ANIMAL FORTEANA


In the beginning of things men were animals and animals men. ~ Algonquin saying

"For instance, on the planet Earth, man had always assumed that he was more intelligent than dolphins because he had achieved so much — the wheel, New York, wars and so on — whilst all the dolphins had ever done was muck about in the water having a good time. But conversely, the dolphins had always believed that they were far more intelligent than man — for precisely the same reasons." ~ The Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy

Tuesday, April 19, 2011

The News About the Gulf and BP, Then There's The News About the Gulf and BP . . .

There's this:
A year on from BP oil disaster scientists say Gulf of Mexico is almost back to pre-spill health levels...so why are a huge number of dolphins and turtles still washing up dead? | Mail Online

At the same time, we're getting this:

BP Oil Spill: How Bad Is Damage to Gulf One Year Later?

Yet nearly a year after the spill began, it seems clear that the worst-case scenario never came true. It's not that the oil spill had no lasting effects - far from it - but the ecological doomsday many predicted clearly hasn't taken place. There is recovery where once there was only fear. "A lot of questions remain, but where we are now is ahead of where people thought we'd be," Safina says. "Most people expected it would be much worse."

Take the oil itself: scientists with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration estimated last August that much of the oil had remained in the Gulf, where it had dispersed or dissolved. Many environmentalists attacked the report for underplaying the threat of large underwater oil plumes still active in the Gulf, yet later independent scientific studies indeed found that oil had largely disappeared from the water. Turns out we can thank bacteria. Scientists from Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory; University of California, Santa Barbara; and Texas A&M University traveled to the site of the blown well and found that microbes had digested much of the oil and methane that remained in the water. By autumn, the levels were back to normal. "It's very surprising it happened so fast," John Kessler, an oceanographer with Texas A&M, told me earlier this year. "It looks like natural systems can handle an event like this somewhat on their own."

So much more, these are only two examples of the mainstream media's back page treatment of BP, our government's complicity with environmental issues and drilling, and the reality of the situation. And have we mentioned the stories of so many sick, very very sick, residents in the area?

Already so many have fallen asleep; believing that all is now well in the Gulf.

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