On August 4th 2010, the US government claimed that most of the oil that spilled in the Gulf of Mexico was “gone” and that only 26 percent remained. If the numbers are true – and most official reports so far have turned out to substantially
underestimate the amount of oil – then the presentation of this data is somewhere between wishful thinking and outright spin. The fact is that even this report acknowledges that no more than a quarter has been recovered. A bit more has evaporated, leaving somewhere between 3 and 4 million barrels of oil still in the Gulf and on the shorelines of Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama. Oil that has been dispersed or dissolved is still out there, and still causing problems that are poorly understood but likely to be serious and often persistent.

Download PDF