written by Na Ra Jung
May 7, 2010
There was an oil spill because of drillship explosion in the Gulf of Mexico. A giant oil slick was formed and is expanding to Mississippi river. This would affect its ecosystem and inhabitants who work in the fishing industry. An amount of oil spill exceeds more than expected and can be the worst environmental disaster occurred in US, because Mississippi and Louisiana coast have at least ten wildlife sanctuaries.
They are building oil pence, sprinkling an absorbent, using combustion, etc. But it’s way beyond our capacity.
However, is combustion good method to reduce oil spill? Removing oil is very important at this point but burning induces a poisonous gas and would cause air pollution. So how can we treat oil spill in effective way? There is hair mat. It is made of human hairs and mushroom. This method was already been used for Cosco Busan oil spill at the Gulf of San Francisco and its effect has been proved.
Lisa Gautier from San Francisco says that hair absorbs oil in the air naturally. That is why hair met works as sponge in absorbing oil spill. Lisa Gautier operates Matter of Trust, an organization that connects nonprofit organization with enterprises. She had contributed 1000 hair mat to environmental organization at that time.
When hair mat absorbs black oil, an agaric mushroom putted on met grows. Mushroom grows with oil absorbed and it absorbs whole oils within 2 weeks. Hair mat doesn’t transform to toxic garbage and it can be used again and again until it wears out.
US need to start gathering agaric mushrooms and hairs so we can save the sea.
It's really an ingenious idea. Human and animal hair stuffed in pantyhose to soak up the oil. That disaster is the worst oil related disaster this country has ever seen. No doubt there will be damage to the surrounding ecosystems and wildlife. One quart of oil can contaminate up to a quarter of a million gallons of water. People are losing more jobs because of the spill, in a time in our history were jobs are important as ever. Maybe this is a sign we need to start moving to alternative fuel sources. But firstly I have to agree with you we need to save the Gulf.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/05/11/AR2010051104317.html