Oil washing up on Florida beaches. :(

[RachelsMommie]

http://news.blogs.cnn.com/2010/06/04/oil-confirmed-on-pensacola-beaches/?hpt=Sbin

 

[BrizMarc]

this is terrible, I feel really sorry for people in the area.

 

[LilGMom]

Our beaches are starting to take on some of the black globs with more on the way. Very sad to see our sugary white beaches being affected by this.

 

[Iggipolka]

This whole situation is a huge ecological nightmare that is going to have devastating consequences for our entire world for decades, if not centuries. I had to stop looking at the pictures of the oil coated wildlife, because it just makes me cry uncontrollably. The oil is literally destroying our world, not just our beaches, but all of our oceans.

For video of the spewing oil, check out http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/ybenjamin/detail?entry_id=64980 for live feeds.
It's terribly frightening to watch.

 

[Mindy5767]

This whole situation is a huge ecological nightmare that is going to have devastating consequences for our entire world for decades, if not centuries. I had to stop looking at the pictures of the oil coated wildlife, because it just makes me cry uncontrollably. The oil is literally destroying our world, not just our beaches, but all of our oceans.

For video of the spewing oil, check out http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/ybenjamin/detail?entry_id=64980 for live feeds.
It's terribly frightening to watch.

Here's something scary.... although this was a man made disaster... did you know that there are natural cracks in the sea floor in various places from which oil leaks all the time, and always has? I saw this on the Discovery or one of the other science channels a long time ago.

 

[Iggipolka]

The tremendous amount of oil gushing out of this well is millions of gallons more than any natural crevice would have. You cannot possibly compare the two.

 

[LilGMom]

According to some articles that I've seen it is reported that "about 980,000 barrels of oil, or about 41 million gallons, seep into the Gulf - every year." That is a lot of oil but since it is spread out throughout the entire Gulf and in smaller amounts at any one time it has a chance to break down naturally unlike what is happening right now. It floors me that we can put men on the moon and sustain their lives in a space station but can't stop the busted pipe.

 

[Mindy5767]

The tremendous amount of oil gushing out of this well is millions of gallons more than any natural crevice would have. You cannot possibly compare the two.

Well, YES, it is a huge amount more because its all gushing at one time in one place. Making it way worse. But the next writer it correct too.

According to some articles that I've seen it is reported that "about 980,000 barrels of oil, or about 41 million gallons, seep into the Gulf - every year." That is a lot of oil but since it is spread out throughout the entire Gulf and in smaller amounts at any one time it has a chance to break down naturally unlike what is happening right now. It floors me that we can put men on the moon and sustain their lives in a space station but can't stop the busted pipe.

The naturally seeping oil DOES make it to shore. But it isn't obviously nearly as bad. I lived at the beach growing up, and some summers we'd have oil lapping at the shore. You'd walk down the beach and you'd see black wavy lines as if a giant took a mammoth sharpie and colored jagged lines along the shoreline. But that amount of oil that leaks naturally, has been leaking since the before the Stone Age.

It does make you wonder when we can put a man on the moon but not stop a pipe from leaking a mile below the ocean. It makes you wonder... was there a back-up plan in case the men got stuck on the moon? Cause, there doesn't really seem to have been a back up plan to stop a pipe leak.