I believe that the Gulf Environmental Catastrophe is going to be a climate changing event

[Jeffersons Ghost]

I'm no scientist. Can someone with a scientific background please convince me I'm wrong?

[Oregone]

1. You are wrong

Though my scientific background is in an entirely different field, you did ask nicely

[Jeffersons Ghost]

2. I've heard the Gulf Stream has an impact on climate...

and oil heats faster than water. Can you tell me why I'm wrong. You can believe that I'd love being wrong in this matter.

[Oregone]

3. I can't tell you. Im just trying to be polite

Im a computer scientist, in name only too

[WillyT]

4. I've Heard That Oil Is Toxic To The Food Chain At One Part Per Billion...

Also read that one quart of oil fucks up 250,000 gallons of water.

I know the oceans are big, but...

exactly when DO we worry about this becoming a GLOBAL event???

:shrug:

And what happens if they miss (miscalculate) the relief wells being drilled.

[truedelphi]

6. I think this is around the time we start to worry.

Oil will indeed heat up faster than water. And the one parts to a billion to make the water deadly to marine life is right also.

So expect far less in terms of fish to put on the dinner table. Far less oxygen to come about - plankton are tiny and never mentioned on the news but they contribute a great deal of the world's oxygen.

[hobbit709]

8. Total volume of oceans is 321,000,000 cubic Miles

1 cubic mile of water is about 1 billion gallons.

[hobbit709]

5. Climatic effects will be minimal if any.

Even in the gulf the amount of oil is a minuscule percentage of the volume of water, much less compared to the Atlantic. One gallon of oil spreads out over a large area, but some will evaporate, some will wash up and some will sink over time.
The effect is ecological, not climatic.

[rotund1]

9. You are absolutely right but I bet someone will call you a BP enabler.

I agree as a petroleum engineer and geologist, which will probably get me the same kind of hate mail.
:shrug:


Don't know if it will help, but I believe BP must be made to pay for their screwup but probably not to the point of wrecking the company and therefore their ability to compensate people. There are a lot of Americans whose jobs depend on them...which is of course a major part of the dilemma.

[guardian]

7. Why is it that some people

think EVERYTHING is a cause of, or a result of, or related to, anthropogenic global warming? This gets soooooooo old.

[rotund1]

10. It's far easier to blame all problems on one source than to do research.

It's how our brains are wired.
:shrug:

(Interestingly, we rightfully ridicule those who credit some or other deity for good things but never assess any blame to him/her/it when our lives go down the shitter...)