I just read this.
GULFPORT, Miss. — Scientists say the Gulf oil spill could get into the what's called the Loop Current within a day, eventually carrying oil south along the Florida coast and into the Florida Keys.
Nick Shay, a physical oceanographer at the University of Miami Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science, said Monday once the oil enters the Loop Current, it likely will end up in the Keys and continue east into the Gulf Stream.
And just gotta put my two cents in.
One of my hobbies is diving. While I took my screen name from the amateur paleontology I did on Devonian coral reefs, I have grown to love the diversity of life on Caribbean reefs.
The Keys have the second most diverse reef system in the Caribbean. Of the top 10 most diverse reefs two are in Florida, one in the Keys, and both will be impacted when the oil hits the gulf stream.
However, the damage may have already been done. The diversity of the reefs in Bonaire and the Keys are due to their locations in the Brazil current and Gulf Stream respectively. Planktonic forms riding those currents settle in those two locations. And, while speculation, I will bet that the planktonic life which ride the Gulf stream to settle on the Florida reefs has already suffered damage. Even were the oil to stay put where it is, the Florida reefs may already be impacted.
Add reef damage and the extent of destruction of this BP spill is unprecedented. Aren't we even ashamed that we created the regulatory climate that made this possible by putting into office those hostile to environmental protection or are so bound to the status quo that they could not see the possibility of such disaster?
From the coverage of this in the European media (where I currently am working,) the weak or absent actions by Obama are disturbing. There does not seem to be any direction to mobilize an effective and overwhelming response or for change and improvement to regulatory enforcement. Faced with disfunctional responses to disaster relief, Jimmy Carter made FEMA a professional agency. If you remember how spectacularly successful FEMA was during Clinton's administration - it was Jimmy Carter's FEMA. But neglect finally won out and we continue to see the results of an unprofessional FEMA whether looking at that agency's recent responses to Katrina or smaller disasters. And in this current disaster, I see no indication that the administration is learning from our dysfunctional system, as Carter did, and providing for effective government action now and into the future to correct and prevent the industrial destruction of our environment. It's sad that when all is said and done, the response from our Government does not promise to change the status quo. A temporary moratorium on offshore drilling does not constitute effective action.
While the disaster is not Obama's fault, the ball is in his court whether he wants it there or not.