringing information to him. This makes me wonder who he really is. No "Community activist" that I know is like that.

And all of us are suffering for that.

The catastrophe in the Gulf of Mexico will be about one tenth as serious as the coming food shortages In just the past three years, Monsanto has successfully continued its monopoly on GM food. Farmers in The Midwest are no longer saving their seed - too much risk that then Monsanto might come after them - even if they have not contracted with that Food Giant.

Already many decent scientists are telling us that the mold/fungi levels in the soil biota is increasing as such rapid rates From RoundUp's glyphosate that even rotating crops from GM to non-Gm every other year won't help.

All the food is being contaminated - S-L-O-W-L-Y.

And Obama keeps appointing Monsanto clones in charge of the industry even as Monsanto is bringing about so much health and harm that no other Catastrophe will match what is in store for us.

[dgibby]

17. Only in America do we pay people to kill us.

My nephew and his wife have moved out of the country.
It is truly frightening what our corporate owned govt is doing to us.

[truedelphi]

18. It really is.

The American agronomist I am getting closest to via emails lives in China and he loves it there.

We talk about leaving here - France being one possibility.

This catastrophe in the Gulf makes it more likely than ever.

It was one thing when circa 2000-Jan 2009, you could look at a problem and say, "But that is just the RW Neo Nazis way of doing things. Wait till our side gets our people in the WH - it will be so very different."

Now that even that hope has been torn apart, I don't see any reason to be here.

[eowyn_of_rohan]

19. Why aren't they saving their seeds?

Why would Monsanto come after them if they did? Sorry I am naive on this subject...

[truedelphi]

20. Okay, first of all, Monsanto is promoting this new genetically engineered

Form of seed. If a farmer wants it, they want it because it means less tillage (ie going around with various equipment and knocking the soil around.) The genetically engineered seed is immune to one of the herbicides on the market, RoundUp, an herbicide that is produced by Monsanto. And so the farmer can spray as much of the RoundUp as he or she wants , and their field will be weed free.

Now the farmer likes the idea of less labbor, i.e. the less tillage, and the less weeding and spraying. It means they don't have to do that extra amount of work, or hire people to do it. Also there is a savings on teh fuel as all farm machinery runs on ethanol or gasoline. So many farmers ahve bought into the notion of using the RoundUp ready seed.

So far so good.

But when the farmer buys the seeds from Monsanto, Monsanto makes them sign an agreement that they will not keep the seed. (usually farmers not only harvest their crops, they keep a certain amount of seed from year to year. Especially if a harvest is good.) After all, Monsanto spent so much time and energy coming up with the RoundUp ready seed, they don't think it fair for a farmer to simply buy it once and then plant it the next year for free. The way this works they want the farmer to be paying them in perrpetuity!

Now some farmers were saving seeds - especially if they don't have an agreement with Monsanto, as they are not a Monsanto customer.

But guess what? In many cases, Monsanto goes out in the fields of those farmers who are not buying their seed and finds that some of that farmer's crop is RoundUp ready. In some cases, the RoundUp ready stuff may have blown in froma another farmer's fields.

Percey Schmeiser is one Canadian farmer who has spent over $ 400,000 in court costs trying to keep Monsanto from taking his farm away from him. He intended to grow a conventional crop of canola, but seed or pollen blew into his fields from trucks carrying the harvested crop from the other farmers' fields.

In many cases, even when farmers fight Monsato in court, they end up losing the farm, if not to Monsanto, but then to lawyers. This situation has also destroyed the trust that farmers used to ahve for each other. As Monsanto will pay some farmers to rat out others, and so on.

[eowyn_of_rohan]

21. Wow...

Thank you so much for taking the time to educate me about this. I live in Wisconsin, and am very concerned about the pesticides used around here... We haven't had honeybees in our area for years - many or most were wiped out here and in Minnesota, due to pesticides, I read. This year, though it has been very hot and humid with a lot of rain - ideal mosquito breeding conditions - I have not seen a single mosquito. Now I never thought I would complain about that, but this is odd.

I will do some more digging on the Monsanto / farmer / seed issue

[truedelphi]

24. No mosquitoes in Wisconsin?

I lived there 74 to 78 and remember one July 4th huddled in the car trying to watch The Fourth Of July fireworks from inside the car as the mosquitoes were so vicious.

It is rather scary that there are no mosquitoes. Have you called your local mosquito abatement committee (They should be in the phone book.) Sometimes that agency is successful at knocking mosquitoes out in a neighborhood or two.

[burrowowl]

23. He either wasn't thinking or he is

a Corp Shill! Either way a man of his intelligence should know better show his true colors and stop acting dumb!

[truedelphi]

25. I rarely support such

"Dumbness" and am usually quite critical of Obama but the more I am finding out about the immensity of this oil spill, the more it appears that maybe Obama cannot say too much on account of "National Security." Eighty percent of the oil that BP finds in the Gulf goes to our military - so if there is a Big Armageddon truth behind this mess, it may be that no President could level with us.

If it is true that the "Spill" is not confined to that one site, but instead is material coming to the "Boiling Point" under the ocean floor, it means that the incident is far greater than one rig's failure to follow procedures safely.

Here is a photo by Petty Officer 3rd Class John Walker, USCG.

http://cgvi.uscg.mil/media/main.php?g2_itemId=907355

Gives a person a lot to think about - if they are in the mood to contemplate the end of civilization.

[nashville_brook]

3. there's no "cleaning up" the coral reefs. they die. that's it.

[aquart]

8. But...

Since many coral reefs were being killed off before the spill, research in reviving and sustaining coral had already substantially begun.

It's no help right now. But in a distant future if any of us survive, there are resilient corals in other places that may be brought here and thrive.

That's the best I can do for hope, but I cling to it.

[nashville_brook]

11. i know -- they are the most *real* jewels this world has (had) to offer.

so, any way there is to bring them back, i'm all for it.

[aquart]

15. Wee bit o' hope.

http://www.ameinfo.com/94802.html

http://www.timeoutdubai.com/aroundtown/features/9508-dubai-coral-moved

http://www.ioseaturtles.org/headline_detail.php?id=1382

Maybe there's something there that will eventually help us.

[tiptoe]

4. K & R!

[anarch]

5. oh, come now. some day the gulf coast will be better than it was...

give it a few thousand years and I bet you'll barely be able to see the damage we did.

[tekisui]

22. Obama is just very far sighted. He sees the big picture.

[City Lights]

9. K&R nt

[Poboy]

K&R!

[Poboy]

10. K&R!

[flyarm]

12. K&R

[Gregin Orlando]

13. I am getting tired of being lied to

That pathetic speech by our so-called leader was a bunch of hog snot. BP and the federal government knew this was WAY worse from day one. Now we are being told to pray for shrimpers and that the beaches will be restored to their original condition. Pluheeze!! That won't happen in our lifetimes. As for the the "new" estimate of oil flow, that is nothing new. Scientists have been saying that for months. Even a writer for, OMG! The Examiner!!! wrote about that a month ago. You can read it here: http://www.examiner.com/x-38220-Orlando-Independent-Exa... . If someone can sit on a PC and give the facts a month before the government, BP and the corporate media does, you have to know we are being lied to and conditioned to slowly accept the true magnitude of this disaster. Furthermore, there are enough toxins in the air from evaporating oil may be enough to kill everything along the Gulf coast. Here's another: http://www.examiner.com/x-38220-Orlando-Independent-Examiner~y2010m6d15-Toxins-in-air-from-evaporating-oil-may-pose-greater-threat-to-Gulf-residents-than-oily-water This disaster is already out of hand!

[amborin]

14. K&R "poisoning the ocean itself" and the dispersants are compounding the disaster