At the time of this posting, it has been 38 days since the sinking of the Deepwater Horizon and the rupture of the oil pipeline it was working on. Everyone has presented ideas on fault and blame and the political, environmental, and practical fallout from the tragedy. However, there's one aspect that I feel needs to be put into plainer language: the numbers. People need to be able to see just how much and how little these are affecting us.
If people can understand the facts, then the impact of this may start to become that much clearer. Regardless, here are the facts:
The government estimates that anywhere from 12,000 to 25,000 barrels of oil have been spilled into the ocean each day. With a "barrel" containing 42 US gallons, this means that there is anywhere from 19.152 and 39.9 million gallons of oil in the Gulf.
That's a rough guess of THIRTY MILLION GALLONS of oil flooding into the gulf to wash ashore or kill wildlife at sea, right now. Based on those numbers, we can expect somewhere in the neighborhood of 750,000 more gallons being pumped into the gulf each day until they can finally fix the problem with the relief well. That's slated to take about 90 days at the best case scenario. based on the current numbers, that makes it just shy of seventy million gallons of crude oil floating in the Atlantic or washed up on the eastern seaboard by the time the hole is plugged.
Seventy million gallons. That's what British Petroleum has loosed upon us with thier negligence.
Some people think that BP has suffered enough, that the losses from just the lack of oil will be punishment enough. It's true that they stand to lose a pretty penny from the loss; crude oil accounts for approximately 55% of the price of gasoline. With the average gas price in the Midwest at $2.69/gallon, the 70 million gallons of crude would account for $188,580,000 in "losses", money they would have coming in with the gas they could have sold using the now seabound crude oil. And while they certainly might miss the $188 million, it's not even a drop in the bucket of the $4.4 Billion (or $4400 million) in profit the company made in the fourth quarter of 2009 alone.
Assuming the numbers stay the same (which I know they wont but it makes calculations easier), this spill would accunt for 4.3% of the company's quarterly income. It's the equivalent of four days' worth of profits.
This disaster will consist of at least 90 days to fix the leak, 70,000,000 gallons of oil loosed onto a world that has no way to properly deal with it, and countless injuries and fatalities to humans, plants, and animals. Under the current law, BP is only responsible for covering up to $75 Million in damages, for a total "loss" of $263,000,000
BP can recoup that monetary loss in 131 hours worth of drilling. That's less than 6 days.
I don't know about you, but I personally feel that BP deserves a lot more punishment than just breaking even for 6 days.
Friday, May 28, 2010
Sunday, May 23, 2010
1000 Pieces: Some Assembly Required
My name is Anthony Dennis. You can call me Tony. More and more I have found that there are things that I need to speak about, and there are times where people aren't willing to listen or don't understand what I'm talking about. In the old days people used to just sit down at a typewriter and vent, writing whatever comes to mind.
This isn't a typewriter but it'll work just as well. plus it's a lot easier to correct spelling mistakes.
I suppose now would be a good time to talk about myself. I'm 21 years old living in a suburb on the west side of Indianapolis with my family. Dad works at a hospital downtown, mom works with the special education dept. at the local high school, I have one sister who's gonna be a sophomore in college and one going into her senior year of high school. I'm looking to return to college and am also pursuing becoming an IHSAA official in the meantime.
Of course, if everything was as normal as it seems on the face this wouldn't be very interesting. And frankly, the interesting part is my head: I was diagnosed with Asperger's Syndrome in the summer of 1998. Asperger's is an autism spectrum disorder that is characterized by above-average cognitive function, bordering on savant-levels, but massively decreased social skills. Unlike true autistic savants ("Rain Man" did a fairly accurate protrayal) I understand what's going on in the world around me. The problem is dealing with it in a socailly acceptable way. Things like looking at someone when they're talking, not interrupting people, and not making odd sound effects at random times are near-instinctual to most, but it's taken years of repetitive behavior to grind those into my brain. Despite all that, it's hard to connect with people normally; they see that I'm weird and will usually have nothing more to do with me.
Of course, that is hardly all-inclusive. I've discovered that I'm a geek, and to a point that has helped me find people who, even if they don't know me personally, share enough common interests that we get along well enough. I'm an avid gamer and anyone who knows me also knows it. Whether it's board games, card games, video games, I always like playing something, trying to outsmart an opponent. (I'm so into gaming that I just interrupted posting this to play euchre with my family.) One thing that I've found out is that especially on the internet, people are a lot less likely to make snap judgements on someone, especially when you know what you have in common. And so I've made friends, met people who think the way I do, and even gotten into some new experiences because of it.
One thing this won't be is a masterpiece. Writing has never been an easy thing for me; in grade school I used to throw temper tantrums because I absolutely refused to do writing assignments. Over the past 15 years it's become much easier, but I do not claim to be that good. One thing it will be is an honest opinion of what I believe.
To quote Keith Olbermann:
"The purpose isn't to throw off heat; it's to throw off light."
This isn't a typewriter but it'll work just as well. plus it's a lot easier to correct spelling mistakes.
I suppose now would be a good time to talk about myself. I'm 21 years old living in a suburb on the west side of Indianapolis with my family. Dad works at a hospital downtown, mom works with the special education dept. at the local high school, I have one sister who's gonna be a sophomore in college and one going into her senior year of high school. I'm looking to return to college and am also pursuing becoming an IHSAA official in the meantime.
Of course, if everything was as normal as it seems on the face this wouldn't be very interesting. And frankly, the interesting part is my head: I was diagnosed with Asperger's Syndrome in the summer of 1998. Asperger's is an autism spectrum disorder that is characterized by above-average cognitive function, bordering on savant-levels, but massively decreased social skills. Unlike true autistic savants ("Rain Man" did a fairly accurate protrayal) I understand what's going on in the world around me. The problem is dealing with it in a socailly acceptable way. Things like looking at someone when they're talking, not interrupting people, and not making odd sound effects at random times are near-instinctual to most, but it's taken years of repetitive behavior to grind those into my brain. Despite all that, it's hard to connect with people normally; they see that I'm weird and will usually have nothing more to do with me.
Of course, that is hardly all-inclusive. I've discovered that I'm a geek, and to a point that has helped me find people who, even if they don't know me personally, share enough common interests that we get along well enough. I'm an avid gamer and anyone who knows me also knows it. Whether it's board games, card games, video games, I always like playing something, trying to outsmart an opponent. (I'm so into gaming that I just interrupted posting this to play euchre with my family.) One thing that I've found out is that especially on the internet, people are a lot less likely to make snap judgements on someone, especially when you know what you have in common. And so I've made friends, met people who think the way I do, and even gotten into some new experiences because of it.
One thing this won't be is a masterpiece. Writing has never been an easy thing for me; in grade school I used to throw temper tantrums because I absolutely refused to do writing assignments. Over the past 15 years it's become much easier, but I do not claim to be that good. One thing it will be is an honest opinion of what I believe.
To quote Keith Olbermann:
"The purpose isn't to throw off heat; it's to throw off light."
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