These days it's so easy to be reminded of environmental blunders, what with Japan's Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster. Lots of nature movies (all stressing longer Arctic summers and plankton loss) have been watched lately (including Oceans and several other BBC nature programs) and don't help at all.
I did come across a recent newspaper article about the gulf, which surprised me and rekindled lots of old outrage. It says that up to 400 dolphins have died, half of them calves and at least 100 just since January. It goes on to say that the number of dolphin deaths could be "into the thousands before the end of calving" which continues in the next six weeks, and also that many residents along the Gulf Coast who helped in cleanup without wearing proper protective gear are experiencing loss of red blood cells, leading to internal bleeding. Chemical used to disperse the oil causes this loss.
I totally agree with the last two paragraphs in the article, which state that there should be legislative action in the gulf to prevent the same thing happening again. After all, the world is peppered with off-shore oil rigs, and the government is still looking into having more of them. It's the same story with nuclear power. Clearly, it takes more than meltdowns to impress upon the powerful that that whole endeavor really isn't a good idea. I shudder to think of what it will take. You really would think that after an incident as massive and catastrophic as the Gulf Spill, there would be some very strict laws made regarding off-shore drilling.
Unfortunately, it's not possible to find the article (which appeared in the Bangor Daily News on April 14) online.
I was at a talk about ice in Antarctica recently and the question of if the earth is able to survive if pollution and melting continue at the current rate came up. There was a slight pause before the speaker said, "well, the earth will survive" and left the sentence hanging.
When I think that the Gulf Spill was a year ago and then think of the projected losses and gains 50 years from now (a population of 10.5 billion, extinct Siberian tigers, Polar Bears, and many other species) it seems like that time is going to go by very fast.
Here is an interesting article from National Geographic, plus some amazing pictures.
http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2011/01/seven-billion/kunzig-text
http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2011/01/seven-billion/olson-photography
Note: wow, sorry for all the negativity. Really I'm just writing this to make everything clear to myself. But I do try to put some solid facts in as well as my own ranty observations.
