Author’s note: I know I have been beating this one to death, but that’s because I think this is the most significant event of our times. I have been writing for weeks that this is WAY worse than we are being told by BP, the media and the feds. I also predicted it would hit the Loop Current. The catastrophic results are going to be beyond comprehension and people are about to start smelling, seeing and feeling it. This disaster is also a good example of how both parties are in bed with corporations at the expense of the American people. I hope this one wakes people up and becomes a catalyst for change, because that would be the only good that can come from it.
Excerpt:
NASA satellite imagery on Monday shows that the rapidly expanding oil slick in the Gulf of Mexico has entered a powerful current known as the Loop Current, which flows through the straits of Florida and along the eastern seaboard as far north as North Carolina before heading out into the Atlantic. The entrance of the oil slick into the Gulf Loop Current is what officials fear will be a catastrophic event.
The pollution could endanger Florida’s shoreline mangroves, sea grass beds and the third-longest barrier reef in the world, the 221-mile-long Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary. Millions of snorkelers, fishermen and other tourists are drawn to the Keys each year, whose dollars are vital to the state’s economy.
This is bad news for Florida residents. Once the oil is in the loop, it could reach the Keys in as few as 10 days. “It’s only a question of when,” said Peter Ortner, a University of Miami oceanographer. The Sun-Sentinel reported that the oil slick not only poses a danger to the Florida Keys, but also to the southeast coast from Miami to West Palm Beach and as far north as coastal North Carolina.
“When” could be sooner rather than later, as the Coast Guard reported today that tar balls have already been found on the beach at Fort Zachary Taylor State Park in Key West on Monday. Park rangers conducted a shoreline survey of the beach and the adjacent Navy beach at Truman Annex and recovered the tar balls at a rate of nearly three tar balls an hour throughout the day, with the heaviest concentration found at high tide, around 12:30 p.m.
According to the satellite imagery, the oil slick on the surface of the water has rapidly increased in size. SkyTruth, an independent research organization, states that “the total area covered by slick and sheen, at 10,170 square miles…is nearly double what it appeared to be on the May 14 radar satellite image, and is bigger than the state of Maryland.”
The general consensus among scientists is that the leak is anywhere between four and 15 times greater than the official estimate. These reports indicate that the majority of the oil in the Gulf is located below the surface of the waves.
Read more, see the satellite imagery and get links here: http://www.examiner.com/examiner/x-38220-Orlando-Independent-Examiner~y2010m5d18-Oil-slick-enters-Gulf-loop-current-tar-balls-found-in-Florida-Keys
Greg, you been doing some great work on this story and I hope you continue — the truth on this massive BP oil spill needs to get out.
As you mentioned, tarballs have washed up on the western beaches of Key West — I almost fell off my chair when the reporter on MSNBC said it had to be confirmed as coming from the BP leak — and the oil is spinning around the current up the eastern seaboard of the US. Perhaps the state tourist councils will start bragging about their colorful ‘rainbow water vistas’ while the MSM, as usual, diddles until it’s too late to solve the problem.
We can only hope the majority wake up to the Corporate Oil Giants that are destroying our future. What am I saying — this is America, so the taxpayer will proably end up underwriting their losses.
Keep up the good work anyway.
Comment by RS Janes — May 18, 2010 @ 6:01 pm