Scary But True: No One Really Knows Exactly How Much Oil Has Leaked From The Deepwater Horizon [1]
Coast Guard vessels skimming oil. Photo: US Coast Guard [3] via flickr.
...But PBS News [4] has a handy widget to keep track of it all. The problem is that estimates vary widely as to what the actual flow rate is. NOAA [5] has one estimate, other experts such as those at SkyTruth [6] have come to their own conclusions, BP has their own (low, then higher and some ghastly worst case scenarios). Keep going to see just how bad things could be:
*** They have a wonderful graphic on their site, that I could not copy & paste here, but it is also here on a PBS Site: http://www.pbs.org/newshour/rundown/2010/05/how-much-oil-has-spilled-in-the-gulf-of-mexico.html [4]***
Links:
[1] http://www.treehugger.com/files/2010/05/no-one-really-knows-how-much-oil-spilled-deepwater-horizon.php
[2] http://www.treehugger.com/author/matthew-mcdermott-new-york-ny-1/
[3] http://www.flickr.com/photos/uscgd8/4563118213/
[4] http://www.pbs.org/newshour/rundown/2010/05/how-much-oil-has-spilled-in-the-gulf-of-mexico.html
[5] http://www.noaa.gov
[6] http://blog.skytruth.org/2010/05/gulf-oil-spill-new-spill-rate.html
[7] http://climateprogress.org/2010/05/07/how-much-oil-has-leaked-into-the-gulf-of-mexico/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+climateprogress%2FlCrX+%28Climate+Progress%29