Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill an Environmental disaster

Professor of Biology, Peter Ward, talked about the impact of BP's oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico. The estimates of how much is being leaked has varied depending on the source. "It cannot
have hit in a worse place," as we're dealing with a body of water that doesn't have a great deal of circulation on the bottom, he noted. The Gulf has already experienced 'Dead Zones,' where
oxygen is removed from the water, and bottom life has been killed off. Thus, the oil can't be broken up and destroyed by bacteria that would otherwise be growing there, he explained.

Further, the Gulf area contains thousands of streams-- the oil will go up into those streams and sink into the mud, and there's no easy way to clean it, he warned, adding that with the
increased rise of sea levels, the oil will be pushed inward.

Ecological biologist David Blume joined the program in the third hour, also discussing the oil catastrophe. There could be as much as 1 million gallons a day being spilled from BP's broken
oil pipes, he detailed. Yet, current drilling practices aren't going to change, until, perhaps "there's oil on the shores of the Potomac in Washington," and that is actually a possibility as
the oil slick could be carried along the East Coast by the Gulf Stream, he said.

Blume talked about alcohol gas as a cleaner and more plentiful alternative to oil, and how a wide network of small-scale alcohol fuel plants could be set up. Several states have requested
to have higher percentages of alcohol added to their fuel but the EPA has been balking for political reasons, he suggested.

Barratt Says Oil May Fall to $75 a Barrel on Weak Demand

May 5 (Bloomberg) -- Jonathan Barratt, managing director at Commodity Broking Services Pty, talks with Bloomberg's Linzie Janis about the outlook for oil prices and demand. Speaking in Sydney, Barratt also discusses the future of U.S. offshore drilling following BP Plc's oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

Obama calls military to quell spill

April 30, 2010 — Barack Obama, the US president, has mobilized the military to help deal with the spreading oil slick in the Gulf of Mexico.

Endangered birds and animals in four US states are threatened by slick that Obama, said oil giant BP is ultimately responsible for.

Experts fear the pollution could be worse than the Exxon Valdeez spill more than 20 years ago.

The first traces of oil from the slick have now reached the mouth of the Mississippi river, but out to sea, the situation is much worse.

Planes spraying dispersant chemicals on the oil slick are making little progress - while BP's crews fail to cap the ruptured well-pipe on the sea bottom and called for help from US Navy submarines.

Al Jazeera's Sebastian Walker reports from Louisiana, where shrimp fishermen fear the worst.