The news about oil spill you won't see on TV.

A picture is worth a thousand words.




Let them speak for themselves.



From the yahoo news article:

What you see above isn't a rural gravel road. It's a Louisiana waterway, its surface completely covered with dead sea life -- a mishmash of species of fish, crabs, stingray and eel. New Orleans CBS affiliate WWL-TV reports that even a whale was found dead in the area, a stretch of coastal Louisiana hit hard this summer by oil from BP's busted Gulf well.

Yes, I would say the problem is "over" - after all, nothing on this was reported on national TV, so there is no problem, right?

Cue trope about a typical American watching "Jersey shore" and "American Idol" etc.


Another interesting thing is the reporting on a new "oil eating bacteria" - that was all over the national news.

For example, an NPR article, or an Associated Press one, just to point a few.

Google "oil eating microbes" or "oil eating bacteria" yourself.

What I want to ask in my naive way is this question - this brand new, unknown oil eating bacteria is just discovered in this oil spill, and was not around during the, say, Exxon Valdez disaster.

Yet, these are naturally occuring, just swarming the oceans waiting for the stupid humans to spill thousands of litres of oil, right?

My question is twofold, who developed these "naturally occuring" organisms who so conveniently eat the oil spills - a private company like BP or was this done in a government lab?

And, secondly, what are the implications of introducing this (I assume) hastily developed microorganisms into the wild - bacterias interact with other organisms and chemicals all around them - what happens if (when?) they mutate?

When they enter our water supply?

Oh, I am sure this was thoroughly researched for our safety, just like aspartame or high fructose corn syrup - after all, this government is about helping the Joe Sixpack citizen, and would never take the side of a giant international corporation over the interests of the common folk, or even an eco system, riiiiiiight?