"hk" wrote in message
m...
Scientist Says Oil Spill Much Bigger Than Initial Estimates

After an explosion killed eleven and sent the Deepwater Horizon rig to the
bottom of the Gulf of Mexico, the government estimated that the oil
leaking from the ocean floor was around 5,000 barrels per day. That
figure, 210,000 gallons, has been widely used in media stories concerning
the spill. One problem: It might be way too conservative. After footage of
the spill was released on Wednesday, Ian R. MacDonald, an oceanographer at
Florida State University and expert on oil slick analysis, went to work
using satellite imagery. He estimates the leak could "'easily be four or
five times' the government estimate," the New York Times reported. "'The
government has a responsibility to get good numbers,' Dr. MacDonald said.
'If it's beyond their technical capability, the whole world is ready to
help them.'" It's important to have an accurate figure, scientists argue,
because it's directly related to the damage the spill will cause both in
the ocean and at the shore. "BP has repeatedly said that its highest
priority is stopping the leak, not measuring it," the New York Times
reported. "'There's just no way to measure it,' Kent Wells, a BP senior
vice president, said in a recent briefing." But scientists who work
primarily underwater have used various measurement techniques for decades;
the technology exists.

Original story in The New York Times | Friday, May 14, 2010
--
The Tea Party's teabaggers are just the Republican base by another name.


No worries....Froggy says it's no big deal!