Gulf Oil Slick - A threat to Ireland?

Barname

just thinking the other day...

will the Gulf Stream send some of that oil slick towards Ireland?

Capt'n Midnight

Don't worry they will stop it by then :pac:

Off the top of my head by the time what's left gets out of the gulf and into the stream and then most will have evaporated or sunk or dispersed or ingested so I wouldn't worry about it significantly affecting the level of pollution we already have.

Barname

Capt'n Midnight wrote: »

Don't worry they will stop it by then :pac:

when was 'by then' ?

Capt'n Midnight

By the time it becomes a threat.

Barname

Capt'n Midnight wrote: »

By the time it becomes a threat.

really?

looksee

http://paulrademacher.com/oilspill/#

digme

http://www.ifitwasmyhome.com

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4_EJP6EtZqk

Barname

http://www.d8externalaffairs.com/posted/2931/os_forecast_20100605_1200CDT_20100602_1900CDT_rs.586479.pdf

if it makes the Florida Straits....

Capt'n Midnight

From http://xkcd.com/748/

"To get serious analyses of hurricanes and oil slicks, see Jeff Masters blog. To get serious discussions of worst-case scenario thinking, see Bruce Schneier's blog. To get enough Vitamin D, don't read any blogs and go outside instead."

Barname

cap'n

you may wish to drag politics into the thread

I would rather stick to the actualities of the matter

(as a scientist would)

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSN0515621620100605?type=marketsNews

According to the latest report issued by the U.S. government on Saturday, 547 birds across the Gulf coast have been collected dead, but not all of those animals showed signs of contact with oil.
But the government's numbers tell only part of the story. "Some (birds) just sink under the water and will never be counted," Bancroft said.

bleg

We're rich!!!

Capt'n Midnight

bleg wrote: »

We're rich!!!

Seeing as how your location is from Cork you may know about this one - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Betelgeuse_incident

The Betelgeuse incident, also known as the Betelgeuse or Whiddy Island disaster, occurred on 8 January 1979, at around 1:00 a.m., when the oil tanker Betelgeuse exploded in West Cork, Ireland, at the offshore jetty of the Whiddy Island Oil Terminal, due to the failure of the ship's structure during an operation to discharge its cargo of oil.
...
The explosion and resulting fire claimed the lives of 50 people (42 French nationals, 7 Irish nationals and 1 United Kingdom national). Only 27 bodies were recovered. A further fatality occurred during the salvage operation with the loss of a Dutch diver.
...
rescue workers were not able to approach the wreck (the bows of which was still above water) for two weeks due to clouds of toxic and inflammable gas surrounding it.

http://www.oilspillsolutions.org/majorspills.htm

A list of major spills from tankers near us
TORREY CANYON (United Kingdom, 1967)
AMOCO CADIZ (France, 1978)
BETELGEUSE (Ireland, 1979)
TANIO (France, 1980)
AEGEAN SEA (Spain, 1992)
BRAER (UK, 1993)
SEA EMPRESS (United Kingdom, 1996)
ERIKA (France, 1999)
PRESTIGE (Spain, 2002)

Point is it's far more likely to have oil from a local spill than from the Gulf. And as I've mentioned before by the time it gets here most of it will have evaporated, dispersed or sunk.

Capt'n Midnight

Barname wrote: »

cap'n

you may wish to drag politics into the thread

I would rather stick to the actualities of the matter

(as a scientist would)

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSN0515621620100605?type=marketsNews

You've quoted a number.
They have collected 547 dead birds but not all had oil. Across the gulf coast, there is a lot of coast down there. 1,631 miles so about one dead bird every three miles of coast. Without knowing how many were oiled or what the normal rate of finding dead birds on the beach is I've no idea how that affects the background rate. I'm sure someone could show more birds were killed by wind turbines in the Gulf States since the last oil spill and so we should ban wind turbines. (Back in the day of the Torrey Canyon the chemicals used to disperse the oil caused more damage to the environment than the oil itself but that lesson was learnt)

Yes it's a big oil spill and yes BP are taking their time sorting it out, but it's being played up by the media and the media is often very sloppy with statistics,.

If it was 547 rare birds, like sea eagles then it's a disaster. But if it's just seagulls then far less so.

looksee

Ah, poor seagulls. Nobody cares.