Blogsphere jumping with reports of collateral damage from Gulf Oil catastrophe: is it raining oil in LA, destroying crops in Miss? ... by gimleteye

The blogsphere is jumping with rumors of suspected collateral damage from the BP Deepwater Horizon catastrophe. A mysterious die-off of birds and plants along the Mississippi, a video reporting an oil-streaked rain falling in Louisiana. Mother Jones concludes: "So what to make of the video? I'd guess we're probably seeing the sheen of runoff from roads, parking lots, etc. (Let's not forget that the cars we drive every day are burning and sometimes leaking a refined version of what is currently spewing into the Gulf.)"

I would be interested to know: do poisons in Corexit, the chemical dispersant being used by BP despite objections of the EPA, gases emitted from the spill enter the atmosphere? Can they be deposited as rainfall or fog in minute droplets, far from the source. We know, from the example of mercury contamination in Florida, that bad stuff gets transported by air.

What is as interesting in these reports as rumor is that so many people worried about threats from the Gulf oil spill catastrophe never gave a second's thought about precaution in the matter of laws and regulations protecting public health and the environment. With nearly 100 million gallons of oil spewing into the Gulf, we are like a pack of dogs all holding our snouts aloft, sensing danger on the winds. We've never pierced Mother Earth before, a mile underwater, releasing toxins stored in hundreds of millions of years of geologic history. Who knows? Maybe the blogsphere is right. In which case, the mainstream press is not far behind with its own twitching.

It is as though a mass alarm bell has gone off. Maybe we can accustom ourselves to oil stained beaches that have to be cleaned up every night. At least for the time being, BP is solving the chronically unemployed and the need of volunteers to do something. Maybe the new baseline for recreation will be gradually accepted-- living with oil, as Mother Jones notes, is something we do every day. Now we will have a tolerance for dirty water, no sea life, but sun and white sand if you can avoid the tar. Maybe new businesses will spring up, cleaning the feet of kids and parents as they step from the beach to hotel lobbies. Anything is possible with human ingenuity. For the moment, tourism on the Gulf coast is evaporating fast as volatile organic compounds are drifting from the Deepwater Horizon disaster into the air. Everyone is worried where they are going. No one trusts government to tell the truth.