What’s one man’s poison, signoir,
Is another’s meat or drink
Beaumont
and Fletcher, love’s Cure, III, 2
Senator Barack Obama, President of
the United States of America ,
John Public has long suspected, is a clandestine Marine Biologist. He and his
wife, Michelle Obama, First Lady and their youngest daughter Sasha Obama, the
First daughter (is there such a thing by the way?) were frolicking in the calm
waters of Florida.
A state largely seen as lucky to
escape while the impact of the Oil spill is felt elsewhere due to the explosion
of the DeepWater Oil Well off the coast of Louisiana on Thursday April 20th
2010 as stated in the article “Obama swims in
Gulf, says beaches open for business”, published Sunday August 15, 6:57 am
ET by Ross Colvin, Yahoo! News.
Perfect photo ops, making John
Public wonder if the President used to be an actor like former president Ronald
Reagan. At this point it is good to note that Senator Barack Obama, President
of the United States of America is swimming on the say-so of the Federal Scientists
and as such is the point at which I, a science blogger enters this story, as
there are conflicting reports about what has happened to all that Oil in such a
short space of time.
This is because Federal Scientists
claim that all the Oil has been removed, dissolved or dispersed, possibly even
evaporated and only a quarter of the nearly 4.9 million barrels of Oil spilling
into the Gulf of Mexico remains since the environmental catastrophe, described
as “Obama’s Katrina:, yet Georgia scientists claim that the missing Oil, nearly
80% is still present, just that it is below the surface as stated in the
article “Ga.
scientists: Gulf Oil not gone, 80 pct remains”, published Monday August 16,
6:30 pm ET, Yahoo! News.
The President had made it clear
that the work of cleaning the Oil is not completely over, saying as much to
reporters: “Oil is no longer flowing into the Gulf, and it has not been flowing
for a month. But I'm here to tell you that our job is not finished, and we are
not going anywhere until it is”.
However, it was evident that he was
under pressure to visit the area as a show of solidarity with the plight of
those affected by the catastrophe, so having the First Daughter, Sasha, in the
photo-op, may have been a clever means of making sure that the spin doctors
working to dismantle his credibility were more than satisfied that it was safe
enough for even children to swim.
But from a purely scientific
viewpoint, with no political point scoring intended, who is correct? The
Federal Scientists or the Georgia
Scientists? It appears they are both right, as John Public takes a walk down to
the bayou of Louisiana………..
It is good to note that despite
being a freelance blogger, I am also a Developer and an Electronics and
Inorganic Chemistry maven, having studied same at UWI as well as having
practical experience and expedience in both over my working life in Jamaica , my
credentials plain for all to judge. So the call is not a political move on my
part to declare both scientists correct, it is more of an Inorganic Chemistry
and Physics intellectual jousting, if you will.
Oil, specifically petroleum, or
“rock Oil”, albeit less dense than water and thereby floating and lazily
spreading as the wind, rain and sun drive its motion, is still an organic
mixture that is very edible to micro-organisms, especially bacteria and algae,
who have long grown accustomed to eating Oil
The ocean floor all over the Earth
is littered with deep vents and fissures that constantly leak Oil into the
ocean, which these specialized bacteria and algae “nyam” as we Jamaicans would
say, on a regular basis.
When the DeepWater Horizon Oil well
blew its top and everyone was crying over the spilt milk…….or Oil in this case,
the bacteria and algae were having a ball, feasting on an excess of Oil.
The only true casualties of the Oil
spill were the birds, many either caked in Oil or died of hunger as the fish,
many of who ate the phytoplankton in the area, notice the absence of their food
due to the sunlight blocked by the floating umbrella of Oil and the difficult
breathing due to lack of oxygen, and so fled the scene and sought food
elsewhere.
Thus talk of an ecological disaster
that would take years to recover was just that…….talk………. as most of the
persons making the most noise were either the politicians themselves looking to
get into the Senate on a Presidential bid as stated in the article “Could
the spill restore Jindal as a GOP whiz kid?”, published Tuesday June 8, 6:49 am ET, by KEVIN McGILL, Associated
Press Writer, Yahoo! News with Republicans
looking to get a few kicks in on the Democrats and scientists on their payroll.
Thus the fish were fine, probably on vacation as the algae and bacteria dined,
a feast fit for a king.
Then something interesting happened,
at least to us Marine Biologist and Inorganic Chemists, to all that Oil. It
began to complexate with the Sodium Chloride or Sea Salt, which also contains
traces of magnesium, phosphorus, potassium and cobalt and formed heavier-than-Oil
molecular complexes that sank but not all the way to the bottom, letting the
sunlight through.
Life began to slowly return within
a matter of days but unable to thrive deep below, as a cloud of suspended Oil
hung like a cloud in hovering midway in the depths, the fish flying over head,
a vista much akin to an aircraft flying above the clouds in the sky, only the
fish would see black clouds of suspended Oil instead of pearly white clouds.
The organometallic complex is still
edible to the bacteria and algae, who are still munching on it now as we speak,
while the water above is completely clear, returning to pre-Oil spill
concentrations, measured in parts per million of oil, hence the Federal
Scientists claim that is had all gone and thus why the First Daughter, Sasha is
perfectly safe, thus score one for the Federal Scientists.
From a purely Physics point of
view, however, the Federal Scientists are incorrect, as it had not all
evaporated, as Oil of that grade does not easily evaporate readily, even in
direct sunlight, as most of it would have complexated and be suspended below
and thus unseen.
The Oil was hovering in mid water
due its specific gravity resulting from its complexation with potassium,
manganese, sodium and cobalt present naturally in seawater. So the Federal
Scientists got it half right or were deliberately misrepresenting the results
of their tests, so score one for the Scientists from the University of Georgia .
But here is where it gets
interesting to my friends over in Bio-chemistry and Marine Biology at the
University of the West Indies . The bacteria
and algae, being overstuffed, and probably tired, settled down and had some
kids. They reproduced in abundance due to the excess Oil and thus their
increasing number exponentially will accelerate their “nyamming” [eating] of
the suspended Oil faster and faster, thus depleting the oxygen in the water
exponentially faster as well.
This is further accelerated if
nitrates are present in the water, as nitrates, coming from fertilizer polluted
rivers, will wash from inland and exponentially fuel the reproduction of the
bacteria and algae, thus making the entire area totally Oxygen free and keeping
the fish away for quite a while in a matter of weeks.
Eventually as time goes by,
probably over a three (3) to six (6) month period, all that Oil, suspended
below the surface, believe it or not, will be completely consumed, leaving
behind an excess of bacteria and algae with nothing to eat, perfect food for
fish slowly returning as the oxygen levels begin to rise again due to presence
of anaerobic bacteria and coral that will start to thrive once the sunlight has
returned converting the carbon dioxide slaked water into oxygen.
Perfect food for protozoan and
shrimp, which became perfect food for larger animals up the food chain, such as
fish, the supposedly “delicate” ecosystem behaving more like Venture
Capitalists at a funding round for Alternative energy prospects!
However, with the nitrates still flowing
by the gallon in from the rivers into the sea, nitrates still present in the
now clearing cloud of suspended Oil, the oxygen levels begin to drop again as
the algae, and bacteria, re-energized, begin to feast on nitrates in excess,
creating an oxygen free zone just ten (10) to fifteen (15) kilometers of the
coast, being as the algae and bacteria would eat more peaceful in less disturbed
waters farther out to sea as now all the Oil is gone.
Trapped, the fish are forced to
swim towards the coast into now more oxygenated waters, eating bacteria and
algae along the way to their traditional spawning grounds in the Louisiana
bayou………with sharks in hot pursuit.
These Oxygen Free Zones usually
become disturbed by the every frequent hurricane, which as meteorologists
knows, as fuelled by hot rising moisture from the sea. The hurricane vortex
also moves the water, and the churning foam and breakers help to dissolve and absorb
more atmospheric oxygen, thus returning the oxygen balance, part of the cycle
of renewal that hurricanes bring to the Gulf of Mexico .
The area, ironically, is healed by
the Carib God Hurracan, with his strong gusting wind breathing oxygenate life
back into the water. A couple good Category 5 hurricanes, John Public, now
wearing his Marine Biology hat, muses, chocolate pipe in hand and the balance
is restored after the “catastrophe”, thus showing up the Republicans as merely
looking for mud to stick on the President, when Biodiversity is doing its job,
and thus guaranteeing Senator Barack Obama, President of the United States of
America a second term in office.
The only danger, however, is that,
before a good hurricane comes, the fish, trapped between the coastlines, which
also double as their spawning grounds along with the shrimp, attract hungry
sharks, looking for food. Senator Barack Obama, President of the United States
of America and his family are more in danger of a shark attack
This usually occurs in the summers
(much thanks to Steven Spielberg on that one in Jaws) than being messed
up with Oil, which is organic anyway and is already present in trace amounts in
the Gulf of Mexico long before the Oil spill.
Oh, I forgot about the poisonous lionfish……….but
they can swim and be caught an be served up by chef Dr. Christopher Tufton,
Minister of Agriculture in good garlic sauce, my next article…..
No comments:
Post a Comment