On Money, Deep Oceans, and Outer Space

GREENandSAVE Staff
Posted on Thursday 17th June 2010

“We take the oceans for granted. The amount of money spent on oceanographic research is trivial compared to space. How weird is it that we can drive a robot around the surface of Mars and can’t fix a leak in our backyard that’s going to impact millions of lives around the Gulf Coast?"

David Gallo of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution said that. He was talking to Andy Revkin about the lessons we're learning from the Deepwater Horizon disaster.

Gallo was one of the deep sea experts assembled by filmmaker James Cameron at the beginning of June to consider creative ways to stop the flow of oil from BP's well wreckage on the Gulf of Mexico seafloor.

That group of experts, the Deep Ocean Task Force, issued a draft report to the Coast Guard, the Department of Energy, and other government agencies involved on June 4. They released the final version to the public on Thursday.

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