So I have been debating with a colleague the importance of "how much" oil is being spilled. For some reason, he believes this is important. For example, the fact that we "thought" it was 200K and now it's more like 400K is somehow important. I have been arguing the point that it is irrelevant. If it's leaking, we can't stop it, we can't contain it, we simply wait for it to get to a place where we can clean it and then we do - what possible difference does it make whether the volume is known or measurable? It's like being on a plane and it has a malfunction and is about to crash: whether you know that the reason it is crashing is because a bolt holding the 3rd engine sheered off and caused a cut in the fuel supply line causing a fire somehow makes the fact that you are about to die somehow tolerable - because, hey, at least you know what caused it. The information is irrelevant to the matter at hand. The one exception to that being a proper assessment of some sort of fine. But, the fucking fish don't care how much, the birds don't care, the beach doesn't care.
Does anyone else see what I'm getting at here? It looks good as a ticker on CNN, but it's good for little else.
