Photo by Sodahead.com
Today is the 77th day of the
Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. As we approach the end of our third month of the crisis -- which the
President has called the worst natural disaster in US history -- we are still a long way away from not only cleaning up the mess, but stopping what started it in the first place. Read on for a photographic history of the spill so far.
The spill was caused by an explosion on the Deepwater Horizon offshore drilling rig on April 20th, 2010. When the rig sunk and caused damage to the oil well a mile beneath the surface of the water, the blowout preventer — the only back-up plan the oil industry has for spills — failed, causing oil to start leaking into the Gulf. Since the leak started in April, it is estimated that over 150 million gallons of oil have spilled into the Gulf of Mexico. In comparison, the Exxon Valdez — previously the worst oil spill in US history — leaked 10.8 million gallons of oil into the waters off of Alaska.
+ Inhabitat Coverage of the Gulf Coast Oil Spill
i hate bp
http://www.oturmabanki.org
The chemical dispersant being used by BP, “Corexit” is owned, patented, and produced by BP. They are paying themselves to clean up this spill, because they learned that an oil spill is costly, so why not also make money cleaning it up.
[...] order to prevent an even more dire situation, the containment cap may have to be reopened to release some of the pressure building from the gas. [...]
[...] all seen the pics of the exploded Deepwater Horizon oil rig and the depressing images of oil-covered birds and wildlife in the Gulf Coast, but how many of us [...]