Someone please check my math,
Exxon Valdez spill ~257,000 barrels
Gulf Spill 24 days at 25k barrels a day = 600,000 Barrels
BP is claiming only 5k barrels but even that = 120,000 Barrels
I am more inclined to believe independent numbers, but I am wondering why the press hasn't latched on to this?
The fact that is now bigger in the worst case or almost as big in the best case in an environment that is used by more people, fish, whales, surfers etc. Really sucks.
For days, independent experts monitoring the situation from satellites have been saying 26,000 barrels a day. Today I saw an expert on Andersoon Cooper who uses a fluid flow measurement technique say that after analyzing the video of the gusher that he thought it was 70,000 (+/- 20%). http://www.cnn.com/video/?/video/bestoftv/2010/05/13/ac.oil.spill.cnn
Russia's Pravda newspaper says that the former USSR had used tactical nukes to blast problem gushers like this shut multiple times with an almost perfect track record. Starting to look like a sane option in the face of this enormous catastrophe.
I agree with cycona23 on the nuke thing. Colbert used it as a joke in a recent show in a sort of "come on listen to this ridiculous idea" kind of way. And when I heard it I thought immediately that it might not be such an obviously laughable idea.
I believe the current plan is to shoot old golfballs, tires, and other debris in to the hole to plug it. BP calls it a Junk Shot. Hey, why not toss a nuke in there, too? This whole thing is nuts.
