Oil Spills - Put things into perspective

It is estimated that more than 120 million gallons of crude oil have spewed into the Gulf so far..

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Kuwait - 1991 - 520 million gallons
Iraqi forces opened the valves of several oil tankers in order to slow the invasion of American troops. The oil slick was four inches thick and covered 4000 square miles of ocean.

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Mexico - 1980 - 100 million gallons
An accident in an oil well caused an explosion which then caused the well to collapse. The well remained open, spilling 30,000 gallons a day into the ocean for a full year.

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Russia - 1994 - 84 million gallons
A broken pipeline in Russia leaked for eight months before it was noticed and repaired.

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And to top it off in Nigeria

A Quote from someone visting an effected area:

"We could smell the oil long before we saw it - the stench of garage forecourts and rotting vegetation hanging thickly in the air."

"Forest and farmland were now covered in a sheen of greasy oil. Drinking wells were polluted and people were distraught. No one knew how much oil had leaked."


Some Pictures of the area











Shocking isnt it

all the zomgers are going to flame the hell out of you buddy.

Americans need this to be the biggest and worstest ever, because its on their radar, and Americans are the best at everything, even polluting.

[edit on 7-8-2010 by justadood]

Originally posted by Haydn_17
It is estimated that more than 120 million gallons of crude oil have spewed into the Gulf so far..

-----------



Kuwait - 1991 - 520 million gallons
Iraqi forces opened the valves of several oil tankers in order to slow the invasion of American troops. The oil slick was four inches thick and covered 4000 square miles of ocean.

---------

Mexico - 1980 - 100 million gallons
An accident in an oil well caused an explosion which then caused the well to collapse. The well remained open, spilling 30,000 gallons a day into the ocean for a full year.

------

Russia - 1994 - 84 million gallons
A broken pipeline in Russia leaked for eight months before it was noticed and repaired.

------

And to top it off in Nigeria

A Quote from someone visting an effected area:

"We could smell the oil long before we saw it - the stench of garage forecourts and rotting vegetation hanging thickly in the air."

"Forest and farmland were now covered in a sheen of greasy oil. Drinking wells were polluted and people were distraught. No one knew how much oil had leaked."


Some Pictures of the area











Shocking isnt it

It is appalling and if the gulf event brings these others to light then ONE good thing will have come of it,eh?
But to really put things in perspective we need to know how much "spillage" is acceptable and in that we have the discrepancies of emotional response and indeed of critical response.
I wouldn't really consider myself an "zomger" but I admit a big emotional response to all of this and consider what is now being more or less dictated as the "cost of oil" is a far to high an environmental price for what WE the end point consumer receive in cheap throw away goods and inefficient transportation.
Ya see where I am coming from? while I realize we cannot truly cause anything but a change of the status quo in the environment and cannot truly "destroy the world". I also realize the more of the nest we s*1T in the lower the over all quality of life gets also.
So to really put things in perspective we should be looking not just at the overall percentage of space we have crapped in but also how much of our livable space have we crapped in and how many humans has it impacted.
As in the end if we keep at this ,and it is hardly just oil. We will have actually evolved no higher than a petri culture of bacteria eating and eliminating in their environment until the environment does not disappear but it is no longer habitable by the bacteria.
So ok this is where we are at with oil NOW. where will we be in ten yrs? 20? will it still be "in perspective"?
If you take this as a flame I am sorry but it is a fact their are many "perspectives" to consider besides the one dimensional one presented.
N.

Edit to S&F as these numbers are very important in the perspective of the future and that expanded exploration and exploitation of resources can only make these numbers and event grow.

[edit on 7-8-2010 by N.of norml]

reply to post by N.of norml


Thanks, it just amazes me that lots of people don't really care about other oil spills unless it's on there shores.

It happens on a daily basis to countries whose goverments make no attempt to clean it up.