20100528
In response to an article by Lt. Gen. Russel Honoré, Special to CNN, titled:
Take punitive action against BP now May 26, 2010 -- Updated 1739 GMT (0139 HKT)
Finally someone talking good sense. I also believe that the idea of massive use of chemical dispersants was to limit visible damage and therefore liability. The injection of these chemicals at the source created a toxic soup that would not rise to the surface but would remain suspended in the depth of the ocean. But making the oil more miscible will greatly enable the toxic mass to mix with the biosphere and kill it. The toxic soup will move easily far and wide and penetrate further into wet lands. Ocean currents will pump the toxic soup out into the Atlantic and could cause the collapse of the broader Atlantic fisheries. I expect the entire Gulf to become a dead zone. CNN has had no interview with any competent Ocean Ecologist or Marine Biologist to my knowledge. There have been many comments by your reports about the idea that the oil spill and the toxic mixture of crude with dispersants would be gradually reduced to a harmless state by "natural biological action" - this is bullshit - complete non-sense and misleading you viewers rather than informing them.
A scientific Authority such as the Woods Hole Research Center (http://www.whrc.org), the director of which is John Holdren, Obama's Science Advisor - these people can comment on the fact that any biological life - down to microbes will be killed. They will not be capable of metabolizing the toxic soup of crude and dispersants. Down to very dilute levels these materials will kill life. The use of dispersants will make the negative impact even greater by allowing more powerful mixing and diluting - to the extent that the longer term result may be that the Gulf of Mexico could become a dead zone. The risk is that the way this has been handled by the private interests (to minimize local damage and liability) and the negligent approach of the Federal Government will make a global disaster out of the situation rather then containing the damage to the Region. If we see fisheries collapse in the Atlantic it will be clear that the Americans decided not to care about others and have taken an expedient decision to take advantage of the Gulf Stream to flush this toxic mess out into the Atlantic. The liability to the world should this be a big mistake is vast and the careless regard for ocean ecologies is unforgivable.