LSU professor: Oil spill is environmental CATASTROPHE

Ed Overton, environmental sciences professor at LSU, in a radio interview with WBZ radio (Boston) notes that the current oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico is "close" to the level of disaster that the Exxon Valdez incident was, 'if we're not there already'.

The difference between this situation and the Valdez is that the latter was a large spill in a short amount of time, of a FINITE amount of oil, whereas the current situation will be a smaller amount of oil per day but released over a much greater period of time.

Also, while this release has some of the characteristics of Louisiana crude, it is highly asphaltic, making it hard to clean up, hard to burn, and hard to disperse. "So basically what you have floating around and coming on-shore is ROOF TAR."

Calamity.

How to Remove Roofing Tar from skin completely

Cleaning and removing roofing tar from skin completely can be a hard task. Roofing tar is really messy and hard to remove from your skin. In my experience I have run across two things that remove it from skin very well.
Difficulty: EasyInstructionsThings You'll Need:
tar on skin
Step 1. Cleaning removing roofing tar from your skin is a task soap and water just will not do. Most people do not have professional grade cleaner around the house to remove roofing tar. Most households do have mower gasoline or some small amount of gasoline around which will remove the roofing tar almost completely from your skin. It does require immediate washing of the skin with soap and water afterward. GAS IS FLAMMABLE so be careful and think about what you are doing. Please check for sparks or open flames first and use only outdoors. Lawn mower gas is a good source for this, and yes it will work if it is the weedeater gas oil mix.

Step 2. You can also use a spot remover called "Goof Off " to remove roofing tar from you skin. This product is sold at Wal Mart, Lowe's and those kind of places. Washing you skin with this product will also remove roofing tar, again wash skin immediately with soap and water.

Step 3. Both these methods require adult supervision and common sense. Please think about the environment and correct disposal of waste.

Step 4. Sand is something you can also use to remove roofing tar from your skin. Just grab a handful and "wash" your skin with the dry sand the abrasive properties will help some to remove roofing tar.

choppy seas are slopping the globby shit over the containment booms. They are letting the shrimpers go "all out" now because the shrimp will soon be decimated.
This never should have happened....safety valves need to be nearly fail-proof or all of these wells need to be shut down (IMO)

:(

Criminal.

beyond criminal.

So far it has failed to actuate. Nobody knows why.

Nothing can matter but profits.

Capitalism or Nature.

Drill, baby, drill!

:cry:

This earth isn't going to take us humans too much longer.

disaster for a week. Now the chickens are coming home to roost.

That is two months of this stuff gushing into the ocean--and that is being optimistic.

What a waste. What foolish people we are.

'We' in this case is the officers and shareholders of BP.

It ain't 'the way the world is', it's how capitalism is.

As I understand it, you can't care about this oil spill unless you eat moss and live in a well somewhere in Madagascar.

Which comes from petroleum.

The rate of dispersal depends on the type of oil. Initial reports suggested the oil leaking into the Gulf was standard Louisiana crude, which biodegrades pretty well, according to Edward Overton, a professor emeritus of environmental sciences at Louisiana State University. But sample testing revealed that the leaking oil was different, with a very high concentration of components that don't degrade easily, called asphaltenes.

"That is bad, bad news, because this oil is going to be very slow to degrade," Overton said.

http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2010/04/30/long-term-effects-oil-spill-unclear/

Edward Overton, a professor emeritus of environmental sciences at Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge, said it could still be nasty stuff to clean from marshes or beaches. Overton, who tested samples for the Coast Guard and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, said the oil has an unusually high amount of asphaltene -- heavy ingredients that make it more suitable for paving roads than powering cars. "My level of apprehension went from moderate to the red zone when we found this stuff,'' he said. ``It's not going to be easy to degrade. It's not going to be easy to burn. It's not going to be easy to disperse.''

While the slick might not roll ashore as feather-coating ooze, the oil could still do broad and chronic damage. Those tarry lumps, scientists say, can become poison pills spread through the food chain from sea grasses to pelicans to crabs.

http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/04/29/1604316_p2/growing-oil-spill-could-eventually.html

During the press conference today, the BP spokesman said that they were adding dispersement underwater at the site later today in addition to aerial spraying using C-130s. So we'll see.