Huge oil spill off Lebanon threatens to ravage life in the sea

[Karmadillo]

This is an update on a story posted previously.

http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/world/15254329.htm

BEIRUT, Lebanon - A massive oil spill off the coast of Lebanon is choking marine life, polluting the air as it evaporates and threatening to produce a long-lasting ecological disaster if Israel doesn't allow cleanup crews into the sea soon, environmental officials here warned Friday.

Between 10,000 and 15,000 tons of heavy fuel oil poured into the Mediterranean Sea after Israeli jets bombed a power plant south of Beirut in mid-July, during the first days of the war between Israel and Hezbollah militants. A month later, Israel's maritime blockade is still in place, making Lebanese coastal waters far too dangerous for specialized teams to get to work on the spill, environmental officials and activists say.

While international attention is focused on the human casualties of Israel's month-long bombing campaign, the Lebanese government also is pleading for help to save its pristine beaches and fragile underwater life.

"The turtles are hit, the dolphins are hit, the urchins are hit, the corals are hit," said Yacoub Saffar, Lebanon's environment minister. "We are facing a major ecosystem failure."

The spill already has reached Syrian waters north of Lebanon, and the governments of Cyprus, Turkey and Greece are on alert as strong tides spread what experts are calling the worst spill ever in the Mediterranean and a disaster comparable to the Exxon Valdez spill in Alaska in 1989. The United Nations, the European Union and Greenpeace International have dispatched experts to assess the damage, but no real cleanup can occur until the waters are safe again for boats.

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[patdem]

1. I say FUCKING ISRAEL..and I do not EVEN equate Israel with Jews

Some of the smartest people on earth are Jewish...they are the brightest people ever to roam the planet...however ISRAEL is too stupid to even know when to STOP DIGGING...how has this happened? The Mediterranean Sea is as important to Israel as it is to either Lebanon OR Syria...HOW STUPID IS THAT?

[mitchtv]

2. they should be getting some of their own medicine soon

if there is a god, and a strong current in their direction. Hopefully. A country that engages in enviromental terrorism ,loses it's moral high ground becoming a rogue state

[malaise]

3. They will soon find out how stupid.

If you dig one ditch you'd better dig two
One for your brother and one for you. -Marley

[sutz12]

4. War is always an ecological disaster.

Spills like these. Uncontrolled expenditure of oil resources--all of those vehicles and planes burn some form of fossil fuel, and they ain't designed for fuel efficiency. Explosions and fires creating huge clouds of noxious fumes and particulates in the atmosphere. Poisonous detritus dumped into the rivers and water tables.

I think it is one reason the RW nutjobs like war, it gives them the chance to thumb their noses at environmentalists everywhere.

Hey! Look at me! I can cause all the pollution I want, and it's for a GOOD CAUSE! :puke:

The unspoken cost of war is the destruction it does to our planet.

[madrchsod]

5. crimes against humanity and our planet

but it`s god`s plan

[Beelzebud]

6. Part of the Israeli Measured Response.

I've been called an anti-semite, and neo-nazi for pointing things like this out.

The Meaured Response looks more and more like a Final Solution as time goes on...