Microbe Eats Oil

[ruggbutt]

The left has to be hating this info:

http://minx.cc/?post=304982

http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/gca?sendi ... .1195979v1

Let's see Slick say it's irrelevant cuz it's on the Minx site.....................

[callmeslick]

dude, I don't know how many times I've tried to tell you this but......I make a pretty nice chunk of change via investments in the oil business. I also have a lot of friends down on the Gulf of Mexico. Also, I am a Biochemist by training and profession. If you don't think I'm aware of petroleum eating bacteria and other microbes, you have to be pretty damned stupid. The gulf is carpeted with those little bugs, and always has been. They are common wherever petroleum occurs naturally, and proliferate with abundant food supply. Why would this be news?

Further, the presence of such organisms in no way negates other environmental impacts due to oil spills, or the dispersant chemicals used to combat them. In fact, a lot of knowledgable folks I know argued that the best way to deal with the spill was to barrier off the marshes and beaches as well as humanly possible and let the bacteria take care of the rest.

[callmeslick]

also, the Minx article uses the term 'previously unknown' to refer to the bacteria. That part IS dubious. Once again, I'll try to tell you: there is no Left or Right with Science, just facts and theories. And, the presence, and even proliferation of a petroleum eating bacterium says utterly NOTHING about the theoretical oxygen depletion idea, after a massive oil spill. In fact, as bacteria consume oxygen(they ain't plants, you know), it could actually dovetail with such an idea. Finally, what is truly important to remember, as a human, about this whole mess is this: while bacteria have developed into strains which can digest complex organic chains like petrochemicals, humans have not. For us, consumption of petrochemicals is toxic, or at best, carcinogenic. Thus eating a bottom dweller, such as a crab, shrimp, flounder or even a critter that eats those bottom dwellers, could prove highly dangerous to humans, should there be even low levels of hydrocarbons. Part of that is why I'm partial to my crustaceans coming from East Coast waters, with no natural oil seepage, even before this spill. Not that I won't order the Crab Yvonne at Gallatoires when I'm in NOLA, or avoid shrimp po-boys at Parisol, I just feel a lot better doing an 'all-you-can eat' crab fest in the Chesapeake region.