With the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico still gushing hundreds of thousands gallons of oil into the water on a daily basis, the public is growing more and more concerned over the environmental impact of the disaster.
By most estimates, the oil spill has already leaked more than 55 million gallons of oil into the water. That's enough to fill more than 2500 average-sized swimming pools. Residents are concerned about the damage to the marshes and bayous, as well as the impact that the oil spill is having on commercial fishing, which many locals rely on for their income. In addition, travelers are worried about offshore scuba diving sites, recreational beaches and sportfishing hotspots.
In previous spills and related disasters, the public's attention span has waned quickly, but with BP preparing for a "top kill" procedure to plug up the leaking pipe and stop the oil, public interest remains high as people work to learn more about the spill and the impact it is having. The ability for average citizens to track the movement of the oil, remotely monitor the beaches through webcams and even watch live video of the leak and recovery effort is fueling the interest and preventing interest in the tragedy from fading.
How to monitor the BP oil spill:
- Live video feed of the oil coming out of the pipe
- Top kill procedure explained
- Oil spill movement forecast map
- Interactive map and event timeline
- Webcam from Clearwater Beach in Florida
- Interactive webcam from Alabama coastline
- Webcam from Biloxi, Mississippi
- Beach cam from Destin, Florida
- Webcam monitoring the Mississippi River in New Orleans
- Official BP response site
Key facts about the BP response:
- 19,000 personnel deployed
- 930 vessels on site
- 1.9 million feet of boom deployed
- 187,000 barrels of oil-water mix recovered
- 17 staging areas set-up to protect shoreline
- 19,000 claims filed, 8,000 already paid
Comments
Great resource.
Very useful links...that counter is a really powerful visual
nice cointel site ^^
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