05-31-2010, 05:17 AM
mrlynn wrote: Not likely. Natural oil seeps put much more oil into the ocean than the BP gusher:
http://pecancorner.blogspot.com/2010/05/...seeps.html
You're way off with that factoid. Even assuming the numbers in that link are correct (and they appear to be a bit high, but correct order of magnitude), the sum total of all natural seeps in all waters surrounding the entire north american continent is about 130,000 gallons per day, distributed over a vast area. Just the single BP well is putting out oil at a rate of 500,000 to 800,000 gallons per day into a relatively closed basin (the Gulf of Mexico). You're right that it won't "poison the whole Atlantic Ocean", but it is going to cause vastly more damage than natural seeps.
In the meantime, I wonder why they don't try this method of getting the surface oil up:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k5SxX2EntEo
AFAIK this is not a joke. Probably not practical to spread hay over the entire surface area, but near the coast it might work to help prevent beach and marsh contamination.
Hay and other absorbents are being used along the coastlines. There's a massive downside to using absorbents though...transport to the spill, transport from the spill, and disposal of a much larger mass of contaminated material than the original spill. Absorbents have very limited useability, primarily to protect sensitive receptors (e.g. wetlands and other wildlife resources). They are absolutely useless and create more of a problem than they solve if used on open water.