Oil spill college course open for buisness

Oil and water don’t mix. That is, unless they are coming together in a class dubbed “Oil and Water: The Gulf Oil Spill of 2010,” a joint venture of the University of Minnesota’s College of Food, Agricultural and Natural Resource Sciences and College of Liberal Arts.

Robert Gilmer, a University graduate student and the course’s instructor, hopes to help students sort through the contradictions and find connections within the Gulf crisis in his class this fall.

“What fascinates me the most about it is looking at all the paradoxes involved,” Gilmer said.

He points out that while oil and water do not usually mix, it is easy to forget that something as basic as the success or failure of commercial fishing in Louisiana is closely tied to oil.

“The oil rigs themselves form artificial reefs off the coast,” Gilmer said. “A lot of these fishermen … go out to the oil rig because that’s where the best fishing spots are.”

http://www.mndaily.com/