Hypoxia and Medicine

Should environmentalist change the Gulf of Mexico's name to the Dead Sea?

Posted: Jun 18, 2010 4:30 PM EDT Updated: Jun 18, 2010 5:30 PM EDT By MATTHEW BROWN and RAMIT PLUSHNICK-MASTI Associated Press Writers NEW ORLEANS (AP) - Vast amounts of natural gas contained in crude escaping from the blown Gulf of Mexico oil well could pose a serious threat to marine life by creating "dead zones" where oxygen is so depleted that nothing lives. The danger presented by the methane has been largely overlooked, with early efforts to monitor the oil spill focusing on the more toxic components of oil. But scientists are increasingly worried about the gas that can suffocate sea creatures in high concentrations. http://ww.abc6.com/global/story.asp?s=12674046 Edit: This is very, very, very sad. I can't believe this is actually happening during my life time. I wonder what the Gulf is going to be like 20 years from now? ( o _ 0 ) Makes you wonder if this is only the beginning of bad things to come. The earth is our home. Not the moon. Not mars. So what if humans colonize the moon or mars, we'll eventually destroy those planets too!

Public Comments

1. A good portion of the Gulf becomes a dead zone every summer, spill or no spill. Many of these hypoxic areas are growing every year and are more related to global warming then anything else. Of course heavy use of fertilizers has been implicated in the Gulf dead zone but there have been instances where the zone grew due to temperature when fertilizer levels would've suggested a smaller zone. Yes products from the oil spill will add to ocean anoxia, mostly because the bacteria that digests oil will deplete the water of oxygen. The interesting thing is that the fossil record suggests that most mass extinctions including the Permian extinction occur due to ocean anoxia and the subsequent anaerobic sulfur eating bacteria that produce hydrogen sulfide. The dead zones have been there every year and are larger each year so why did it take a disaster like this oil spill for you to think it's a problem? You should be asking yourself why you and so many other people are unaware of the issues affecting our environment till something dramatic like the Deepwater Horizon happens and then why so many people forget like after the Ixtoc 1 spill in 1979. This isn't the first spill in the Gulf and it won't be the last. Space colonization may be the best way to preserve the Earth's environment by depopulizing it through emmigration. Standalone space habitats at the LaGrangian points are far preferable colonization places than Mars and the effort to construct self sustaining eco-system will give us the tools needed to rehabilitate our ailing planet. As to the beginning, that happened a long time ago, the oil spill simply brought it to the attention of many people who where oblivious before.
2. There already is a Dead Sea. Just sayin'.