Oil spill environmental disaster

Thursday, April 29, 2010. The massive oil spill off the gulf coast is an environmental disaster. Since it was an oil rig that blew, the oil is leaking from an underwater well, deep in the ocean. It has been hard to calculate how much oil continues to leak, but today it appears to be leaking at the rate of 5,000 barrels a day, not 1,000 as had been thought, and that the spill could reach the coast by Friday. And they don’t have a way to stop the leaking. This is different that the oil that leaked from a grounded ship over the coral reef in Australia this month. That was terrible due to the damage it did to the endangered (and supposedly protected) Great Barrier Reef. But the ship had a limited amount of oil. Since this is a well that is leaking, it seems as if the oil leak could go on and on until they find a way to cap the well. The oil slick is over 80 miles across. The coasts of Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and Florida are preparing for the oil to reach the shore line by as early as Friday. The military has been asked to help, and the Coast Guard are trying to burn the oil in the sea before it comes to the shoreline. What a disaster. And it is synchronistic that it is occurring at the same time that the President Obama has supported an increase in off-shore oil production. Whew! The money made by the oil production could be off set by the loss of income by tourism to these coastal areas. The tension that exists between protecting our environment and increasing our energy sources like oil, coal, and nuclear power, seems to be very problematic. I hope they figure out a way to control this leak. But I fear for the oceans. There is a new movie out called Oceans that I plan to see. It documents the beautiful sea life we could never experience any other way. Pray for the ocean.

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