[Selenay]

Originally Posted by MsDemeanor

The map seems to be a bit off....I wonder how old it is. Even the information in the 'found via' link says that the numbers on the map don't match to the widely reported numbers. The most glaring issue, and why I wonder when the map was created, is that the Deepwater spill has exceeded the size of Ixtoc, yet is substantially smaller on the map. Also, the Gulf War spill estimate seems high - although any 'official' estimate of a spill during a US war would, in my mind, be questionable and quite likely understated.

The information for the iconograph comes from the ITOPF.

>ITOPF<


Yes and no, to the map being off (I'm doing further research to ensure that the statistical data on ITOPF is as accurate as people are implying it is.) because the source collects data from both published and UNpublished sources.

I know I hate wikipedia (and maybe you do, too), but this is a fairly well documented link to the largest oil spills in recent / reported history.

As for their actual numbers, the ones I have checked so far are not exorbitant, but they are the highest range of the projected spill amounts.

Comparing between measurements (metric tonne vs kg vs lb) all of their reported measurements (except the recent spill which, yeah, kind of hard to keep consistent...) is accurate to within twelve percentage points. Another possible explanation is that they have also added in a percentage for oil lost to the environment that cannot be accurately assessed. That, and there are discrepancies for almost ALL of the spills saying that the media underrepresented the oil spilled in... Well, given that we all know how much the gulf numbers have changed, I'm sure you know what I mean.

Even so; I meant the iconograph not as a factual basis for argument but more as a demonstrative comparison in scale to the disasters that have historically happened and continue to happen on a daily basis, and the issue in the gulf. I was really trying to make the point that this has happened before on smaller (though that isn't depicted on the graph) and much larger scales. . . And we don't hear about it. At all.


I'm going to continue researching the iconograph creator and the data and will keep you posted, if you'd like.

Edited to add: Oh yeah I forgot! The map's creator has an updated version of the map on his site, to reflect the increasing size of the spill, I just couldn't do a link to it at the time of my post for... some reason, I forget what, but you can check his website out.