Spill rate under reported by Dateline

I agree with John Huston that the size of the spill from the Deepwater Horizon well is much larger than was reported by Dateline. BP are now reporting that they are capturing 5,000 barrels a day, and that is only a small fraction of the continuing spill. Steve Wereley, a Purdue University Mechanical Engineering prof. analyzed the video, and estimates the rate to be 70,000 (± 20%) barrels a day. I also agree with Brett, that the economic destruction is only a small part of the destruction.

ONLY 5,000 Barrels a Day?

Just one quibble about this segment: the gush (not a "spill") was given as 5,000 barrels a day. This is the "official" figure that government and BP & Co. want people to believe. Competent scientists who have no axe to grind have used computer programs and other methods to quanitify it more accurately. At the very least, it is 5 times more, and some estimates go as high as 10 times more. The government and corporations always lie to make things look not as bad. So why take THEIR word for it?

Oil spill - more than economics

We just watched your segment on the american oil spill tragedy and were very disappointed at the articles' dominant focus on the "economic" impact of the spill, when surely the major loss to this world is the environment itself. Unfortunately it just highlights our inane and narrow minded nature to focus on ourselves, rather than the infinitely more important world around us. Poor show dateline. Brett