Maybe so, but with the oil in the gulf apparently mostly gone, thanks to natural process and not the federal government, we are not yet out of danger.
AP reports on the disappeared oil that
Out of sight, though, doesn’t mean out of danger, nor is the Gulf now
clean. The harmful effects of the summer of the spill can continue on
for years even with oil at the microscopic level, a top federal
scientist warned.
Some other noteable highlights from the article include that
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the U.S.
Geological Survey announced in the five-page report that only 52.7
million gallons of oil are left in the Gulf. That is about 31 percent of
the 172 million gallons that spewed into the water from the broken BP
well.
Better note, though that
What’s left in the water is still almost five times
the amount spilled by the Exxon Valdez in 1989.
And don’t expect precision from this report, either.
NOAA chief Jane Lubchenco acknowledged the numbers could be off by as
much as 10 percent. One of the scientists who peer-reviewed the work and
is mentioned in the report, Ed Overton of Louisiana State University,
said he wasn’t comfortable with NOAA’s putting precise percentages of
how much oil is left in the Gulf. What would be more accurate would be a
much broader range of, say, 40 million to 60 million gallons, he said.
Also, is it really as simple as broken-down oil? Some don’t think so – they’re more inclined to believe it’s another broken-down theory:
MacDonald said the core of the idea here ? that oil in water essentially
has about a half-life of a week ? makes sense, but what happened from
there doesn’t.“There’s some science here, but mostly, it’s spin,” he said. “And it
breaks my heart to see them do it.”MacDonald pointed out that NOAA spent weeks sticking with its claim the
BP well was spewing only 210,000 gallons a day. Now, after several
revisions, the federal government said it really was 2.2 million gallons
a day. So he has a hard time believing NOAA this time, he said.
I don’t know about you, but I’m with MacDonald — the whole thing seems fishy to me.