I READ SOMEWHERE THAT THE GULF IS ABSOLUTELY TEEMING WITH OIL, EATING BACTERIA ON ACCOUNT OF THE FACT THAT TENS OF THOUSANDS OF OIL SEEPS INTO THE GULF FROM NATURAL OIL LEAKS ON THE BOTTOM OF THE GULF.

GAIA IS A WONDERFUL HOMEOSTATIC MASTERPIECE.

I BETCHYA GAIA EVEN HAS A NATURAL REMEDY FOR GLOBAL WARMING, TOO!

Everytime I hear a greenie screams because of some dire prediction not coming true, I smile a little.

Which usually turns to a chuckle and go full bore into a laugh that Darth Vader can only dream to have.

Reliapundit: I heard the same thing about how the Gulf is teeming with oil eating bacteria due to the thousands of oil seeps that actually spill more oil into the Gulf every day than the spill from Deep Horizon when taken as a whole. I wasn't aware that there are oil eating bacteria, but even still the story makes more sense to me than evaporation. There are bacteria for everything and I've yet to see spilled oil ever evaporate, but then I haven't had much experience with spilled oil.

Like the overpriced produce at Whole Foods, oil is organic, and degrades as quickly as any other organic compound.

Voton: That's funny.

Whether it be in the form of sunlight, steak, or undersea volcano juice, there is some critter who will happily make a sammich out of most any source of energy short of radioactive metals - which I suspect are too crunchy...But hey it's a big Universe.

I'm gratified these accounts of "missing oil" are appearing in the MSM, including the NYT.

President Obama has called the BP oil spill "the worst environmental disaster America has ever faced," ...

Viewpoint
The BP Spill: Has the Damage Been Exaggerated?
By Michael Grunwald / Port Fourchon, La. Thursday, Jul. 29, 2010

The obnoxious anti-environmentalist Rush Limbaugh has been a rare voice arguing that the spill — he calls it "the leak" — is anything less than an ecological calamity, scoffing at the avalanche of end-is-nigh eco-hype.

... But so far — while it's important to acknowledge that the long-term potential danger is simply unknowable for an underwater event that took place just three months ago — it does not seem to be inflicting severe environmental damage. ...

Yes, the spill killed birds — but so far, less than 1% of the number killed by the Exxon Valdez spill in Alaska 21 years ago. Yes, we've heard horror stories about oiled dolphins — but so far, wildlife-response teams have collected only three visibly oiled carcasses of mammals. Yes, the spill prompted harsh restrictions on fishing and shrimping, but so far, the region's fish and shrimp have tested clean, and the restrictions are gradually being lifted. And yes, scientists have warned that the oil could accelerate the destruction of Louisiana's disintegrating coastal marshes — a real slow-motion ecological calamity — but so far, assessment teams have found only about 350 acres of oiled marshes, when Louisiana was already losing about 15,000 acres of wetlands every year.

... Coastal scientist Paul Kemp, a former Louisiana State University professor who is now a National Audubon Society vice president, compares the impact of the spill on the vanishing marshes to "a sunburn on a cancer patient."

Marine scientist Ivor van Heerden, another former LSU prof, who's working for a spill-response contractor, says, "There's just no data to suggest this is an environmental disaster. I have no interest in making BP look good — I think they lied about the size of the spill — but we're not seeing catastrophic impacts." Van Heerden, like just about everyone else working in the Gulf these days, is being paid from BP's spill-response funds. "There's a lot of hype, but no evidence to justify it."

The scientists I spoke with cite four basic reasons the initial eco-fears seem overblown. First, the Deepwater oil, unlike the black glop from the Valdez, is unusually light and degradable, which is why the slick in the Gulf is dissolving surprisingly rapidly now that the gusher has been capped. Second, the Gulf of Mexico, unlike Alaska's Prince William Sound, is very warm, which has helped bacteria break down the oil. Third, heavy flows of Mississippi River water have helped keep the oil away from the coast, where it can do much more damage. And finally, Mother Nature can be incredibly resilient. Van Heerden's assessment team showed me around Casse-tete Island in Timbalier Bay, where new shoots of Spartina grasses were sprouting in oiled marshes and new leaves were growing on the first black mangroves I've ever seen that were actually black. "It comes back fast, doesn't it?" van Heerden said. ...

Read more: http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,2007202,00.html#ixzz0vBwe9sRr