Possible good news about the plumes

you mean people have been exagerating things?! NO WAY!!!

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This only an initial study and more is being conducted, but perhaps the initial study is a good indication that the plumes aren't as heavy as some thought.

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No it's worse.

Using the dispersants they made the hydrocarbons more miscible in the seawater. This makes them more difficult to clean up, and more bioavailable.

This is even worse, not better.

How dare you shed some positive light into this thread Fred....Dont you know that this is the end of the world as we know it??

(no message)

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Having less oil in the gulf is worse? please explain

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It's not less...unless somehow the dispersants magically made it disappear. They simply made the molecules more miscible in water. thereby decreasing the concentration per volume, and making them more bioavailable.

For example if I have 1 gallon of oil and nine gallons of water in a large container....and add dispersants....The oil "disperses", becoming more miscible int the whole of the body of water. This has done nothing to decrease the volume of oil...merely made it be able to mix with the water. thereby making it harder to clean up, and making it more bioavaliable for the wildlife...particularly at the more vulnerable basal end of the food web.

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It's not less...unless somehow the dispersants magically made it disappear. They simply made the molecules more miscible in water. thereby decreasing the concentration per volume, and making them more bioavailable.

For example if I have 1 gallon of oil and nine gallons of water in a large container....and add dispersants....The oil "disperses", becoming more miscible int the whole of the body of water. This has done nothing to decrease the volume of oil...merely made it be able to mix with the water. thereby making it harder to clean up, and making it more bioavaliable for the wildlife...particularly at the more vulnerable basal end of the food web.

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Have you ever heard that the answer to pollution is dilution. Once the oil is broken down or dispersed it is easier for the bacteria of the sea to degrade the oil into nothing.

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Have you ever heard that the answer to pollution is dilution. Once the oil is broken down or dispersed it is easier for the bacteria of the sea to degrade the oil into nothing.

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Agreed, however the size of this spill far outweighs the microbial loop's ability to deal with the problem efficiently and in a timely manner. In the meantime, while the microbial loop ramps up its number of organisms to deal with the new food source, the oil has become more bioavailable to wildlife for an extended period of time. Being more miscible in the water it also becomes more likely to be entrained into the food web and at higher quantities in the organisms. That is a major problem.

Secondarily, with it being more interspersed in water, the overall area where the bacteria interact with the oil has increased. Thereby increasing the area where there will be reduction in available oxygen as the bacteria use it for respiration. These hypoxic or even anoxic zones are devastating to marine life, as evidenced by the Dead Zone in the Gulf.

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Agreed, however the size of this spill far outweighs the microbial loop's ability to deal with the problem efficiently and in a timely manner. In the meantime, while the microbial loop ramps up its number of organisms to deal with the new food source, the oil has become more bioavailable to wildlife for an extended period of time. Being more miscible in the water it also becomes more likely to be entrained into the food web and at higher quantities in the organisms. That is a major problem.

Secondarily, with it being more interspersed in water, the overall area where the bacteria interact with the oil has increased. Thereby increasing the area where there will be reduction in available oxygen as the bacteria use it for respiration. These hypoxic or even anoxic zones are devastating to marine life, as evidenced by the Dead Zone in the Gulf.

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Well, you're obviously way fricking smarter than I am, so I'll just let you win this one.

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There's alot of false info and hope about what's going on. As a humble scientist, I'm just trying to drop some knowledge where I can...so people understand the breath of the issue that now faces us all.

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Further to that effort, could you explain whether dispersing the oil is better than not dispersing it? Certainly it's a bad deal either way but from a layperson's viewpoint dispersed oil seems way better than concentrated oil.

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Further to that effort, could you explain whether dispersing the oil is better than not dispersing it? Certainly it's a bad deal either way but from a layperson's viewpoint dispersed oil seems way better than concentrated oil.

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See above on why dispersing it is bad. I think i covered it being more bioavailabe, etc....

Not to mention Corexit is a toxic chemical in its own right that does not have a microbial loop to break it down, and will become entrained into the organisms of the food web.