GRAND ISLE, LA - JULY 29: Local residents gather on the beach to commemorate 100 days of the BP oil spill on July 29, 2010 in Grand Isle, Louisiana. Eleven lives were lost and three to five million barrels of oil have spilled into the Gulf of Mexico since the BP Deepwater Horizon exploded on April 20, 2010. (Photo by Chris Graythen/Getty Images) More photos in slideshow below. And more pictures here.
BP Gulf oil spill update: Were Tony Hayward and Rush Limbaugh right after all?
Tony Hayward
Was Tony Hayward right after all? That’s the provocative headline in the UK’s Daily Telegraph newspaper on Friday.
As the Telegraph reports, camera crews are complaining that there are no more oil slicks to shoot. Apparently clean, sandy beaches don’t make for good TV.
The leaked oil was light or "sweet crude," causing it to be dispersed in the warm water very quickly. And as previously reported, microbes have been eating the oil and much of it has evaporated.
Should we be concerned that the oil is settling on the bottom of the ocean floor?
Professor Geoffrey Maitland, an energy engineer at Imperial College told the Telegraph that he is doubtful because the oil is less dense than the water and will float.
Experts have said that the beaches and marshes are no longer in danger.
The Telegraph article suggests that Hayward's early comments that the spill would not be a huge environmental disaster were probably correct.
Time Magazine writer Michael Grumwald weighed in on the issue on Thursday with a column titled, "The BP Spill: Has the Damage Been Exaggerated?"
Marine scientist Ivor van Heerden told Time, "There's just no data to suggest this is an environmental disaster. I have no interest in making BP look good — I think they lied about the size of the spill — but we're not seeing catastrophic impacts."
The scientist added, ""There's a lot of hype, but no evidence to justify it."
Rush Limbaugh
And the Time Magazine columnist grudgingly tipped his hand to conservative radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh . Grumwald wrote, "The obnoxious anti-environmentalist Rush Limbaugh has been a rare voice arguing that the spill — he calls it "the leak" — is anything less than an ecological calamity, scoffing at the avalanche of end-is-nigh eco-hype.
"Well, Limbaugh has a point."
Limbaugh mentioned the Time Magazine story on his show Thursday and he told listeners, "So you can't find the oil, the global warming hoaxers cannot find their global warming, and there's three and a half million jobs that have been saved out there that nobody else can find. They're all three hiding out together just to screw you. Do you realize the only reliable reporter in the media today is me?"
What happened to the oil?
Click here for a previous article on the microbes that are eating the oil and the evaporation process that is causing the slicks to disappear.
More pics here and in slideshow below.
Comments
What a lie.
What does this have to do with San Francisco?
Oil is natural and the Earth has been dealing with it for millions of years. A tiny pinprick in one oil well by human beings is not going to end it all. But, environmentalists want calamity. Without it they have no political power.
Exaggeration tally to date:
Swine flu
terrorism
global warming
oil spill
Addicted to oil? More like addicted to fear. Some people just like to be scared.
What? Not enough dead people (yet)? Not enough dead sea life? (yet) How much death do you need before you wake up?
Rush for President! When elected, we can pass the "Hillbilly Heroin Act" --- free oxycontin and cigars for all millionaire no-talents!
The media did more harm to the tourist industry in the Gulf than the actual oil spill.
Pauly, its not really an exaggeration if you are a shrimper/crabber/fisher down there in the Bay. Quite a bit disruptive...
Oil mixed with dispersant is probably not less dense than water and may remain in the environment foreever.
10's of thousands of birds are killed every year by barotrauma;
having their insides sucked out by windmill blades. These are generally large birds-raptor/cranes etc.
Why is this not worth a mention from libs, but a handful of oily seagulls is an 'environmental catastrophe'?
couldn't be the lack of shakedown cash in 'alternative' energy?
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