Is it true that natural oil eating organisms will gobble up most of the Gulf oil spill?

[The_Controvert]

@Sailboat

In much the same way, natural processes will eventually reduce all the bullets and shells from World War II that litter the European countryside to oxidized lumps, or the crust they lie in will eventually be folded back into the mantle and melted.

That doesn’t bring back to life the 50 million people killed in World War II, though.

As long as species don’t become extinct, it doesn’t matter how many individual organisms are killed. That’s why people don’t mourn the billions of lives harvested out of the ocean each year that go on our dinner plates.

If the Gulf eventually recovers, why should we care about the x millions of shrimp lives lost this year?

[Rex_Goliath]

I heard on NPR that a big concern with this oil spill is that oil-eating microorganisms are reproducing at an incredible rate, and sucking all the oxygen out of the water, which could create some serious damage.

[Capt.Ridley_s_Shooting_Party]

@The_Controvert

As long as species don’t become extinct, it doesn’t matter how many individual organisms are killed. That’s why people don’t mourn the billions of lives harvested out of the ocean each year that go on our dinner plates.

If the Gulf eventually recovers, why should we care about the x millions of shrimp lives lost this year?

…

Because it’s an economic disaster for one of your biggest fisheries? By the time fish stocks recover, the gulf fishing fleet may no longer exist.

[Bridget_Burke]

@The_Controvert

As long as species don’t become extinct, it doesn’t matter how many individual organisms are killed. That’s why people don’t mourn the billions of lives harvested out of the ocean each year that go on our dinner plates.

If the Gulf eventually recovers, why should we care about the x millions of shrimp lives lost this year?

I would prefer those shrimp gave their lives to be breaded & fried in a non-petroleum-based oil. Or made into gumbo. Or simply boiled for peeling & eating–in one of those waterfront dives where they put newspaper on the tables & serve shrimp by the bucket.

And what about the oysters? Delicious raw or simply fried. Robb Walsh talks about The Best Grilled Oysters on the Planet. The website for the Louisiana oyster business doesn’t have news about this catastrophe. Yet.

Lots of people earn their livings supplying & cooking Gulf Coast seafood. Then there’s the ecosystem thing–involving many species that aren’t commercially valuable. But many people would hate to see them go.

[Sailboat]

@The_Controvert

As long as species don’t become extinct, it doesn’t matter how many individual organisms are killed. That’s why people don’t mourn the billions of lives harvested out of the ocean each year that go on our dinner plates.

Completely untrue. Many people are against the killing of any animals, period, and even mourn them. Just because you don’t think about it doesn’t mean nobody does.