Rachel Maddow debunks the 'it's raining oil' video

[ProfessorPlum]

Run time: 02:49 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b2Rqem3xlV0   Posted on YouTube: June 26, 2010 By YouTube Member: StartLoving3 Views on YouTube: 373   Posted on DU: June 28, 2010 By DU Member: ProfessorPlum Views on DU: 1388

 
some good chemical analysis here

[mopinko]

1. damn her and her facts

ruining another good scare!














:sarcasm: in case anyone needs this.

[bahrbearian]

2. That doesn't explain what happens to the evaporating distillates

The Benzine, Kerosene, Gasoline, ect. That stuff floating in the Gulf is being refined by the sun and evaporating.

[Po_d Mainiac]

3. True, BUT

False claims do not help...There are those that will latch onto any misleading statement as cause to ignore even truthful ones.

[AlbertCat]

6. That doesn't explain what happens to the evaporating distillates

Like she said (listen!)... they break down into their components.

[civilisation]

4. What a simplistic debunking..,

On a purely semantic level, sure it is not raining "oil" proper. However, the elements of the "oil" that has been degenerated by chemical dispersants are in fact evaporating. Since what goes up must come down, and we know rain takes dust and particles out of the air, water is the universal solvent, and a very nice media to hold these more volatile components of the oil,. these are in fact raining down. The guy in the video was pointing out the "chemical sheen of residue" left by the rain. He may have use a simpler word (oil) however that does not change the reality of the situation. Weather will carry the oil in all its phases (gas, liquids, dioxin poisoned creatures) and spread it around the whole region.

[ProfessorPlum]

5. No, that is an ignorant statement

the volatile elements of oil are not soluble in water. It is not a "universal solvent", far from it.

[AlbertCat]

7. the volatile elements of oil are not soluble in water.

Indeed.

And the reactions with sunlight changes many of them, breaking them apart. (Of course that doesn't mean they all become harmless)

[JDPriestly]

9. But, isn't there a problem during the process in which those volatile

substances break apart? How long does it take for the volatile hydrocarbons to break apart?

[grahamhgreen]

12. Most of the VOC's evaporate in the first few days of the oil coming to the surface

[civilisation]

8. crude oil is a complex mixture of many organic compounds,. .

I never said they where,. I said rain water is "a very nice media to hold these more volatile components of the oil",. they will collect ON a drop of rain, the same way you see them collecting on the surface of a puddle, and then fall to the earth. Also keep in mind the chemical dispersants that have been applied to the oil and modified its chemistry. The main point is that all the evaporated crap does not just dissolve, it all ends up somewhere. That sheen in the video could very well be from the spill.

[Rozlee]

10. It can too rain oil---indirectly.

That oil is going to be in the Gulf coastal waters for years. And its seems a safe gamble to assume that hurricanes will be hitting the Gulf repeatedly over that time. The surge of water from the Gulf will spill oil onto land and locally may cause contamination of the water table. So, those poor people that live nearby to the coast might not also have their livelihoods wiped out, they may have to live on bottled water for years to come. I read somewhere that this may only happen to a "small" amount of people living in "certain" affected areas. When they don't define what small and certain mean, I always think of the worst scenario. I just tend to distrust oil companies that much.

[Oerdin]

11. I told you so.

I called it and yet several posters here called me names for daring to point out how stupid that video was.

[grahamhgreen]

13. She may be wrong on this: The VOC's in the oil evaporate into the air. How do they come out? Rain.

It may not be oil exactly in the video, but 75% of the VOC's (including benzene, xylene, toluene, and hydrogen sulfide) in oil evaporate in the first few days.

It only makes sense that these things would be cleaned out of the air by the rain.