BP claims it is siphoning off 20% of the gusher, or 2000 barrels a day (amount is based on Telivision news sources), which means that the total amount of oil being released per day is only 10,000 barrels. However, several engineers and scientists measure the volume at 80,000 barrels a day or higher. Are the folks at BP telling us the truth? Unfortunately, my bet is on the scientists measuring the flow rate.
So, let's do some calculations – at 80,000 barrels a day, until today, times 29 days equals over 23 million barrels, or 115,000,000 gallons of oil so far. That is equal to eleven and one half Exxon Valdez oil spills already. * 1 As I said above, since May 17, 2010, BP is siphoning off 20% of the on-going oil-spewing disaster. So, from now on, we only have about 64,000 barrels per day going into the Gulf of Mexico.
Alright then!
BP is also drilling a new well in order to close the oil gusher down. They started two days ago. It takes 90 days to drill a well. So, let’s do some more math. 88 days, times 64,000 barrels a day means there will only be about 5 and ½ million more barrels of oil vomited into the planet’s circulatory system (Yes, circulatory system.). 5 and ½ times 50 gallons (per barrel) equals 116,000,000 gallons of oil in addition to the 115,000,000 gallons of oil gumming up the Gulf of Mexico already. If, as it looks most likely, the huge plumes of underwater oil get caught in the Gulf Stream, the red goo will be carried all the way through the Florida Keys, up the east coast of Florida, then on up the eastern seaboard resulting in an Ecological Disaster of Brobdingnagian proportions.
I don’t have to tell you that the Earth’s ecology works like a living organism with every system balanced against all the others. The planet’s oceans and atmosphere function like our own circulatory system. Among many other functions, the oceans and atmosphere distribute oxygen, nitrogen and other gases, as well as heat and cold (the weather) throughout the ecosphere.
If any of the body's systems are damaged thoroughly enough the entire organism goes down. In short, it dies! Think of the Gulf Oil Spill as Cholesterol (heavy fat) in your own circulatory system causing it to be shut down at a critical point. Thus, you have a heart attack and possibly die. Of course the Earth’s ecosphere, is a bit more complex. Never the less, if enough of the ocean’s ecology is damaged – reads coral reefs, fish, animal life, Underwater, plants, plankton, marshlands at oceans edge, and so on – The planet will die of a heart attack!
Why aren’t people screaming bloody murder? Why isn’t the president of the United States trying to rally the people, the Congress and the Senate, marshalling scientists, and institutions, corporations, everyone to STOP THIS DISASTER?
What other analogy can I draw? This horrendous calamity is almost like having an atomic war against all of humanity and the entire planet. It is as though we suddenly started placing atomic bombs in our cities and then set one off every few days until enough radiation was released into the atmosphere to destroy the planet. Remember the 1959 film “On The Beach,” staring Gregory Peck, Ava Gardner, Fred Astaire, and Tony Perkins. If not, or you’re too young to have seen it, go get it! It’s one of the darker 50’s sci-fi flicks. However, it clearly demonstrated that an atomic war would mean not only the end of civilization, but also the end of all life on Earth.
To sum up – throw enough crap of any kind in the planet’s circulatory system, and you kill it!
• 1 The Exxon Valdez spill was about 10 million gallons.
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