The Deepwater Horizon oil spill —aka the BP Oil Spill— released at least 1,330,000 barrels of oil into the Gulf of Mexico through June 15, 2010. This is equal to 7.71 trillion British thermal units (Btu) of energy, which is equivalent to:
Years of energy used in a single average America home: 81,286
Number of miles that could be driven by a Prius: 3,085,600,000
Number of airplane round trips between London and Louisiana that could be taken
by BP CEO Tony Hayward: 263,808
Hours of motor gasoline consumption for the entire United States: 3.9
Minutes of world energy use: 8
Minutes of energy that could power the entire country of Ghana: 29,595
Members of the Chinese population whose energy consumption could be met for year: 130,968
Number of Americans whose energy consumption could be met for year: 22,890
Dollars of GDP produced in China: $280,488,692
Dollars of GDP produced in the United States: $989,481,786
Energy equivalent in #of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches: 4,502,768,953
Number of acres of corn needed to produce the equivalent amount of ethanol: 212,704
Number of Tour de France races that Lance Armstrong could complete burning
an equivalent amount of food energy: 108,273,479
Years of energy use in Boston’s John Hancock Tower: 40.3
Equivalent amount of energy in tons of firewood: 448,488
Tons of steel that could be produced: 471,343
This is an update of an analysis first published in ecosalon.
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by ProPublica, Martin Clinton, Reframe Collection, Marian Wang, savetheusa and others. savetheusa said: RT @ProPublica: Oil spilled by BP could power avg American home for 81,286 yrs. This stat & more from a BU professor: http://bit.ly/bP68pu [...]
“Number of airplane round trips between London and Louisiana that could be taken
by BP CEO Tony Hayward: 263,808″
Love that one. I read in the paper this morning that the amount of oil gushing out could fill one car’s gas tank every second. It’s a wonder that BP has been so slow to fix this problem…even if harming the environment isn’t enough to motivate them, it is their money and their oil that is ultimately being lost.
“Hours of motor gasoline consumption for the entire United States: 3.9″
Not a lot.. we are hooked on oil.
This is one of the worst geographical catastrophies of modern times! The natural environment and biodiversity have been irreversibly damaged but at least it has brought even more attention on the problems of the earth concerning the environment!
Will someone ever find a VALID alternative to oil?
It seems like there is finally some good news with the spill. The Houston Chronicle reports, U.S. ships were being outfitted earlier this month with four pairs of skimming booms airlifted from the Netherlands and should be deployed within days.” Could this be the turning point? For all those feeling pretty gloomy about this situation, I recommend a good laugh… Here’s a funny joke, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dd0svVWfFbo