If you're inclined to believe today's happy talk about oil in the Gulf...

... then I'd suggest you take these three posts into account:

Kate Sheppard, BP Spill: Where is the Oil? Mother Jones/Blue Marble 08/04/2010

Kate Sheppard, BP's Magical, Disappearing Oil Spill Mother Jones/Blue Marble 08/04/2010

Dan Froomkin, Administration Overly Optimistic About Fate of Spilled Oil Huffington Post 08/04/2010

When you add all the amounts in the federal report counted as chemically dispersed, naturally dispersed and residual, it comes to 50% of the 170 million gallons released into the water. (The NOAA puts the 1989 Exxon Valdez spill amount at 11 million gallons.) Plus, the information on how they developed those estimates is apparently pretty sketchy.

In other words, if you just don't count half of the oil still out there in various forms, it only sounds like half as much!

Tags: bp oil disaster

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