Deepwater Horizon: the worst-case scenario Reports from the Gulf
of Mexico just keep getting worse. Estimates of the rate of oil
spillage from the Deepwater Horizon wellhead just keep gushing
(the latest official number: up to 60,000 barrels per day).
Forecasts for how long it will take before the leak is finally
plugged continue pluming toward August—maybe even December. In
addition to the oil itself, BP has (in this case deliberately)
spilled a million gallons of toxic Corexit dispersant.
Biologists’ accounts of the devastation being wreaked on fish,
birds, amphibians, turtles, coral reefs, and marshes grow more
apocalyptic by the day—especially in view of the fact that the
vast majority of animal victims die alone and uncounted.
Warnings are now being raised that the natural gas being vented
along with the oil will significantly extend the giant dead
zones in the Gulf. And guesses as to the ultimate economic toll
of this still-unfolding tragedy—on everything from the tourism
and fishing industries of at le