According to the US Coast Guard, at least 210,000 gallons of oil per day are leaking into the Gulf of Mexico after the April 20th oil rig explosion, fire and sinking of the Transocean Deepwater Horizon oil drilling platform. Who knows (apart from BP) how much chemical dispersants have now been, and continue to be, sprayed into the leaking oil, 5000ft (1,524m) below the ocean surface? What we all see is that the oil slick has increased in size threefold-in-three days, and it looks like it is only going to get a lot bigger.
NASA’s May 1st image (oil near coast - see above), taken using the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) instrument shows just how big the slick is, and how close it is to the Louisiana coastline. Another NASA image (see below) from the Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER) on Terra, also from May 1, shows a visible and infrared light image. The oil slick image shows the heaviest oil as silver with the slightly lighter concentrations as streaks of white.
Sea birds, fish and turtles have already been affected according to some news reports, but ocean mammals, alligators, oysters, crab and all the beaches along the Mississippi, Alabama, Louisiana and Florida coastline are all going to be severely affected by the oil pollution and during any clean-up operation.
The attempts to stop the oil gushing into the Gulf of Mexico have been less than stellar. The remotely piloted underwater robots failed to actuate the broken fail-safe valve to stop the flow of oil. The first (100 ton) underwater capture domes are ready to help siphon-off the oil before it gets to the surface and they are supposed to be next in line to prevent the ecological disaster from spreading. To make matters worse, it seems nobody had the right type of booms to contain the oil to set fire to it when it was on the ocean surface near the origin of the leaks. This was supposed to remove 50-90% of the oil before it became a problem for the coastline. Shouldn’t they have lots of these just sitting in a warehouse somewhere close to all those oil rigs?
The final option is to drill another well and plug the damaged one but that can take two months or more, so at least another 12,600,000 gallons of oil will have escaped by then. But, at the very least, the new wells are now being drilled.
The future looks bleak – most likely oil on the beaches, oil on the birds, in the river systems, dying fish and plants, contaminated shell-fish, devastated fishing and tourist industry, disrupted commerce and a slanging match about who is responsible, who did (or didn’t) do what, law suits, and more and more dead wildlife.
The real question we all need to be asking ourselves is - will anything change after all this is settled in court and has become a long forgotten news story? Oil spills, leaks and rig explosions happen and will happen again and again, especially as the search for oil becomes more desperate and extreme. Does anyone still thinking drilling for oil in the Arctic is a good idea?
The magnitude of this disaster is epic, but there is always a silver lining to even the darkest oil patch. Now, right now, is the time to speak up and push for renewable energy, and ensure our governments know that we don’t support oil exploration and oil transport through sensitive regions and waters. It is the least we can do.
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Trevor Williams is a University of Victoria Mechanical Engineering PhD candidate specializing in renewable energy, power grid modeling and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles. He has a bachelors in Aeronautical Engineering, a Masters in Management Science and over 23 years international experience in the space industry, having worked on Earth observation and telecommunications satellites. He is the author of the Eco-Geek blog.
At the beginning of the millennium, experiments in the correction of the trajectory of hurricanes in the Mexican Gulf under the supervision of Pentagon, were held. The experiments were carried out under the leadership of N. Levashov. Levashov managed to put an energetic barrier in the way of hurricanes which diverted them back into the open ocean where they dispersed. After the experiments, N. Levashov was ‘politely’ asked to put the energetic barriers in the way the hurricanes will go in the direction of one of the Caribbean islands. More information can be found on the site http://www.levashov.info , to switch to English version site, you need to click the mouse the English flag. In the section "articles" there are articles «Taming The Intractables: How to Make Hurricanes Behave» and «The Drought». These studies described some studies made by N. Levashov. Thus the terms of the agreement were broken and N. Levashov rejected to fulfill the new conditions and had difficulties in leaving for Russia.
N. Levashov created special devices – generators, which give him possibility to rule ‘dark matter’, which is known to exist in 90 percent in the Universe. Now the remainders of energetic barrier still stay in the gulf. Actually, N. Levashov can close the bore-hole, creating additional tension in the crust of the Earth in the place of oil emission.
N. Levashov is waiting invitation and suppose to make business in some days.
Reorganizing his generators, there is a chance to annihilate all oil pollution on the water surface. This may sound fantastically, but it is true. See our report ‘ Strategy of global survival.’ Exactly such projects will save the world.
Unfortunately, thirst for absolute power in the world thus having control over all technologies, doesn’t allow the majority of projects to start. We’ve proved that even now every country has a proper and qualified amount of food and sources of energy. But the world’s ruler directs the process. Natural disasters will soon smash the majority of this civilization, if the rulers of Mankind won’t change up their mind in the nearest future.
written by Dr. Mikhail Kravchuk, , June 05, 2010
In 1998 the group of Russian scientists is working in Middlesex University, Great Britain, on the problem of cleansing water from oil pollution.
The first technology allows to remove oil products from the water without chemicals. It has been done in closed reservoirs.
Secondly, the developed technology allows to stir up the activity of oil oxidizing bacteria 6-12 times more in water and soil. In the case of lack or absence of corresponding oil oxidizing bacteria, technology allows change the phenotype of the presented in the water or on the soil oil oxidizing bacteria and they start discomposing the oil. After finished work, bacteria are transferred back to their phenotype, according to the corresponding command.
written by Dr. Mikhail Kravchuk, , June 05, 2010
To avoid similar global catastrophes the industrial world should embrace a new energy resource - fuel from water. This already exists and can be produced to any scale.
A new kind of fuel, based on water plasma was developed in Russia. This fuel is the most promising one as it is cheap and environmentally friendly. At the core of it lies the so called “water plasma” effect. It takes around 90.0%-99.5% of plain water and just 0.5%-10.0% of any other combustible materials (vegetable oils, including rape seed oil, spirit, crude oil, residual oil fuel, diesel fuel etc.) to produce boiler fuel alone. Combustion heat of such boiler fuel is comparable to that of propane gas, and so notably exceeds similar qualities of diesel fuel.
Transition to such water-plasma-based fuel would fully replace and save non exhaustible raw materials, such as hydrocarbons, for future generations. It would also enable us to make Earth atmosphere, polluted by combustion engines, thermo and electrical plants, much cleaner. Performance characteristics of such substance exceed almost all known kinds of fuel. The Ecological aspect of the new fuel is particularly important. Exhaust products of such fuel, are negligible – CO and emissions are times smaller than in any traditional kind of fuel. That is why transition to the suggested fuel will sharply decrease carbon dioxide emissions into the Earth atmosphere and will hence significantly contribute to solving global warming problem, which has been a great concern for the humanity nowadays.
written by Dr. Mikhail Kravchuk, , June 05, 2010
written by Dr. Mikhail Kravchuk, , June 05, 2010
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The only way to preserve life on the planet Earth and protect its environment is to switch to new technologies which would allow humankind to reimburse Nature for what we have been taking from it during the last 4 hundred years or so.
Recent events in the Gulf of Mexico are not just an incident; it is a world catastrophe which will affect most of the countries on the planet. Thereupon we have set up a Special Public Commission and invited a number of Russian scientists on board. Their research works can, from our point of view, liquidate both the catastrophe itself as well as its consequences in mid-to-long-term timeframe.
Below you will find a description of various technologies and projects, selected by the Commission, which could quickly stop oil leaking from the well, liquidate the oil slick spill in the Gulf and help prevent or minimize the risk of similar events happening in the future.
Sincerely,
Dr. Mikhail Kravchuk,
oceanographer.
Managing Director
“Telos Technology” Foundation
Our suggestions are based directly on research carried out during the past decade. The continuing disaster in the Mexican Gulf shows there is nothing more important for governments and energy companies to consider at the moment. In order to understand these methods, it is necessary to change the thinking about the existing world.
RESOLUTION OF THE DISASTER IN THE MEXICAN GULF
The resolution of the disaster in the Mexican Gulf needs to be considered in 3 parts:-
I.Cessation of oil entering the sea from the bore-hole.
II.Dealing with the consequences of the oil spill in the Gulf area.
III.Avoiding future global catastrophes by adopting the proven resource of fuel from water.
written by Dr. Mikhail Kravchuk, , June 05, 2010