Where's the Oil?

The "ecological disaster of historic proportions" in the Gulf of Mexico isn't happening...so far.  Could it be that Mother Gaia is cleaning up her own mess?

For a spill now nearly half the size of Exxon Valdez, the oil from the Deepwater Horizon disaster is pretty hard to pin down.

Satellite images show most of an estimated 4.6 million gallons of oil has pooled in a floating, shape-shifting blob off the Louisiana coast. Some has reached shore as a thin sheen, and gooey bits have washed up as far away as Alabama. But the spill is 23 days old since the Deepwater Horizon exploded April 20 and killed 11 workers, and the thickest stuff hasn't shown up on the coast.

So, where's the oil? Where's it going to end up?

Government scientists and others tracking the spill say much of the oil is lurking just below the surface. But there seems to be no consensus on whether it will arrive in black waves, mostly dissipate into the massive Gulf or gradually settle to the ocean floor, where it could seep into the ecosystem for years.

When it comes to deepwater spills, even top experts rely on some guesswork.

One of their tools, a program the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration uses to predict how oil spills on the surface of water may behave, suggests that more than a third of the oil may already be out of the water.

About 35 percent of a spill the size of the one in the Gulf, consisting of the same light Louisiana crude, released in weather conditions and water temperatures similar to those found in the Gulf now would simply evaporate, according to data that The Associated Press entered into the program.

The model also suggests that virtually all of the benzene - a highly toxic flammable organic chemical compound and one of the chief ingredients in oil - would be stripped off and quickly vaporize.

The model was not designed for deepwater spills like the one at the Macondo well in the Mississippi Canyon now threatening the Gulf Coast. But experts said the analysis might give a close approximation of what is most likely happening where the oil plume is hitting the surface nearly 50 miles south of Louisiana.

This really has to be bugging the envirowackos who were desperately hoping for black, tar-covered beaches and dead marine life so they could put a stake in the heart of the offshore oil drilling business forever. However, the planet is a remarkably self-balancing system and oil, as a natural part of that system, can be dissipated through natural processes.

The leak is currently estimated at 5,000 barrels per day, and that is roughly the amount of oil thought to seep naturally from the sea bed in the Gulf every day. It's not good to have that well continuing to leak, but at the same time it's not the end of the world. We're not "killing the planet" as one hysterical woman was proclaiming on a YouTube video I saw (I wish I could find that again).

Historically offshore drilling has been remarkably safe. When there is a problem it tends to be big, but nobody is better at cleaning up our messes than we are...with the help of Mother Gaia, of course.  We need the energy that oil provides.  Those people demanding that all offshore drilling be stopped, including such luminaries as Sen. Barbara "Dumb-as-a-Box-of-Rocks" Boxer, should demonstrate their seriousness on the issue by ceasing the use of fossil fuels in their own lives.  No more cars, no jets back to Washington...just bikes and walking.  Show us what life will be like without fossil fuels.