Remember that study in the journal “Science” a little while back that reported microbes had taken care of “nearly all” the methane released during the BP oil spill?
Um, not so fast…
“Scientists on Thursday cast doubt on a study that claimed bacteria ate nearly all the methane that leaked after the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, saying its methods were flawed.
Describing the findings as “ambiguous” and “unconvincing,” marine scientist and lead author Samantha Joye and colleagues from 12 other institutions wrote in the journal Science that the study’s methods demanded a second look.
“We find the complete methane oxidation hypothesis unconvincing,” said the article in the peer-reviewed journal.”
Read the article:
Scientists doubt methane from BP oil spill is ‘nearly all gone’
Have a nice day.
Drake Toulouse: Photography and Words 
This is precisely my chief bitch with Ivor van Heerden selling out to BP for coast oil spill impact assessments. Here’s one rant with links to other rants on that ass fuckery: http://noladder.blogspot.com/2010/07/katrina-levee-critic-van-heerden.html
What put the burr up my ass wasn’t that the man has to work for a living and support his family.
It isn’t even the Glossy PR Videos that Van Heerden did for BP downplaying the oil’s coastal impact.
What really bothered me is what Van Heerdens betrayal did to the greater scientific community and the chances of Independent Scientific Assessment of the oil spill’s impacts. At a time when NO PRESS were allowed anywhere Near a beach or marsh where the oil was coming in by the barrel, Van Heerden’s public statements downplaying the impact brought down the entire scientific community’s intellectual integrity.
It is a definitive PR Tactic to muddle the science, or failing that bring the entire set of Questions & Answers down to the mean common denominator. It worked swell for the cigarette corps.
Here’s a link to some right wing shmeal that perfectly illustrates my point of how Ivor Van Heerden betrayed not only Louisiana, but the scientific method writ large.
http://townhall.com/columnists/humbertofontova/2011/05/26/the_worst_environmental_disaster_in_us_history!_one_year_later/page/full/
Thank you.
Have a nice day yer’self!
Thanks much for the links…ah yes, the problem with science and proof on a legal level, but bit more on that later, writing in the middle of the night…
-Drake