12 May 2010

How big is the Gulf oil spill?

Paul Rademacher is an Engineer at Google and yesterday he came up with a new application for Google Earth that shows just how big it is.


Paul's application then shows how big the spill would be if it were superimposed over a series of world cities and then you can superimpose it anywhere on earth you want to.

The map of the spill that Paul used was from May 6th, almost a week ago.

Here it is over New York.


And over LA.


And over Vancouver.


And over London.


Drill baby drill, right?

Here's that link again.

12 comments:

  1. aww, you included Vancouver. Is that so Bravewolf and I didn't feel left out?

    But seriously.. are humans really this stupid? Hello? alternate energy?

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  2. Holy fuck indeed Sharon. And yes Nim, I had a pen pal or pals in mind for each of the locations I used here. I had to stop or risk mapping too much, but I wanted to make sure you two in particular didn't feel left out.

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  3. Perspective is everything. I start to comprehend just how massive this problem is and how far reaching the effects will be when I imagine the entire LA basin and surrounding cities covered in an oil slick.

    Thanks for including the giant urban sprawl of Los Angeles as an example.

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  4. Living in Northridge and working in Woodland Hills (both suburbs of LA), the Google images put everything is a graspable perspective. The damage will be felt for years, if not decades.

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  5. This just breaks my heart.

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  6. Bill, Arpi and Raina: Thanks. Pass that thing around. I'm going to keep a print out in my car so I can think about things every time I put gas in the car.

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  7. Argh is right Nancie. I'm just sick about it.

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  8. Oh this just makes me sick:( I finally watched some coverage this am on GMA-and I thought the comment from the NJ senator monitoring the hearings said it best: "again, we cannot allow the referees to be the coaches (in business)". does it seem like Haliburton (ugh, them again) cut corners in order to increase the almight bottom line? and BP said again and again that plan b and c would always be there in the event of a Catastrophic Disaster. alas, here is the disaster, and no plan b or c.

    devastating.

    when can we finally realize that we can't let big business run unfettered like this:(?

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  9. The whole thing's disgusting but it's the clear result of 30 years of the idea that industries can regulate themselves. I want to know where the free market solutions are to cleaning up the mess and repairing the lives of millions of people who live around the Gulf. Where are Sarah Palin and the rest of the grinning fools who were chanting "drill baby drill" a year-and-a-half ago?

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  10. Sarah Palin embarasses me as a woman. Sorry, she simply does. And, I am NOT a diehard liberal either. I like to keep my money but I am ok with paying more at the pump if this is the inevitable consequence....until someone wises up and looks seriously at alternate energy plans. It will take time for people to lose the gas guzzlers, but it is all an adjustment and will happen. Lets start with the kids....teaching them more critical thinking skills and science..maybe then we can have a generation growing up to embrace alternate ways of doing things....and challenge the status quo.

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