Positive Growth Alliance members & interested parties:
We just came accross the following article from Time/CNN regarding the Gulf oil spill. We urge you to read it.
It appears that there may not be nearly as much damage in the Gulf as we've been led to believe. The spill was hyped by every type of media, even Fox News.
If it turns out to be true, it will be no surprise to us. Human beings are very subsceptible to this type of fear, especially enviromental. After all, it sounds really frightening, especially when we don't really understand it. Throw in a few pictures of oiled pelicans to garner our sympathy and we'll buy it hook, line and sinker every time.
That the damage may be over-stated is hardly shocking. Through global cooling, global warming, and including pfisteria (remember that one?), world hunger, soil erosion, nutrification, and every other type of hyped environmental catastrophe, humans have prevailed. We've consistently gotten healthier and increased our lifespans, at least in the countries where free enterprise has been allowed to flourish.
This is not to say there aren't environmental challenges or that human beings don't cause them. All you have to do, however, is to contrast the America of the 1970s with the America of today to see how much progress can be made. Unfortunately, today there is an all out assault on free enterprise. It is an open question whether we will be able to afford real environmental progress in the future.
Rich Collins
302-381-1610
The BP Spill: Has the Damage Been Exaggerated?By Michael Grunwald / Port Fourchon, La. Thursday, Jul. 29, 2010 http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,2007202,00.html
We also found these. The Yahoo article is particularly informative.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ynews_excl/ynews_excl_sc3270
QUOTE FROM THIS ARTICLE: The lesson from past spills is that the lion’s share of the cleanup work is done by nature in the form of oil-eating bacteria and fungi. The microbes break down the hydrocarbons in oil to use as fuel to grow and reproduce. A bit of oil in the water is like a feeding frenzy, causing microbial populations to grow exponentially.
http://www.vanityfair.com/online/daily/2010/07/so-has-anyone-seen-the-oil-that-spilled-into-the-gulf.html
