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The BP Spill: Has the Damage Been Exaggerated?

Time Magazine -- The Deepwater Horizon explosion was an awful tragedy for the 11 workers who died on the rig, and it's no leak; it's the biggest oil spill in U.S. history. It's also inflicting serious economic and psychological damage on coastal communities that depend on tourism, fishing and drilling. But so far — while it's important to acknowledge that the long-term potential danger is simply unknowable for an underwater event that took place just three months ago — it does not seem to be inflicting severe environmental damage. "The impacts have been much, much less than everyone feared," says geochemist Jacqueline Michel, a federal contractor who is coordinating shoreline assessments in Louisiana.

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Submitted Jul 29, 2010 By: John747

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DonKofAK All-Star Author Anchorage Posts:511 Points:303,470 Joined:Jun 2009	Message Posted: Jul 30, 2010 2:53:48 AM Ignore DonKofAK Report Abuse Don't bother to read the article! Why? “Prejudice is a great time saver. You can form opinions without having to get the facts.” E. B. White American writer 1899-1985 I wondered if there might be a bit of hysteria and fear-mongering confusing the issues surrounding the Deepwater Horizon mishap. News reports focused on the potential damage (if)oil washed ashore--but it apparently has not yet happened to the extent feared. A report on a beach contaminated by ball-size tarballs failed to clearly state such tarballs were widely scattered (i.e. the tarballs were at least a hundred feet apart). That's quite a contrast to an Alaskan beach with 4 to 18 inches of oil covering the entire shoreline. "Yes, the spill killed birds — but so far, less than 1% of the number killed by the Exxon Valdez spill in Alaska 21 years ago. Yes, we've heard horror stories about oiled dolphins — but so far, wildlife-response teams have collected only three visibly oiled carcasses of mammals." "So far, the teams have collected nearly 3,000 dead birds, but fewer than half of them were visibly oiled; some may have died from eating oil-contaminated food, but others may have simply died naturally at a time when the Gulf happened to be crawling with carcass seekers. In any case, the Valdez may have killed as many as 435,000 birds [in a week or two]. The teams have found 492 dead sea turtles, which is unfortunate, but only 17 were visibly oiled; otherwise, they have found only one other dead reptile in the entire Gulf." I've begun to download my news reports using iTunes; Canada's CBC has a lot of world and U.S. news, as does Brittain's BBC and then there's Japan's NHK and Hong Kong's... all in English. All seemingly objective, none having the pre-game hype tone of Superbowl Sunday. Try getting information from real journalists who don't depend on every dollar of advertising revenue for their daily bread... And let others know there really are a few unemotional, objective, neutral-point-of-view sources of current information available--and wanted! [Edited by: DonKofAK at 7/30/2010 4:00:15 AM EST]
VanIsleRover Sophomore Author British Columbia Posts:205 Points:91,880 Joined:Apr 2010	Message Posted: Jul 30, 2010 1:00:01 AM Ignore VanIsleRover Report Abuse with that much oil escaping over all that time, it'll show up somewhere, some time.
mynt Veteran Author Ottawa Posts:407 Points:99,800 Joined:May 2010	Message Posted: Jul 29, 2010 11:46:21 PM Ignore mynt Report Abuse I doubt that it's been exaggerated, but it's true impact may not be known for years...
DriverMatt Champion Author Philadelphia Posts:13,298 Points:1,672,930 Joined:May 2004	Message Posted: Jul 29, 2010 11:16:35 PM Ignore DriverMatt Report Abuse Not a chance. The dispersants hid most of the oil. Its still down there. Lets see what a few hurricanes bring up.
coughlin Champion Author San Jose Posts:1,147 Points:300,275 Joined:Sep 2009	Message Posted: Jul 29, 2010 10:11:36 PM Ignore coughlin Report Abuse No. No exaggeration. Everything is as bad as we thought. It's just that the Gulf just takes it all in, puts it in the mix and heats it up.
playtimeCLE Champion Author Cleveland Posts:3,205 Points:595,660 Joined:Nov 2008	Message Posted: Jul 29, 2010 5:31:23 PM Ignore playtimeCLE Report Abuse Mother nature cleans up better then man can. I think the warm climate & relative warm waters in the gulf help this along quicker then colder area's. [Edited by: playtimeCLE at 7/29/2010 6:31:52 PM EST]
CiVX Champion Author Oakland Posts:3,140 Points:534,535 Joined:Feb 2009	Message Posted: Jul 29, 2010 5:24:52 PM Ignore CiVX Report Abuse No way its worse!
davidel57 Champion Author Houston Posts:2,246 Points:441,890 Joined:Apr 2008	Message Posted: Jul 29, 2010 4:27:40 PM Ignore davidel57 Report Abuse Exaggerated? by the media? no way!!
NekoSJG Veteran Author San Jose Posts:289 Points:67,720 Joined:Jun 2010	Message Posted: Jul 29, 2010 4:01:00 PM Ignore NekoSJG Report Abuse Anything with a political gain or risk is subject to hyperbole - it's not about the data - it's about the fear -- and the 'political correctness' drama. For a nation that worships movie stars and athletes -- why would you ever believe data?
CruisinLinda Champion Author Tallahassee Posts:6,458 Points:1,293,150 Joined:Sep 2005	Message Posted: Jul 29, 2010 3:18:25 PM Ignore CruisinLinda Report Abuse It is hard to reason away with sophistry the heavy metals of crude oil like mercury, arsenic and lead washing up on beaches and settling on the Gulf bottom and the carcinogens of hydrocarbons like benzine and toulene. There were 60,000 barrels a day (2.5 million gallons) of crude oil gushing for some 90 days. That's 225 million gallons of crude pumped in the Gulf. Only 12 oz of crude can kill a 150-lb. person.
MidNJ Champion Author New Jersey Posts:1,657 Points:252,670 Joined:Sep 2009	Message Posted: Jul 29, 2010 2:56:41 PM Ignore MidNJ Report Abuse BP would like us to believe that it was.
SVmike All-Star Author California Posts:574 Points:127,485 Joined:Dec 2009	Message Posted: Jul 29, 2010 2:55:17 PM Ignore SVmike Report Abuse How do you know? Have you been there and checked it out? Are you a scientist. I think there is no doubt that there are people who want to spin it is each direction. So there are, undoubtedly, those who will try an exaggerate the damage. As well as those that try and minimize it.
BBopp Champion Author Dayton Posts:2,697 Points:1,129,360 Joined:Dec 2006	Message Posted: Jul 29, 2010 1:48:32 PM Ignore BBopp Report Abuse If anything BP has tried way too much to minimize the damage. The situation is horrendous to the entire planet and inhabitants. This article could have been written by BP.