Putting size of the BP oil spill in context
Posted by Trevor Scott Howell in Environment
It has been six weeks since BP's Deepwater Horizon exploded, killing 11 oil rig workers, spilling up to 43 millions of gallons of crude oil into the waters of the Gulf of Mexico and wreaking untold damge to the environment, wildlife and the local economy.
The British oil giant has tried, and failed, to plug the leak several times since it began. It's now being called the worst environmental disaster to hit the U.S. and Obama's Katrina (a reference to former president George Bush's bungling of the hurricane disaster that hit New Orleans five years ago).
While the public has been repeatedly told of the size and scope of the spill, much of which could be lurking beneath the ocean's surface in giant oil plumes, visualizing and putting it into context can be tricky. However, the website Ifitwasmyhome.com will give you a rough idea how large the disaster actually is.
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Comments: 1
J_marshall wrote:
968 000 barrels spilled to date
We burn that much oil (as a planet) every 6 and a half hours.
I'll show my work:
1 barrel of oil produces about 86 litres of petrol (when refined), or enough to fuel 2 cars.
World Oil consumption is 3.5 million barrels/ hour.
on Jun 7th, 2010 at 1:09pm Report Abuse
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