RePortersNoteBook.com: CNN interviewed a marine toxicologist who said:

May 15, 2010

CNN interviewed a marine toxicologist who said:

CNN interviewed a marine toxicologist, Riki Ott, who said:

The oil will bio-accumulate, meaning the oil will accumulate throughout the entire food chain.....the dispersants won't sink to the bottom...instead, they will travel in the water column.....where's BP evidence that their dispersants aren't toxic? The EPA approved the dispersants BP is using; HOWEVER, the EPA is requiring only VERY OLD MINIMAL TESTS for these dispersants.

Riki Ott says this is a severe toxic hit in the water column harming marine wildlife for decades to come.

Here's what you're not hearing from BP: it will take decades to get rid of the oil in the Gulf spill. The health consequences for residents of the coast will be severe and long-lasting—and even more acute for cleanup workers directly exposed to the oil. And the marine wildlife may never fully recover.

In this clip from Anderson Cooper 360 (via Crooks and Liars), marine toxicologist Riki Ott (Not One Drop: Betrayal and Courage in the Wake of the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill) and presidential historian Douglas Brinkley explain some of the ecological and economic consequences of this latest man-made environmental disaster.

COOPER: Joining me now is Riki Ott, who is a marine toxicologist with the Earth Island Institute, also presidential historian Douglas Brinkley — Brinkley.

Riki, Rush Limbaugh and Gene Taylor say this is just going to break up naturally. A, is that true? And, B, does it mean we should just let nature take its course?

RIKI OTT, MARINE TOXICOLOGIST, EARTH ISLAND INSTITUTE: We're going to probably wait 40 years or 50 years before it all breaks up naturally. So, it's a matter of rate. And what we're going to see here probably in Louisiana, with a little bit warmer temperature, maybe a little bit more rapid degradation, maybe a little less than 50 years, but who knows how much less.

COOPER: All right. So, leaving it to nature take its course clearly doesn't make any sense.