As the Gulf of Mexico oil leak disaster enters its second month, ideas for ways to stop it are starting to get more and more extreme. This is perhaps unsurprising, desperate times calling for desperate measures, but some of the ideas seem so extreme they’re almost darkly amusing.
RT, an English-language television channel from Russia, carried a story a couple of weeks ago in which Russian scientists suggest attempting to seal the leaking well using a nuclear bomb. Yes, they’re serious. I’m not a nuclear or environmental scientist, so I’m not sure if the idea is just crazy enough that it might work, or just crazy. Check out the video for yourself, below.
As the site where I came across this (which, incidentally, is my ex-wife’s blog) points out, this really does sound like part of the plot of a B movie. As an inveterate punster, I have to say the idea has one possible benefit: According to this site, the Gulf of Mexico includes a fair number of manatees among its wildlife, and the possible radiation-fueled overgrowth of one such creature would afford us the unique opportunity to legitimately cry out “Oh, the huge manatee!”
