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In 1986, a sinister cloud drifting from Lake Nyos mysteriously killed approximately 2,000 people in the West African country of Cameroon. As countless victims lay either dead or dying on the village roads, surviving friends and relatives feared the world was coming to an end.
Then scientists discovered that the odorless gas carbon dioxide, possibly exploding from an underwater volcano, was the culprit.
As December 21, 2012, draws near, many followers of the Mayan calendar believe that the end of the world as we know it is upon us as the sun enters the end of its 5,125 year cycle, while Christians believing we are living in our "last days" prepare for the Rapture.
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I seriously doubt that an astrological or biblical Armageddon is approaching, but with snow falling this past Christmas in Atlanta, an Ark Storm ravaging Los Angeles and both occurring while a full lunar eclipse and the winter solstice collided for the first time in 372 years, it definitely appears something is amiss.
Maybe we can get our answer from the hundreds of thousands of birds and millions of fish falling from the sky and washing up on shores around the globe all within the last week.
Dead.
An estimated 5,000 dead birds fell from the sky on New Year's Eve in Beebe, Arkansas, and officials speculate that fireworks are to blame. True the rationale is slightly far-fetched, but isolated freak incidents sometimes go unsolved, and had the universe returned to visible normalcy, we could have returned to our routines.
However, days later, around 500 similar birds plummeted to their deaths in Louisiana, around 300 miles south of the Arkansas incident. This time wildlife officials blamed power lines for the unexpected deaths.
From Sweden to Kentucky, hundreds of dead birds continue to litter highways, trees and backyards without rhyme or reason, and while scientists and government experts are testing the specimens for answers, they admit we may never know why this phenomenon is continuing to occur.
And that unbelievable number doesn't even compare to the fish.
On January 2nd, about 125 miles from the bird deaths, an estimated 100,000 fish washed ashore a 20-mile stretch of the Arkansas river. They were soon followed by 2-million dead fish surfacing in Maryland's Chesapeake Bay.
Maryland Department of the Environment Spokesperson Dawn Stoltzfus says "cold-water stress" is believed to be the culprit. She told the Baltimore Sun that similar large winter fish deaths were documented in 1976 and 1980.
With similar incidents occurring in New Zealand and Brazil and official testing thus far being inconclusive, conspiracy theories are running rampant.
Dan Cristol, a biology professor and co-founder of the Institute for Integrative Bird Behavior Studies at the College of William & Mary, told the AP that he was hesitant to believe fireworks were to blame unless "somebody blew something in to the roost, literally blowing the birds into the sky."
Dubious website the European Union Times is reporting a correlation between murdered Bush ex-aide and chemical weapons expert John P. Wheeler III, claiming that Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin received a classified report from GPR (Russia's Foreign Intelligence Agency), stating that Wheeler was about to reveal a U.S. test of poison gas responsible for killing the wildlife. Conspiracy theorists speculate he was killed before he could reveal our country's secrets.
Surveillance video of Wheller captured 24 hours prior to his body was discovered in a land-fill show him roaming the streets of Delaware half-dressed and disorientated. Eerily similar to a surviving blackbird found wandering in an Arkansas resident's backyard.
Another possibility being bandied about is large tremors are rumbling deep in the earth's core in preparation of a life-shattering event. Arkansas rests on the New Madrid Earthquake fault line. It extends from northeast Arkansas through southeast Missouri and into western Tennessee, western Kentucky and southern Illinois. In 1812, a series of strong earthquakes occurred in these areas, and reports from the time document wildlife dying preceded the largest ones.
If history is to repeat itself, "The Big One" won't be in California after all.
From the Avian flu to the West Nile virus to Elvis's ghost, no theory has been left unturned. The one getting the least attention, though, is in all likelihood, the most probable answer:
Deepwater Horizon ring a bell to anyone?
Beginning on April 20, 2010, and continuing for three months, British Petroleum (BP) oil rig Deepwater Horizon exploded, spilling 4.9 million barrels of oil in to the sea. It is widely considered the worse environmental disaster in U.S. history.
Not only is the oil an extreme danger to our ecological system, the chemicals used to clean it up swiftly are equally detrimental to wildlife.
BP deployed an estimated 100,000 gallons of chemical compounds called "dispersants" deep beneath the ocean's surface to dissolve the crude oil, placing fish at risk. Due to competitive trade laws, all the ingredients contained in the dispersants are unknown. According to an official worksheet, though, one of the ingredients (Corexit) is a compound known to cause headaches and vomiting in high doses.
In order to clean up the oil spill, BP bought over a third of the world's supply.
"There is a chemical toxicity to the dispersant compound that in many ways is worse than oil," said Richard Charter, a foremost expert on marine biology and oil spills who is a senior policy advisor for Marine Programs for Defenders of Wildlife and is chairman of the Gulf of the Farallones National Marine Sanctuary Advisory Council.
"It's a trade-off - you're damned if you do, damned if you don't - of trying to minimize the damage coming to shore, but in so doing, you may be more seriously damaging the ecosystem offshore."
According to a paper published by the National Academy of Sciences, dispersed oil is more likely to evaporate, but it can also sink or remain suspended in deep water.
Simply put, while these chemicals dissolve the "oil slick" providing a temporary solution, it disperses the oil in droplet form throughout the ocean, potentially having long-lasting effects.
Like 100,000 birds suddenly falling from the sky, and millions of fish washing ashore months later.
While blackbirds don't typically eat fish, the potential of a triangular relationship between the three catastrophic events deserves to be examined with complete transparency.
Based on a study examining fish health after the Exxon Valdez spill in Alaska in 1989, certain fish embryos experienced cardiovascular issues due to dispersants used. This suggests that though President Barack Obama was photographed frolicking in the waves with daughter Sasha to prove the Gulf was save, he may have jumped in too soon.
It has been almost a year since the Deepwater Horizon explosion, and that is ample time for the remaining oil and cleaning chemicals to contaminate various oceans and murder wildlife across the globe.
While it is more dramatic to debate whether we are living in the last days on Earth or experiencing some extreme karma for our blatant disregard for the environment, research and common sense suggests that 'Drill, Baby, Drill!" has finally "killed, baby, killed" and on a massive scale never before documented in the history of the world. It appears even our wildlife is not immune to the disastrous effects of excessive greed and blind capitalism.
With the speculation reaching a frenzied pitch, and people placing Vegas-style bets on where the next dead bird or fish will appear, I have have only two questions:
Just as we discuss London's Great Smog of 1952 and the mystery of Lake Nyos, will future generations study us and ponder how oblivious we were to the destruction of our environment?
More importantly, will there be an inhabitable environment left?
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Source: http://www.bvblackspin.com/2011/01/07/dead-fish-bird-deaths/
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