When are we going to learn that using oil is destroying our planet?

Question

RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil - Hundreds of baby penguins swept from the icy shores of Antarctica and Patagonia are washing up dead on Rio de Janeiro's tropical beaches, rescuers and penguin experts said Friday. More than 400 penguins, most of them young, have been found dead on the beaches of Rio de Janeiro state over the past two months, according to Eduardo Pimenta, superintendent for the state coastal protection and environment agency in the resort city of Cabo Frio.

While it is common here to find some penguins — both dead and alive — swept by strong ocean currents from the Strait of Magellan, Pimenta said there have been more this year than at any time in recent memory.

Rescuers and those who treat penguins are divided over the possible causes.

Thiago Muniz, a veterinarian at the Niteroi Zoo, said he believed globalwarming has forced the penguins to swim further from shore to find fish to eat "and that leaves them more vulnerable to getting caught up in the strong ocean currents."

Niteroi, the state's biggest zoo, already has already received about 100 penguins for treatment this year and many are drenched in petroleum, Muniz said. The Campos oil field that supplies most of Brazil's oil lies offshore.

Muniz said he hadn't seen penguins suffering from the effects of other pollutants, but he pointed out that already dead penguins aren't brought in for treatment.

Pimenta suggested pollution is to blame.

"Aside from the oil in the Campos basin, the pollution is lowering the animals' immunity, leaving them vulnerable to funguses and bacteria that attack their lungs," Pimenta said, quoting biologists who work with him.

But biologist Erli Costa of Rio de Janeiro's Federal University suggested weather patterns could be involved.

"I don't think the levels of pollution are high enough to affect the birds so quickly. I think instead we're seeing more young and sick penguins because of global warming, which affects ocean currents and creates more cyclones, making the seas rougher," Costa said.

Costa said the vast majority of penguins turning up are baby birds that have just left the nest and are unable to out-swim the strong ocean currents they encounter while searching for food.

Every year, Brazil airlifts dozens of penguins back to Antarctica or Patagonia

Answer 1

We should have banned all those SUV's back when dinosaurs, and other creatures were wiped out by global warming, and cooling. And EPA needs to control pollutants on Mars, which is also under going global warming.

I believe if you do some research, you will find most oil spills, the vast majority, are natural caused by natural seepage, not human. And forest fires caused by nature contribute. Until then I assume you don't drive or get around by any man made means of transportation.

Since global climate change is caused almost entirely by the planet, and environment itself, we should pass laws to regulate what nature can and cannot do.

Answer 2

Well, I wonder if you are willing to kill 3 or 4 billion people to stop the effects of petroleum use?  Because that's what it would take.

Answer 3

When Washington and other governments figure out

how to tax solar, wind and water they will stop scamming us with Petroleum based products.

That is the key for all this nonesense "its taxes"...................

jock

Answer 4

I think the petroleum jelly you been using has gone to your brain.

Answer 5

Mother Earth will make more oil,when she has had enough of us.

Poleshifting will happen fast.

Answer 6

Better turn off that computer --- it's made from petroleum products.

Answer 7

It's not like we don't know (reasonable people at least), just that we don't have a viable alternative to oil.

The requirement for all oil tankers to be double hulled will make oil spills less likely to happen which will help (although the disposal of the single hulled tankers is an environmental and worker health disaster in the making) while replacing fossil fuelled power plants with nuclear reactors will reduce the rate of global warming (and might eventually lead to viability for electric cars (with better batteries) or synthetic fuels production (synthetic hydrocarbons are probably the best bet although hydrogen and boron are promising as well)).

Answer 8

I heard about those penguins. I felt really sad. Maybe we'll learn something when a democrat takes over as president. Bush actually supports Texas oil. McCain supports ofshore drilling. I'm not sure how long it will take.