Disappeared News: Warning from the front lines: wetlands will wash into the sea when the grass dies

Friday, May 07, 2010

Warning from the front lines: wetlands will wash into the sea when the grass dies

May 7, 2010 @ 2255 hrs
New Orleans

Hello Again, Dear Disappearing News,

I am deeply concerned about three things today related to the Deepwater Horizon Catastrophe in the Gulf of Mexico:

1.The exact chemical composition along with existing research and development data of the trade-secret protected dispersant called Corexit, Trade Mark: Nalco Energy Services, being used by BP in the Gulf of Mexico must be made available to academic researchers without delay. Any oceanographer with a legitimate plan to survey, sample or document this spill must be given access to this data. Yes, that essentially means un-protect the formula, now. Now approaching 300,000 gallons used, we will see more than double that much used in the best case scenario. No one is suggesting that they stop using it, in large part because of my #3, below, but since it's chemical composition is totally secret, researchers do not know important things about what to look for in found animals, live or dead. The longer those effects go undocumented and un-quantified, the less BP will be responsible for. This trade secret might be justly and better protected by international patents and the WTO, but must be released at once for oceanographic research.

Sorry, you just don't get to keep it a secret when you are dumping that much of ~anything~ into the sea. I don't care if it's mother's milk, and I can assure you, it's not mother's milk. You can't disperse Louisiana sweet crude with Palmolive either, ok?

2. Genetically modified oil-eating bacteria stories have disappeared completely from my radar. I have no further data. Someone else, help please.

3. Folks from other geological areas, including writers on CNN, NYT and FOX, please permit me to remind you:

the coast line of Louisiana will not just get dirty, oily and unable to support spawning of these rich and vast fisheries. You won't be able to hose it down like a car wash either. Rather, this is an enormous amount of convoluted, astonishingly fertile, predominantly grass and fine sedimentary wetlands. They will wash into the sea when the grasses die. Arrivederci Roma.

banjoboye