The winter months assault the trees in my back yard, causing overburdened limbs to snap and fall to the snow-covered ground. The scene is barren and foreboding. Nothing can flourish here.
Luckily, no matter the harshness of the winter – with its ice storms, strong winds, and frigid temperatures – renewal is assured.
The spring thaw is quickly followed by budding branches and an explosion of vibrant green. These old trees can sure put on a show. The caterpillars will feast on their bounty soon enough, but for now, nature is triumphant.
The same cannot be said for nature’s recuperative powers when the assault is man-made.
That is, of course, unless Rush Limbaugh is doing the talking. He has come up with a not so novel solution – do nothing.
Sound familiar?
“The ocean will take care of this on its own if it was left alone and left out there. It’s natural. It’s as natural as the ocean water is.”
Source: tampabay.com, April 30, 2010
The estimated rate of the oil spilling into the ocean is 5,000 barrels per day. Most of us aren’t used to visualizing barrels. We know that it’s a lot, but the mental picture is fuzzy.
A barrel is equal to 42 gallons.
We’re more familiar with gallons, but we mostly only notice them as the numbers on the pump rapidly tick upwards as we fuel our cars, so grasping the enormity of the spill in terms of gallons is still a bit fuzzy.
Look at your coffee cup.
The estimated spill rate is equal to 3,360,000 cups per day.
The explosion on the rig occurred on April 20TH, so the ocean has been asked to absorb over 50,000,000 cups of oil so far.
I’ve read of a ninety-day estimate before the well can be capped.
This would bring the total up to 302,400,000 cups of oil that Rush is expecting the ocean to absorb naturally.
It’s stunning to me that anyone can continue to take this guy seriously.
Author Bio:
Ray Colon has written 136 posts on Ray's Blog.
He works with numbers for a living, but don't judge - boring accountants need love too. His blog has no niche (unless writing about things that are important to him is a niche). Some folks cringe when he gets “all political” on them, but he does it anyway when he's in that kind of mood. Sometimes, he writes something nice about someone, but you shouldn't get used to that. His first book, the one he hasn't written yet, is not available on Amazon. Subscribe to Ray's Blog via RSS or Email.
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
I’m counting to ten over here…in an attempt to be civil…
OK – think I can handle it now – Rush Limbaugh is a xxxxxxxxxxx
he is an idiot. (as mild as I can put it.)
10, 9, 8 …
Well done, Ali. It’s probably a good idea to filter our initial thoughts, even if Rush doesn’t.
I’ve listened to his show many times and I’m fascinated by the size of his following. To think that so many people share his views is unsettling at best.
Ray