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The crux of the argument seems to hang on this statement (linked to from the article): If we can't cap that hole that oil is going to destroy the oceans of
by itistoday 16y ago
The crux of the argument seems to hang on this statement (linked to from the article):
If we can't cap that hole that oil is going to
destroy the oceans of the world. It only takes
one quart of motor oil to make 250,000 gallons
of ocean water toxic to wildlife. Are you starting
to get the magnitude of this?
Would be great to have some secondary sources/opinions on this. Is that true? And if so, how much damage could this leak cause?
- iskander 16y agoJudging from the crankish/alarmist tone of the quoted "engineer", I wouldn't really trust his evaluation. However, let's say that 1 gallon of oil actually does poison a million gallons of water. A quick google search yields that there are approximately 346 quintillion gallons of water in the ocean. This means it would take about 346 trillion gallons of oil to poison the ocean. At a rate of 1 million gallons per week, this process would take about 6.6 million years. That is assuming that there are 346 trillion gallons of oil under the earth (good news for BP) and that the oil is never cleared or broken down once it enters the water.