Greenpeace None Too Happy with Mighty O Sinking...

[Old Diver]

Try this on for size; Who is the greatest practical conservitor of whale species in history? Ans: John D. Rockefeller. By producing cheap kerosene, he undercut the cost of whale oil used for lighting. This was by a large order of magnitude of more effect on ending whale harvesting than any other single action by humans.

 

[Old Diver]

Try this on for size; Who is the greatest practical conservitor of whale species in history? Ans: John D. Rockefeller. By producing cheap kerosene, he undercut the cost of whale oil used for lighting. This was by a large order of magnitude of more effect on ending whale harvesting than any other single action by humans.

 

[radinator]

My information is what's called "common knowledge," although I admit it is common knowledge from five years ago and may have changed since then.

I love 'common knowledge' or, "everyone believes it so it must be true'.

Elvis (in my hideaway on board the UFO)

 

[Hank49]

I've found old wires under water. It took some cleaning to figure out it was plastic coated wire but it was. Even if it has PCBs and they can leach, it will have to leach out of the plastic, into the orano slime crust and be released into the water as that species reproduces and lets go it's offspring which have bio accumulated it. Seems like a pretty slow process to me......

 

[Hank49]

oops. Must be those pcbs that made me hit the buttom twice

 

[douglasville diver]

I did some research and it seem the final results stand firm-they can't bring it back up,nor would they if they could.
So as much as sadens me I can only go dive it as soon as possible [ JUNE ya baby]
I will however be aware of mutant see life and plan on watching every episode of SEA HUNT for tips on how to handle myself if I run across any.
Wish me luck
Good seas
Dave

 

[cyklon_300]

pro-pollution camp.

The sooner humans evolve and adapt to elevated levels of contaminants, the more fit we will be to function in an environment that is increasingly less pristine. We are far too fragile an organism at present and need to be introduced to a broad spectrum of metals, volatile organics, synthetic chemicals, radionuclides, etc. to strengthen our resistance to stressors.

When the going gets tough, the tough mutate.

 

[victor]

pro-pollution camp.

The sooner humans evolve and adapt to elevated levels of contaminants, the more fit we will be to function in an environment that is increasingly less pristine. We are far too fragile an organism at present and need to be introduced to a broad spectrum of metals, volatile organics, synthetic chemicals, radionuclides, etc. to strengthen our resistance to stressors.

When the going gets tough, the tough mutate.

Yes we need to learn to keep up with the croc's, they have been around a lot longer that we have and, hopefully, a long time after we have left this planet for pastures new. :martian:

 

[ReefHound]

I don't consider a 2 year study to be sufficient to analyze the risks. What they have done, in effect, is turn the O' into a 1,000 year study. What if we learn in 10 years that an unanticipated coral or algae or something has broken down the electrical insulation and PCBs start to bioaccumulate in the fish stocks?

Right, you want a 20 year study, effectively killing the ships to reef program. Study it to death. It's a common tactic among politicians who want to kill a proposal but don't have any hard facts against it.

It's not a matter that it would have cost a little bit more to remove the 700 lbs. of PCBs. It would have required dismantling the ship. And what would the pollution and energy costs have been in that? And where would the PCBs end up? They have to end up somewhere.

If the Navy sunk every one of their aging ships, the cumulative amount of PCBs wouldn't come close to the amount from just one accidental sinking where a cargo ship goes down with all it's engines, fuel, cargo, etc. And there are tens of thousands of such ships. The amount in question here is statistically insignificant.

BTW, we have those 20 year studies. 50 year studies, in fact. Just look at some of the WWII shipwrecks and show me the enduring environmental catastrophe around them.

 

[ZzzKing]

Dr. Bill, as a resident of Colorado, I can tell you from experience that forest fires do not maintain squat. I lived through the fires we dealt with a few years back, and it was directly caused by people saying exactly that. Leave the woods alone, fire is natural, fire will clear it out. Bull****. People lost homes and wildfires scoured entire mountains. The smoke covered the state, and we had ash falling in Denver.

Nature tends to disrupt things for people when readjustments are made to get things back in balance. One way to avoid being disrupted is to not live in a way that unbalances things in the first place. When too many people live in dry, windy places, then a lt of them are going to be affected when fire happens. When too many build on dry, steep slopes, they'll get washed out when downpours come. When too many live on top of a fault line, then a lot will be homeless after the fault slips. When too many live below sea level, behind the dikes, they will be homeless after the hurricane comes through.

Yellowstone as well still bears the scars of the fires in the '80s. The moose will not be able to return to northern Yellowstone for over 100 years, because they need old growth timber for habitat. It all burned down because we didn't maintain it. And that came directly from the park service.

And yet somehow, for tens of thousands of years before the NPS showed up to maintain things, our friend the moose survived and thrived. That's a pretty long stretch to go without a fire. I'm thinking we shouldn't have another one for 20 or 30 thousand years so it shouldn't be an issue.