Phytoplankton = LIFE so how much can we afford to kill off ...?

So if it only takes 1 PPB of oil in water to kill life, what does that REALLY mean for the food chain AND the ocean as a whole?

Thinking of the HUGE plumes out there swirling with not just oil but toxic dispersant, and how the scientists themselves don't know how that much oil will behave in the currents in such a large space. Suffice it to say that most everything that comes in contact with this drifting cloud of death is toast...

Phytoplankton constitutes the first tier to the food chain in the ocean's ecosystem. It traps CO2 and constitutes 50% of the photosynthesis on the ENTIRE planet. Ya, so what does that mean for our global warming curve that is already a SPIKE? I know we are "only" talking about a gulf, or just *part* of the entire planet's oceans..but it still bears consideration.

( http://www.ehow.com/about_5398193_phytoplankton-important.html )

so maybe the title of this chapter in our history should be "how to kill your planet"

The planet's death will surely start there as well.

Not only does it cycle CO2, ocean phytoplankton has been estimated to produce from between 45% and 90% of the planet's oxygen.



Toxicity
Petroleum distillates contaminate surface runoff and kill almost all life

Crude oil is a mixture of many different kinds of organic compounds, many of which are highly toxic and cancer causing (carcinogenic). Oil is "acutely lethal" to fish, that is kills fish quickly, at a concentration of 4000 parts per million (ppm)<1> (0.4%). "It only takes one quart of motor oil to make 250,000 gallons of ocean water toxic to wildlife."<2> This would be a concentration of only 1 ppm. Crude oil and petroleum distillates cause birth defects.<3>

that is way worse, but you're right, sorry i didn't fact check that part of the equation.

Pretty grim ooutlook when you think about this stuff settling in the dropoff near the carolinas, or cycling through to GB and through the whole upper gulf stream...

I think i need to lay down or get drunk now

Or one then the other!

:thumbsup:

How soon the earth will not be habitable, they have yet to consider that they live here too.

For some it might be a rude awakening.

They might use up all the oxygen in the water at first, but they are the basic building-block of life. It seems like it would be a lot safer in the long run than those toxic chemicals they're using.

Did anyone else see that Nova that showed how life returned to that dead lake on Mount St. Helen's? That gave me some hope.

but wouldn;t that be like introducing a non-native species into a eco-sensitive area?

and how much can those things eat, anyway...before they are glutted and they become ocean-litter? Wouldn;t the dispersant make it inedible for them as well?

what a huge clusterfuck...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8VfypUzx1tI&feature=player_embedded

It seems like a no-brainer to me.

will they still eat the oil after the dispersants though?

and again, this is 1989 technology...crikey! haven;t we learned ANYTHING in 20 years?

can only take so much beating. This must stop now! Anything is possible if they kill the oceans and all that lives in and off of it and yes, that includes US.

:kick: