▶ Your Answer :The reading and the lecture are both about dealing with oil spills using bacteria. The author of the reading argues that it is unfeasible to use bacteria as the oil removal solution. The lecturer contradicts the claims made in the reading passage. He maintains that bacteria is effective to get rid of oil spills.
To begin with, the author of the reading states that it takes long time for bacteria to break down oil. On the other hand, the lecturer points out that chemicals can be applied in order to accelerate the clean-up process of bacteria. He is of the opinion that as the chemicals break up the oil into small pieces, bacteria can consume the oil more quickly. Furthermore, he notes that the chemicals encourage the growth of bacteria. This allows more bacteria to remove more oil.
Second, according to the reading, the fertilizer which is used to increase the activity of bacteria causes algae blooms that led to a lack of oxygen in the water. However, the lecturer contends that the amount of fertilizer can be controlled by using the mathematical methods. Moreover, he puts forth the idea that since the bacteria strategy was used in a real-life event, the algae bloom issue has not happen.
The final point made by the author is that bacteria does not work effectively in deep and cold water. The lecturer casts doubt on this by mentioning that bacteria is the only method which can clean up oil-polluted waters in deep ocean. He argues that although bacteria break down the oil extremely slowly in cold water, they eventually get the job done. He added that other methods except bacteria are not activated in deep water. |