It’s getting to the point where I can’t watch another news report on the uncontained oil gusher one mile beneath the Gulf of Mexico because it’s all bad news. To compound that sense of foreboding of what may come, and, in a way, mocking our inability to stop it, we have an ever-present fixed camera focused on the underwater gusher so we can all helplessly keep tabs on how fast and how much oil is leaking uncontained out of the pipes.
Spero's daughter married at the St. Louis Cathedral in the French Quarter
Heartwrenching Horror
New Orleans and the Gulf Coast hold a special place in the hearts of both me and my family. My wife, Chris, went to college at Springhill in Mobile, Alabama and has fond memories of spring parties on pristine Dauphin Island; two of my children obtained undergraduate degrees from Loyola, New Orleans, and I walked my daughter down the aisle at St. Louis Cathedral in the French Quarter. We all got to know the Gulf Coast very well over the years, so to some degree every person in my immediate family is in some phase of mourning over this situation.
Spero's sons graduated from Loyola University in New Orleans
What adds to our frustration is that even though we can see what’s happening, the environment one mile beneath the Gulf, appears to be more hostile than the surface of the moon. Even though we have ways to walk in the weightless vacuum of a lunar crater, we don’t seem to have any technology that would permit a human being to submerge to that depth. So like a page from a Marvel comic book; remote control robots have been given the responsibility of saving the areas ecosystem. Where is Aquaman when you need him?!
What’s Next?
We couldn’t reach the Superhero, but on this month’s Newsmakers we interview the next best thing and approach this issue from a “where do we go from here” perspective. Associate Dean of Research at the UM Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science , Dr. Robert Cowen, looks at probable scenarios on how all the oil and dispersants will affect fish, wildlife, and where it may go. He’s worried, not because of what we know, but because of what’s unknown. He is trying to keep track of where the all the spewing oil is going, but because of its depth (one mile beneath the surface) influences like currents going in different directions at various levels are making the plumes hard to track.
Since the earliest days of the spill UM's Center for Southeastern Tropical Advanced Remote Sensing (C-STARS) has been involved in monitoring the spill. This is an aerial view of the oil slick taken June 23, 2010.
After talking to him, it’s clear that all the speculation going on now gives us only the possibilities of what may happen, but everything, from the severity of the spill to where the oil travels, will most likely change weeks and months from now. One thing that is for certain that the repercussions of this disaster will be felt in our region for years, maybe even decades, to come.
- Spero Canton
Check out Dr. Robert Cowen’s full interviews available on Comcast On Demand > Get Local > Comcast Newsmakers