The recent Gulf of Mexico oil rig explosion is a major concern not only to fisherman but to the tourist industry of a lot of beaches. How to contain it is the number one thing but then that is the question. With a continuing leak, more concerns are raised about how to not just contain but stop the leak. Since a man cannot take the pressure of being a mile deep diving,robots are the obvious choice. The first thing though is to get the robots to the site. This would best be done by the use of a Bathysphere (a miniature sub used for oceanic research). The same technology is being used to guide the 100 ton containment domes they are experimenting with to funnel the oil to tanker ships.
How else the oil can be contained is another issue as the domes can only stop about 85% of what is leaking. Several ideas have surfaced and none have actually been tested(including the domes).These ideas range from burning small patches of the oil to letting natural bacteria eat away at the spill. It has also been suggested that a chemical freeze be initiated and let the frozen oil be scooped up.
So what else could mankind create to stop the spread? Is there a major vacuum machine that could be used to suck up the oil? Can we somehow make an “explosion” of the population of the oil eating bacteria? Or could we somehow make a big fireball explosion of the spill instead of just burning small pockets?
Another possible solution would be to find a way to divert the oil to a place where it was cause the least environmental impact.This could be done with the use of tugboats pulling those booms where the oil would be displaced to a safe area., We could also try saving the sealife with artificial nutrients to keep the seafood industry alive. Not sure if the water mixed oil would still be processable, but there may some other way to use it than the traditional uses(possibly in a grease of some kind for lubing machinery).
However we can solve this problem is essential to both the economy and our wildlife. It should also teach us a lesson about finding clean and re-usable methods for energy(such as wind, solar and water turbines).More research into to plant fuel (such as ethanol) could also be done. What we do immediately can certainly have an effect on our future.
