Comments on: The BP Oil Plume

By: Brian137

Brian137 — Sat, 04 Sep 2010 00:55:10 +0000

Hi Jobe,
I appreciate your concern. Love and caring are wonderful feelings. You along with all the rest of us are fortunate that you feel them and that you express them. Something happens sometimes whereupon these kind feelings transmogrify into cynicism when others do not respond according to our adopted standards. My advice, which, of course, you did not request, is to do your best, but to also stay happy within yourself and well-disposed towards your fellow human beings, a diverse and occasionally rambunctious lot. My apologies if I either presume or intrude. Good luck to you.

By: Jobe Roberts

Jobe Roberts — Sat, 04 Sep 2010 00:20:26 +0000

It certainly is difficult to comprehend the magnitude of this spill. Sorry for frothing at the mouth. I feel that the planet is in serious peril if we allow this to continue. It is imperative that we do not dismiss this as business as usual.
I really do think you should consider visualizing the number of dead fish, birds and animals that this attack on nature really is. It might help those of us not so good in math understand what’s going on. Sure, it might be by accident, but it’s no more real and catastrophic to the real animals that perish and suffer for this insane race to suck every last drop of oil out of the ground and for what? So that we can fertilize monocultures and drive around in cars? Yeah, the world needs to wake up to what’s really going on. I think you can do better with your visuals.
I’d be happy to help with the graphics for your next post. There must be a better way to convey the reality of the situation.

By: Brian137

Brian137 — Fri, 03 Sep 2010 02:31:10 +0000

Jobe,

I like John’s OP. I appreciateded his clarification of the currently operative definition of the term “plume” and the comparisons to the cube, the one-mm-thick slab, and the very thin film. I do not feel that I misunderstand any more than I misunderstood before reading John’s article. I hope we haven’t caused him to blanch.

By: John

John — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 22:47:32 +0000

Jobe Roberts, my post was written after hearing “Manhattan sized plume” and then going and actually calculating the volume of oil released. The answer surprised me, and I bet it surprised just about anyone. We all have this image of miles and miles of oil, and “plume” makes it sound like all the oil is in one place, that it’s somehow contained.

The earlier claims that the oil was “gone” or “evaporated” or “eaten” were rubbish, and the Science article made that clear. But people are still left wondering how to visualize where the oil is now, how concentrated it is, what are its components, how toxic are they, and what the eventual impact on the environment and them is.

If we really want to stop sea floor drilling, or at the very least make companies do it in a manner orders of magnitude safer than they do today, we have got to make a rational, scientific case. This is not a political matter – duking it out in the political sphere will lead nowhere because there is too much money to be made. We need cold hard facts based on good science to make sure this tragedy cannot and will not happen again.

I can see how you might read into what I wrote that I was minimizing the spill. But what I was trying to do is make you, and all the other readers, really think about the true facts of this disaster, and not simply resort to knee-jerk reactions.

Read again the last sentence of the post. BP is doing everything it can to sequester information, not release it publicly. This must stop.

By: Jobe Roberts

Jobe Roberts — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 19:46:58 +0000

Mr. Conway,
My negative reaction is due to your make believe oil cube. This does not convey to anyone the real magnitude of the disaster, it marginilizes it.
It’s pretty hard to tell from this blog post that you’re not of a fan of deep sea drilling. How is it that your rational examination of the disaster doesn’t include any real-life impacts? Attempting to calculate the oil to water ratio is, to use your own words, BS.
Perhaps if your picture visualized the real-life death toll, your message might not be so misunderstood by us prejudice readers.

By: greg

greg — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 19:43:27 +0000

Regarding the comment that a thimble is small compared to a person but who would drink a thimble of oil.

I would. However, the apt comparison is more akin to a molecule of oil and ten or twenty human bodies……you get a lot more PAH than that every time you eat bar-b-q or smoked fish. – am a marine scientist who has piblished on oil spills and seafood safety.

By: John

John — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 17:39:46 +0000

Sorry to lose you, Jobe Roberts…I hope I made it clear in the original post that I am no fan of sea floor drilling, deep water or otherwise. The risks are just too great.

But, as I also pointed out, people bring their own prejudices and biases to the reading and interpretation of any text, and when their preconceived notions are threatened, they react negatively. The comments above are a vivid demonstration of that.

Pref: there are a lot of completely natural things that are not very good for life. Supervolcanoes, asteroid impacts, ice ages, droughts, and yes, mankind’s various activities. We are living through a great extinction of living species that is of our own making, and not just due to oil drilling.

By: Pref

Pref — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 02:52:26 +0000

The oil spill was a mess,,, but everyone seems to say it’s a man made mess. Yes we drilled the hole that allowed an exorbant amount of oil to come to the surface. But isn’t oil all natural? Isn’t it the byproduct of years of evolution? Isn’t it the breakdown of plant and animal life of all sorts? This is not a man made compound… Or were we taught wrong on this?

By: just another chemistry weblog » Friday Science Spree 08/27/10

just another chemistry weblog » Friday Science Spree 08/27/10 — Fri, 27 Aug 2010 21:10:01 +0000

[...] Discussion of the BP oil plume in context with a New York Times article and a Science Magazine research paper concerning Plume Transport and Biodegradation at Deepwater Horizon – See also Ars and Knight Science Trackerthe Columbia Journalism Review [...]

By: Jobe Roberts

Jobe Roberts — Fri, 27 Aug 2010 19:51:37 +0000

Discover Magazine is now off my reading list since it publishes garbage like this.

“John”, Why don’t you go down to the Gulf and have a look to see if the oil spill looks at all to be the size of your square pentagon cube? Of course, we all need to be calm, rational, and scientific about this disaster since it will just evaporate and get eaten up by magical oil loving bacteria before we know it. Nothing to worry about, keep up the drilling, we need the oil more than we need silly stuff like fish and birds.