The Oil Spill Is Food For Oceanic Bacteria, Which Eats Oil And Makes Respiratory Material For Trees

From Al Fin:

No one can bring the oil workers killed on the Deep Horizon back to life. The oil rig itself was a total loss. But the environmental damage from the oil spill will be limited in both time and geographic area. The well control effort and environmental mitigation efforts are ongoing and extensive.

Open Choke blog is run by an anonymous oil man who offers his informed opinions on recent developments.

2. How much oil will this spill (worst case scenario)? A. 150,000 barrels.

3. How much is it leaking now? A. 5,000 barrels per day, although it sounds so much bigger when you multiply by 42 and put it into gallons.

4. How much natural oil seepage is there in the Gulf of Mexico? A. 5,000 barrels per day, although it is widely distributed and not point sourced.

5. Where will this rank? A. 37th in the world's top 71 man-made oil spills.

6. What happened to the 121,000 barrels spilled by the Mega Borg (the second largest spill in the GOM)? A. They burned it. 1800 barrels recovered, 270 barrels left after burning, so, in essence, via burning and wind and wave action biodegradation, 121,000 barrels turned into a little over 2000 barrels. The Prudhoe Bay incident was magnified because it had little wind or wave action... it was a closed system.

7. How does this compare to, say, wildfires? A. Wildfires fully devastate the areas they cover, and typically take 5-30 years to fully recover from a ground fire and up to 150 years to recover from a crown fire. Full recovery from an oil spill is typically a year or less. _OpenChoke

Power and Control points to a Science Daily article on oil spills, and draws some conclusions based upon science and common sense:

ScienceDaily (Jan. 27, 2000) — Twice an Exxon Valdez spill worth of oil seeps into the Gulf of Mexico every year, according to a new study that will be presented January 27 at the Ocean Sciences Meeting in San Antonio, Texas.

But the oil isn't destroying habitats or wiping out ocean life. The ooze is a natural phenomena that's been going on for many thousands of years, according to Roger Mitchell, Vice President of Program Development at the Earth Satellite Corporation (EarthSat) in Rockville Md. "The wildlife have adapted and evolved and have no problem dealing with the oil," he said.

Oil that finds its way to the surface from natural seeps gets broken down by bacteria and ends up as carbon dioxide,...

How much oil was spilled by the Exxon Valdez? About 260,000 bbls. At 5,000 bbls a day it would take about two months to equal the Exxon Valdez. And another two months to equal the natural oil seeps in the area.

So how about some math?

Say we have 5,000 bbls a day spread along 100 miles of coast. That is 50 bbls per mile. Every day. At 42 gallons per bbl that is 2,000 gallons per mile or about .4 gallon per foot. Not too bad for one day.

If it goes on for a couple of months not good immediately. A lot of wild life will be killed. And then as time goes on bacteria will start eating the oil and the food chain will blossom.

If the oil spreads more – that is good. If a lot evaporates – good. If a lot can be captured before it reaches the coast – good.

Of course if more drilling and mining of oil was allowed on land the chances of an accident at sea would be reduced relatively if not absolutely (oil consumption is still rising).

The desire of the ultra greens for a risk free civilization is increasing the risk that we will wind up with no civilization.

And, no matter how apocalyptic the prophecies of the ultra greens get, they can never shake the truth that the Earth, as an self-regulating organic system, is perfectly capable of eating, drinking, and breathing anything within it's biosphere.

Bacteria eats oil, breaks it down to carbon dioxide, which provides respiratory sustenance for trees and other foliage, which, in turn, provides oxygen for human beings to breathe.

But, watch out, because, as we learned earlier this week, farming causes air pollution.

I can't wait until the greenies start warning us about the agricultural apocalypse.

Look, I know it's not as simple as my title makes it out to be. Too much oil, and you won't have a sea anymore. And certainly, the maxim "All things in moderation" even applies to the Earth.

But, the problem environmentalists have in understanding the Earth's system is similar to that of a pet owner who is convinced his cat is "lovelorn"; in other words, environmentalists anthropomorphize the Earth.

Greenies reason from their own experience and decide that since they get sick and die, the Earth could get sick and die. But, while the Earth may get a stomach ache, and may eventually die, it is more likely to die from a drive-by asteroid, than it is to die from an oil hangover.

But, whatever, if it makes Greenies feel better to think the Earth has feelings too, then party on.