There was a story a couple of weeks agoabout the aftermath of the 2010 BP oil spill that got a fair amount of attention, including on this blog. A researcher had discovered that the oil slick from the Deepwater Horizon blowup had sped up the already ongoing erosion of critical wetlands in the Bayou State:
The 2010 BP oil spill accelerated the loss of Louisiana’s delicate marshlands, which were already rapidly disappearing before the largest oil spill in U.S. history, a new study reports.
As the oil washed into the marshlands, it coated and smothered thick grasses at their edge. When the grass died, deep roots that held the soil together also died, leaving the shore banks of the marshlands to crumble, said Brian Silliman, the University of Florida researcher who led the new study.
Silliman found that the oiled marshes of Louisiana had receded at a rate of about 10 feet a year -- or double the normal (and already disturbing) rate of erosion of key wetlands in my home state. That's an alarming statistic -- but it's still just a statistic. Sometimes to really understand the impact that Deepwater Horizon had on ...