| AgrosyTN; The burning of the surface oil will probably prove to be less damaging to the enviroment and the climate of the region than allowing even more oil to accumulate on the surface of the water,then head to shore or sink to the sea floor.Large oil slicks as you must know kill floating fish eggs while oil which sinks to the bottom of the water has untold,yet to be discovered distructive effects.Yes,I know this is a horrible, distructive way to deal with this oil,and I really hope they are sucking up as much oil as they possibly can,as that would be the best way to remove the oil from the water.Vacuming up the oil however is a slow process which allows large thick oil slicks to continue to accumulate and spread out on top of the water.If enough of the surface of the gulf stays covered with oil significant volumes of water will be prevented from evaporating thus stting the stage for possibly catastrophic drought and, or other devestating weather abnormalities,that could continue indefinately. The oil fires are not likely to cause a sustained heating of the water,as much of that heat will be lost via convection,''heat rises upward away from the water''while still more of the heat will be distributed diffusely throughout the water resulting in little or no significant heating of the water.Keep in mind that water is an excellent coolant even when when dealing with such extream heat such as is typical to ceartain combustion engines and nuclear reactors. Now having said all of this,we can only hope that these fires do not release more dangerous toxins into the atmosphere than natural processes can break down,therby making even breathing for the folks down there deadly.And yes there is the posibility of toxic rain,so when all is said and done, the only safe way of dealing oil spills and spews is to make sure they do not occour to begin with ! |