[AT7Saluki]

Apologies if repost. Another example of the audacity of humanity vs. the reality of creation.

[Jaded]

Thanks for the post.

[hoe_cake]

hopeful and informative.

Articles like this keep me grounded.

[HungarianGypsy]

It’s the same as forest fires. The Earth will always replenish itself after a disaster.

[Erik Latranyi]

I have been to Prince William Sound in Alaska and toured the area by boat.

You cannot see any signs that an oil-spill took place.

[dfwgator]

The Earth is not fragile.

[F.J. Mitchell]

This too shall pass, after being milked dry of every possible advantage for every possible politician.

[Constitution Day]

BTTT. Thanks for the post.

[Alberta's Child]

For all of the hazards of an oil spill, it's worth noting that crude oil exists in a natural environment -- which means nature has a way of dealing with this sort of thing.

An oil spill isn't all that much different than a devastating forest fire, when you think about it.

[Moonman62]

Crude oil is all natural and biodegradable.

[Travis McGee]

ping

[trumandogz]

After only 31 years!

[Ellendra]

But you get up into wetlands, where you're cleaning up shrubs and sea grasses, and it's far more difficult.

Actually, grasses are pretty good about soaking up oil so fast it doesn't have time to get very far. I remember reading about a tanker truck that overturned near "sensitive wetlands" on its way to the refinery. By the time emergency vehicles got there, the oil that had spilled into the swamp was gone. Someone on the scene broke off a phragmites reed from a nearby clump, and there was the oil, it had been sucked up into the hollow part of the stem just like a drinking straw.

[married21]

Makes me think of Mt. St. Helens. It was completely desolate after the big explosion. But now a lot of plants have re-started.

To me it’s a theology lesson. God’s life-giving love breaks through wherever and whenever it possibly can.

[proud American in Canada]

Thank you so much for posting this!

[jnsun]

Crude oil is deoxygenated (reduced) biological material, i.e hydrocarbons. It is not surprising when re-oxidized it can slowly meld with the natural environment, after all that is basically the same as respiration or combustion: HC + O₂ = CO₂ + H₂O.

Not trying to be an apologist for an imminent (and moderate term) environmental disaster, but one will never hear such a perspective from ABCCBSNBCPBS.

Kind of like the global warming thing.

Incidentally on the surface we do not take Barack Obama to task for the slow redress of this situation any more than we blamed George Bush for Katrina results. That's silly bigoted politics. Most of us know BO is just a Harvard buffoon. But if BP was actually given environmental waiver for the drilling, and donated big money to the BO campaign, as mentioned on FR, then we are indeed seeing the sinister global conspiracy; and the complicity of the Republican Party if nothing is brought out.

This is why "they" want to control the Internet, and it extends far deeper than just the News Media politicians.

[Buckeye McFrog]

Oil is a natural product, and Ma Nature has her methods for dealing with it. It’s not like it came spewing out of a Monsanto plant.

[Smokin' Joe]

But if the BP spill seems to be repeating one truth already demonstrated in the Ixtoc spill - that human technology is no match for a high-pressure undersea oil blowout -

Human technology stopped the Ixtoc 1, and will get the BP well plugged as well.

i am glad to see someone writing about the capacity for nature to deal with such ills. It is a refreshing alternative to the hysterical apocalyptic ravings which have predominated the discussion.

[PATRIOT1876]

“Another example of the audacity of humanity vs. the reality of creation.”

Great quote!!

[Steve Van Doorn]

Persian Gulf is the perfect example of nature knowing how to clean up itself. The water in the Persian Gulf it crystal clear with some of the best fishing.

[catfish1957]

31 years?... How about 3-4 years. By 1982, the beach (Galveston as an example) was basically just random tar balls every few feet apart or so. Everyone basically knew to take baby oil to wipe it off when you left. Mother Nature’s healing powers are a lot more powerful than everyone realizes.