Oil Spill day 11: Smell of Petrol Arrives First to Florida Coast by Deborah Dolen (AFP/Getty Images)

Oil Spill Day 11: Smell of Petrol Arrives First to Florida Coast by Deborah Dolen (AFP/Getty Images.)

As far as the smell of the Gulf Oil Spill, it has already arrived on Florida shores. “I smell gas or propane” these type of phone calls to emergency services are rapidly increasing down the Florida coast, most interestingly as far south as Naples, FL. Residents are also describing the smell as turpentine, burnt rubber or roach spray. The question is, are Florida residents really smelling the gas spill hundreds of miles away or is it a psychological adoption just knowing the oil spill is “out there?” It is real reports the Florida Department of Environmental Protection who says, “although the smell is unpleasant it is not dangerous.”

As early as April 27th, Bay News 9 in Tampa, FL reported dozens of viewers calling in or e-mailing asking about “the smell.” They've described it as turpentine, burnt rubber or roach spray. Residents also have been calling St. Petersburg Fire & Rescue. Lt. Joel Grenata said several people have called in emergency gas leaks. W hen fire crews arrive, they can't find anything wrong.

About the same time emergency officials were getting calls in Naples, FL about the same phenomenon. Again the Naples emergency crews would arrive to find no leak. All Noah Standridge, of North Naples, needed to do was open his front door Tuesday afternoon. After a quick check to make sure his car wasn’t leaking fluids, Standridge realized the smell was coming from beyond his house. “The first thing I thought of was that oil rig out there,” he said.

If this spill is anything like the Timor Oil Spill off Australia’s coast, it will take about ten weeks to patch. The good news is that the type of oil is not a heavy oil as with the Exxon Valdez. Environmentalist feel the warm water, strong sunlight will degrade the oil much faster than in other types of spills. Ed Overton, a professor emeritus of environmental sciences at Louisiana State University and oil spill expert said “If you had to pick an oil to spill, this would be it.”

Read about Ringo a dog flown in from Katrina. Official Bio of his owner and short Bio. RSS Syndicated Feeds on the environment. How Twitter is best used. Deborah Dolen Books on Amazon. Review of her books on Open Library, Paperback Swap, Good Reads and ReviewScout. You can also read Google Profile. Deborah Dolen on MySpace Facebook, and Flickr. This is our favorite blogspot. See Deborah Dolen on YouTube and her last book written London Apothecary and book.

Now What? Oil Spill in the Gulf of Mexico Observations by Deborah Dolen

Now What? Oil Spill in the Gulf of Mexico Observations by Deborah Dolen (AFP/Getty Images)

Get ready to see emancipated dolphins, gasping sea turtles and whales that cannot take it. BP's well is spewing about 210,000 gallons of oil a day into the ocean, according to Coast Guard estimates. This is much more than the 45,000 gallons a day people were told a few days ago. This spill will rival the Exxon Valdez and be more spread out because the sweet crude oil is not entering cold waters where it tends to gunk together, warm, it breaks apart easier and some oil will fall to the ocean floor. Falling to the bottom is not a good thing as many marine life eat off the bottom. Warmer water temperatures offered by the Gulf of Mexico is the same reason this oil spill is not easy to set afire as 95% of the spill is already mixed with the water. The comparatively warm waters of the gulf also move the oil spill faster than in the Valdez crises. But the best comparison, discussed at the end of this article in not Valdez. The best comparison to an oil spill of this likeness an origin is one that happened last year in September off the coast of Australia in the Timor Sea.

The Gulf of Mexico oil spill is presently headed to the Mississippi river. What impact it will have on fresh water supplies will be an urgent question. The areas trillion dollar fishing industry is already past the risk stage, and lawsuits are being rushed to the court houses by fisherman already damaged – primarily shrimp fishermen. The other coastal states need not worry, there is enough sweet crude oil spewing to go around for everybody. As soon as the current goes south east, and it will, a major undertaking to protect Alabama and Florida wildlife and coast lines will be underway.

Greenpeace's Hocevar said he's particularly concerned about the impact to critically endangered bluefin tuna. "It's their spawning season and bluefin larvae in this part of their life-cycle would be near the surface of water," Hocevar said. The oil could also harm sea turtles, which are approaching nesting season; fin whales; menhaden, a fish species harvested mostly for fish meal and fish oil; bottom-feeding oysters; and numerous species of birds, according to Hocevar.

Florida environmentalist report endangered sea turtles are in the gulf preparing any day to begin the difficult process of nesting on Florida’s beaches. Manatees’, the vegan loving walrus looking creatures are not going to fare well either in floating gas. There is no data on the effect of an oil spill on Manatees because they have never been out playing in an oil slick. Dolphins are expected to also experience crises due to the oil spill, such as emancipation, a hallmark of the Australian oil spill last year.

Read about Ringo a dog flown in from Katrina. Official Bio of his owner and short Bio. RSS Syndicated Feeds on the environment. How Twitter is best used. Deborah Dolen Books on Amazon. Review of her books on Open Library, Paperback Swap, Good Reads and ReviewScout. You can also read Google Profile. Deborah Dolen on MySpace Facebook, and Flickr. This is our favorite blogspot. See Deborah Dolen on YouTube and her last book written London Apothecary and book.

Going Green 101 with Deborah Dolen

How to "Go Green" with Class While Going Natural as Well excerpt by Deborah Dolen

Of course you separate your empty cans from your glass bottles and make sure paper products also go in dedicated bins meant just for them. You even bought those hideous looking bags at the grocery store to make a statement that you do not need paper bags. You are the recycling role model for your community. But what about you?

Going green is not a theory it is a lifestyle. Going green does not always mean going natural or saving money, so you need to pick a denomination of the concept that promotes all three. I have always preached going green while going natural and saving money. Possibly because I do not sell expensive windmills, not that I dislike windmills. I think everyone should have a windmill. Good practices have to "work" in real life and have a great benefit or people are just not going to have any real on-going commitment. Saving the wallet and protecting health does come before saving the world.

My biggest reason for going green was my health.

My largest concern has gone diluted in all of my years of writing. My largest reason for going green is my health. Our skin is our largest organ and absorbs over 60% of what is put on it - which goes right into our blood stream. The health costs of what non-green products have done to our general health is astronomical. Do you understand the water you shower with goes right into your body? Get your "green" priorities straight before you are too sick to pick a bin in which to recycle what you are trying to throw out.

Address your water first and what you put on your skin, second. Work from the inside out in your going green effort. It is my opinion you cannot filter water enough and that is a complete novel of its own. And 99% of bottled water is a major farce not to mention a plastics load on the environment, so do not look there. Filter everything, and twice if you can. And do not forget filtering does not kill bacteria or pharmaceuticals dumped in our water sources.

When I opened my first apothecary in Houston a lady asked me what I thought of a rash on her neck and chest-not that I am a Doctor but hers sure did not have a clue. She said she had suffered horribly for several years. I simply asked her a question and she came up with her own answer. "Is that where your shower water hits you?" I asked her. And the same situation a few months later with a child who had a rash feet to his trunk. I asked "does he bathe instead of shower and would that be his general water line?" I do not sell water purifiers and it is a pity because it is my most important "I was right" moments. Consider this is just bathing not including ingesting. Read up more on my water articles because I cover a lot of area and will always continue writing on water. As far as purifiers, I think Consumer Reports listed Amway (of all things)-to be superior in that market. Once we get past your phenomenological world, then read about going green in the home. Using cloth towels over paper towels is a huge savings and one of my biggest in my house hold. I think I save over $800 a year while also saving trees.

Please visit this site for How to Clean Green and other articles I wrote about this subject.

http://www.mabelwhite.com/Seasons/Archive/2010_04_10.htm

Read about Ringo a dog flown in from Katrina. Official Bio of his owner and short Bio. RSS Syndicated Feeds on the environment. How Twitter is best used. Deborah Dolen Books on Amazon. Review of her books on Open Library, Paperback Swap, Good Reads and ReviewScout. You can also read Google Profile. Deborah Dolen on MySpace Facebook, and Flickr. This is our favorite blogspot. See Deborah Dolen on YouTube and her last book written London Apothecary and book.

Deborah R. Dolen's Childhood

Deborah Dolen, editor in Chief for Mabel White Home Living and author of 25 books and 7 DIY films. Deborah Dolen grew up in the Adirondack mountains in Upstate New York. Thoroughbred Race horses were her passion and she skipped school a lot in the 70's to walk and groom the likes of Man o' War and Secretariat. When Deborah Dolen was not grooming horses in Saratoga, NY she was hitting the ski slopes of Killington in Vermont, Pikes Peak, or Gore Mountain to name a few. To this day K-2's are Deborah Dolen's favorite skis and Head are her favorite bindings.

Fast forward a few decades and Deborah Dolen author of Mabel White Home Living is very much into canine rescue and DIY projects she writes about and films from her Florida home. Although her passions have always been with horse racing she is very into auto racing, focus and performance in Daytona and Charlotte, NC. Deborah presently writes about environmental topics beyond DIY subjects that will always fascinated her. Deborah Dolen now lives on Bishop Harbor in Florida (named after Samuel Bishop) where she studies and writes DIY material as well as environmental topic in a largely government owned protected wet land that surrounds her.

Read about Ringo a dog flown in from Katrina. Official Bio of his owner and short Bio. RSS Syndicated Feeds on the environment. How Twitter is best used. Deborah Dolen Books on Amazon. Review of her books on Open Library, Paperback Swap, Good Reads and ReviewScout. You can also read Google Profile. Deborah Dolen on MySpace Facebook, and Flickr. This is our favorite blogspot. See Deborah Dolen on YouTube and her last book written London Apothecary and book.

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