"Truth and Lies in Oil-skimming Statistics", "430 Picture Slide Show"
by Felix Salmon
BP’s reaction to being massively wrong, by a factor of over 100, is to grab onto the biggest numbers it can find — to try, in other words, to deal with the optics, rather than the reality. Take the much-vaunted super-skimmer, for instance. Some reports say that it “can collect up to half a million barrels of oil a day”, but it’s much more accurate to say that it can theoretically collect that many barrels of contaminated water, which is only about 10% oil. And, as Kindy drily notes, “thus far, it has been unable to produce those results in the gulf.”
BP knew full well that a blow-out at the Deepwater Horizon site would involve oil bubbling up to the surface from miles below sea level, rather than being spilled directly onto the surface from a tanker. But it never seemed to stop to think that much of the oil would never surface. BP also said that much of its skimming capacity would come from outsourcing skimming operations to Marine Spill Response — but BP never asked MSR whether they could hit its marks, and neither did MMS, when BP submitted its insanely overoptimistic numbers.
- http://blogs.reuters.com/
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430 Picture Slide Show
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430 Picture Slide Show
"Here are updated photos of oil hitting coastlines and the damage throughout the ocean, which poses
a serious threat to fishermen's livelihoods, marine habitats, beaches, wildlife and human health:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/04/30/louisiana-oil-spill-2010_n_558287.htmla serious threat to fishermen's livelihoods, marine habitats, beaches, wildlife and human health:
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