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So, at least 12,000 barrels per day, and as high as 19,000. Plus we have 130,000 to 270,000 barrels on the surface, and this is even after all the attempts thus far to control, remove, and destroy the spill.
Just to keep the usual benchmark here, the Exxon Valdez spill was 250,000 barrels. So if even if we use the conservative estimates, we get an Exxon Valdez spill every 20 days, while half of an Exxon Valdez spill still rests on the surface despite cleanup efforts that have been going on for over a month.
And still no certainty that short-term or long-term plans to stop the flow will even work.
Yes, a "very, very significant environmental disaster" indeed.
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Knowing that death is certain and that the time of death is uncertain, what's the most important thing?
—Bhikkhuni Pema Chödrön
Humankind cannot bear very much reality.
—From "Burnt Norton," Four Quartets (1936), T. S. Eliot
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