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More on the Oil Spill from Baton Rouge
It’s a little over 150 miles from where I live in Baton Rouge to Venice, Louisiana, the town where the Gulf meets land. What I find interesting is how little
conversation I’m hearing here in town about the spill. I was at the annual Baton Rouge Fest
For All today (Sunday, May 2). It’s
a music and arts festival that attracts people from all over. No one was buzzing about it. No one was talking about the President
being down here. I had a
conversation with a professional photographer who telling me about where he
shoots his nature scenes…alligators, pelicans and things you don’t normally
see in New England or the Great Plains.
I asked him how close his spot was to the oil spill. Nowhere near – he said – not in the
least bit concerned. You would
have thought that would have opened up a conversation, but I could have asked
about the drought in Calgary for all he cared.yes”">
Maybe it is because the spill is slow moving and we don’t really know what’s going to happen.
Maybe people are waiting to worry until they know more. I’m used to hurricanes and tornadoes…things
that you plan for (hurricanes) and things that come and go quickly (tornadoes) that
leaves you with a very clear sense of what needs to be done.
All I can say is the reaction this ecological disaster is odd in the way it is being played out.
I’m also surprised that no one is calling for a boycott of BP gasoline
(or Amoco – which BP owns.) Not
that a boycott would be positive or negative.yes”"> I’m simply surprised it hasn’t been floated.
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On May 21st, 2010 at 7:13 am Craig Childers Said:
Conducted some experiments by collecting some ocean water, and placing it in a bamboo tray(representing the ocean), and then I would pour some motor oil in the tray for the oil slick to represent the spill. I then took some cheesecloth, and would wrap it around a different ingredient to see if it would absorb the oil from the water. I only used ingredients that I felt would be safe to leach into the ocean, and have alkalining effects. These were my results:
Slipper Elm Bark, absorbed all of the oil from more than one tray, and stopped after it reached saturation, but left a very strong petroleum stench at the bottom of the tray. Montmorillonite Clay, and Italian clay, did the same thing. Ground up orange peel, did the same thing, but did not leave any petroleum stench at all, in the tray. The most unbelievable was French Green Clay, which is what people use for facials. This clay absorbed ALL of the oil in a very minute amount of clay, and most of the rest of the clay in the cheesecloth, remained completely dry. The small portion of clay that absorbed all of the oil, was so dense with oil, that I could not feel the clay. This clay is completely safe, non toxic, and I believe that it would be alkalining to the ocean. Something as durable as a shop vac, but on a larger scale, and mounted on a barge,could suck up the oil and filter it through this clay very easily.