The Gulf Oil Spill: a perspective

  • Thread starter Thread starter |3illy the |&lt
  • Start date Start date
3

|3illy the |&lt

Guest
Just in case you feel like Rush Limbaugh may be a bit of a biased source....
http://forums.offtopic.com/showthread.php?t=4521592

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100610/ap_on_bi_ge/us_gulf_oil_spill_flow


That's at the new 50,000 bbls/day estimate....which is still lower than the top estimate which has been tossed around of ~200,000 bbls/day.

First we started at 5,000.
Then we were told 10-15,000.
Then we were told 15,000.
Now we're told 50,000.
 
Limbaugh's numbers were in line with what I found on wikipedia, but beyond that I haven't made it my business to keep track of spills. But the numbers are changing constantly...it really should be said that it's extremely difficult to get an accurate reading on how much black oil is spewing out of a hole a mile down in the ocean in total darkness from a high pressure spout.

My point, friend, is that this is not a matter of bias, but rather a matter of uncertainty.

Also, your graph shows only accidental spills, and not the intentional spills. That's one of the main differences between Rush's graph and yours.


Regardless, it's silly to argue about facts and figures when there's a crisis that needs to be solved.
 
He also uses a "yearly average" which includes the large spills (most listed on mine) which happened in the 70's and early 80's. There have been far less accidents since then. Less and less oil have been spilled per decade.So when the graph says "yearly average" it doesn't show how weighted that average is.
Also he lists everything...then mysteriously the deep horizon spill last. Also the iraqi "spill" wasn't a spill at all. It was the Iraqi's opening out all outlets to let the oil out into the gulf. It's important because BP didn't crack the pipe open on purpose. But it's nice to include because the estimates are between 460 and 540 million gallons and it means we can get the scale jacked up.The point is that he tried to minimize the appearance when in reality this is approaching if not passed the largest oil based accident of all time.
 
The politicians are just putting their feelers out for how much lying about the spill amount they can get away with
 
yeah, as i was saying the iraqi spill wasn't an accident. but i don't see that as being important.

while rush is biased, obviously, the graph is a graph and the numbers are there. whether or not his graph tricks simple minded folk into thinking one thing or another is not what is important.

what matters most are the real numbers on the current spill and the impact it'll have.
 
The funniest thing I've seen so far for comparisons are people who've tried to represent the spill with circular areas so people can see the size difference.

...people who don't understand the concept of pi, that is.
 
Back
Top