Just a thought, if the oil slick gets into the Gulf's conveyor belt pattern.....

[marmar]

edited to correct the Teabagger-like spelling error in the subject line:dunce:



..... as it gets closer to the shore, what's that going to mean for the tourism-dependent beach towns of Alabama and the Florida Gulf Coast region?
The potential impact is huge.....

[pipi_k]

1. I'm wondering what will happen during hurricane season if it's not cleaned up by then n/t

[Webster Green]

2. I read that if that happens it could creep up the east coast.

It could wind up on the beach in Miami.

[Mz Pip]

3. This is a catastrophe

that will have long reaching environmental and economic implications, tourism being one of them. People aren't going to want to fly down to the gulf to spend their vacation walking on an oil soaked beach.

Mr Pip and I thought about doing a Carribean cruise or maybe go to Sanibel Island for our anniversary at the end of May and I'm glad we decided to head to New England instead. Glad we did.

[northernlights]

4. tourism in that region will be dead

more important, now that it's gushing 25,000+ barrels (1,000,000+ gallons) daily and growing ("Experts said satellite data indicated the oil was gushing from BP’s sunken Deepwater Horizon rig at 25,000 barrels a day. Previous estimates had put the leak at 5,000 barrels a day....
Professor Ian MacDonald, an ocean specialist at Florida State University, said the new estimate suggested the leak had already spread 9m gallons of heavy crude oil across the Gulf. This compares with 11m that leaked from the Exxon Valdez tanker when it hit a reef off Alaska in 1989.....The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said deteriorating conditions on the sea bed may result in an even greater flow of 50,000 barrels a day)

with no end in sight, if it gets picked up by the gulf stream, it will eventually head across the Atlantic and hit the UK.

This seems to be devolving into the environmental catastrophe that ends all environmental catastrophes.