It sounds a little silly, but it's not. Scientists found that the BP oil gusher triggered an explosion of sea snot or "sticky clumps of phytoplankton" that permeated an underwater patch of the Gulf of Mexico last May. Researchers believe that clumps of sea snot might have formed a marine snow blizzard that "plummeted to the bottom of the ocean." One concern is that "they may have temporarily wiped out the base of the food chain in the spill region by scouring all small life from the water column."
For more on sea snot and its potential to grow into marine mucus blob, as well as other climate change news, please join me below.
The ocean has tiny plants called phytoplankton that produce a mucus-like substance when they suffer stress. It is possible that the BP oil gusher caused such stress that they pumped out more of the sticky substance than usual. "Based on surface observations and oily layers of dead plankton found on the seafloor, the researchers believe the sticky particles may have plummeted to the bottom of the ocean in a marine-snow "blizzard" around the Deepwater Horizon site in May."
While the sea snot blizzard is now gone, researchers are still finding new sea snot in traps on the sea floor that are checked every 36 hours. One possible long-term impact of the sea snot blizzard is the "potential to starve or poison marine creatures" because the en masse sinking may have "deprived fish larvae of a crucial food source—the phytoplankton itself." In addition, the blizzard may have suffocated bottom dwellers.
The "addition of oil may cause the sea snot to coalesce into giant blobs called marine mucilage, which can grow more than a hundred miles long."
The mucilage blobs have existed since 1729, but a recent study concluded that climate change or the warming oceans are linked to marine mucus blobs. These blobs attract bacteria and viruses (potentially including deadly E. coli) and thus are harmful to swimmers, fish, and living organisms in the water. The mucus blobs can kill fish and other marine animals by the disease-carrying bacteria, suffocate fish by coating their gills or smother life on the seafloor when a big blob fuctions as a large blanket:
Mucilage can take various forms (these are not pictures from the Gulf):
A mucilage blob can also float on the water near the shore:
BP & FOSSIL FOOLISH NEWS
- Using the video of spewing oil released by BP, US scientists determined
Gulf Oil Spill 10 Times Size of Exxon Valdez or 4.4 million barrels of crude oil. The volume of oil leaking from the well at one stage would have filled four Olympic-sized pools every day. This estimate represents a minimum volume because it is based on analysis of videos of oil leaving the broken riser pipe and does not include oil leaking from other portions of the pipe that were out of view of the video cameras.
This is the first peer-reviewed scientific study of the volume of oil leaked, and it is consistent with earlier work by a US scientific team that estimated 4.1 million barrels of oil was released by the BP well based upon pressure readings, data and analysis.
The volume of oil leaked is important both for legal actions filed against BP and assessment of fines and will provide scientists with a baseline to measure the short-term and long-term effects of the oil gusher.
Penalties can be levied against BP, which owned the well and was leasing the rig that exploded, under a variety of environmental protection laws, including fines of up to $1,100 under the Clean Water Act for each barrel of oil spilled. If BP were found to have committed gross negligence or willful misconduct, the fine could be up to $4,300 per barrel.
So, now BP is busy working up its own estimate of the amount of oil spilled.
- Video: What if oil industry officials spoke the truth?
NRDC has launched an ad campaign mocking the American Petroleum Institute with this gem:
From our point of view, holding polluters accountable means we save lives, keep people healthy and keep our economy strong. For example, the EPA estimates that tighter air quality standards for our cities will annually prevent as many as:
• 12,000 deaths
• 58,000 asthma attacks
• 21,000 hospital and emergency room visits
• 5,300 heart attacks
• 420,000 missed work days
• 2,100,000 missed school days
A World Health Organization Report in 2005 concluded that climate change kills 150,000 a year from "causes ranging from heat waves to respiratory illness."
CLIMATE CHANGE & ENERGY
- Planned coal plant meets resistance in Texas as environmental fears replace the initial appeal of jobs, tax receipts. This is terrific news because one factor decreasing public support for comprehensive climate change legislation now was our economic crisis that trumped eco concerns.
The idea had undeniable power at first. But now, with the White Stallion Energy Center about to receive an air pollution permit from the state, many local officials and residents are having second thoughts — even in the face of 12 percent unemployment in Matagorda County.
The proposed power plant may be a chimera, critics say. It may drain precious water from the Colorado River, foul the air and harm wildlife in an area known for ranches and rice, beaches and birds.
- Climate change melting reveals ancient artefacts once covered by ice for millennia, such as sticks used in reindeer hunting from before the Viking Age.
- California Approves World’s Largest Solar Power Project: The "California Energy Commission approved two solar projects earlier this summer and will rule on three more by the end of the month, according to a press release from the governor’s office."
- Mimicking Nature, Water-Based 'Artificial Leaf' Produces Electricity.
A team led by a North Carolina State University researcher has shown that water-gel-based solar devices -- "artificial leaves" -- can act like solar cells to produce electricity. The findings prove the concept for making solar cells that more closely mimic nature. They also have the potential to be less expensive and more environmentally friendly than the current standard-bearer: silicon-based solar cells.
CLIMATE CHANGE POLITICS
- Rep. Issa Would Lead 'Climategate' Probe if House Goes to GOP and "ramp up their oversight of federal agencies, including U.S. EPA.
- Proposition 23 poll shows a dead heat among California voters.
On the ballot measure itself, the survey showed that about one-fifth of likely voters had not yet taken a position. Forty percent favor the initiative and 38% oppose it, essentially a dead heat. Typically, experts say that a ballot initiative that has less than 50% support at this stage of a campaign faces trouble because undecided voters usually -- although not always -- tend to end up voting no.
- Van Jones Slams Koch Industries’ Role In Prop 23, Calls For Progressives To Stand Up To Tea Parties.
Asked about the influence of Koch in supporting Prop 23, Jones slammed the company for "trying to shove" its politics on California. To respond to the Tea Parties and other radical right groups, many of which have been organized by Koch and big business fronts, Jones encouraged the public to "stay involved and to get involved," because otherwise the people "screaming and yelling at these Tea Party events" will win control of government. He added, "I don’t think you want the Tea Party running your community, running your family, running your government."
- The Whitman Waffle: Former eBay CEO opposes both Prop 23 and AB 32.
In an attempt to ensure that California has neither an old-energy nor new-energy economy, Republican gubernatorial candidate Meg Whitman has announced her opposition to Proposition 23, the oil-fueled campaign to suspend California’s landmark climate law AB 32. Whitman also reiterated her call for a one-year moratorium of AB 32, attacking it as a "job-killer".
- More signs of warming, but legislative climate still cold.
The evidence for climate change grows: The first eight months of 2010 put this year on track to tie 1998 as the hottest year on record, global bleaching is devastating coral reefs and Arctic summer sea ice is reaching new lows.
But for all the visible signs of global warming, weakened political support for curbing emissions means the United States is unlikely to impose national limits on greenhouse gases before 2013, at the earliest. Several leading GOP candidates this fall are questioning whether these emissions even cause warming, while some key Democratic Senate candidates are disavowing the cap-and-trade bill the House passed in 2009.
WATER & NATURAL RESOURCES
WILDLIFE & ENDANGERED SPECIES
- A Troubling Decline in the Caribou Herds of the Arctic partially due to rising temps.
According to scientists, the causes of the global caribou decline are straightforward: rapidly rising Arctic temperatures are throwing caribou out of sync with the environment in which they evolved; oil and gas development, mining, logging, and hydropower projects in the Far North are impinging on the caribou’s range; and, though not a major factor, hunting is further depleting already beleaguered caribou populations.
- Climate risks for long distance migratory birds may cause decline in bird populations.
Birds embarking on long distance migrations are more vulnerable to shifts in the climate than ones making shorter journeys, a study suggests.
Scientists say the increasingly early arrival of spring at breeding sites in Europe makes it harder for the birds to attract a mate or find food.