Half Of Florida Keys NMS Reef Already Dead As Scientists, Visitors Await Oil's Arrival

LORIDA KEYS NATIONAL MARINE SANCTUARY -- - This 221-mile coral reef that skirts the tip of Florida -- one of the most important ecosystems on Earth -- stands near the edge of oblivion. Damaged by warming seas and pollution, more than half the reef is already dead. Now it faces a grave threat: the fallout from the exploded Deepwater Horizon oil rig.

Hundreds of thousands of gallons of oil are gushing into the Gulf of Mexico daily, followed by highly toxic chemicals meant to disperse the surface slick. While most of deadly mess is staying near Louisiana, some of it has been swept up by a warm ocean current that travels right over the coral reefs. A shift in the weather easily could shuttle more of the toxic stew toward the Keys, jeopardizing the reefs and erasing progress from years of research and aggressive conservation.

Stretching from Key Biscayne to the Dry Tortugas, the reefs draw millions of tourists from around the world, provide essential habitat for fish, help turn the sandy beaches white and protect the coast from hurricanes.

"You're not even supposed to touch the coral because it's so fragile. So what is oil going to do?" wondered Dan Goldman, a Brazilian tourist, still wet from snorkeling, after returning aboard the Cruzan Cat. The bottom line is that no one knows.

EDIT

http://www.heraldtribune.com/article/20100523/ARTICLE/5231057/2055/NEWS?tc=ar

And we just killed it to Drill, Baby, Drill.

What a maleficent species are we. :(

Of all the species of sentient life in the Universe, I would hazard a guess and wager that we are on the bottom ten percentile in terms of intelligence. In fact, we are probably the only species within a few thousand light-years that would puncture a reservoir containing a toxic substance that lies right in the middle of a basin containing a large supply of fresh food and a very fragile ecosystem.

No wonder extraterrestrials want nothing to do with us. The last thing they need is for us to spread our avarice and stupidity to the intergalactic level.

To top it all off, we inflict all this damage and untold suffering (on both ourselves and other species) because of 500,000 fucking dollars!

This is stupidity compounded by greed further compounded by pride and going around and around in an endless feedback loop.

because I wanted to see it before it was gone.

Little did I know... :(

I'm sure he's taking this awfully hard.