[sheldonwt]

I don't understand why everyone is up voting this? Is the fact that something similar happened before supposed to alleviate our concerns about the fact that it's happening now? There have been world wars, but if one was happening now I wouldn't up vote the wikipedia entry for WWII.

[InclinedPlane]

Because having historical context allows us to judge attempts to over or under play the current situation. Considering how many people have been freaking out about this "unprecedented" event, I think this is highly useful information.

[acqq]

but it's wrong to believe BP estimates when comparing:

"the amount of oil spilling into the Gulf of Mexico may be 20 times the size of BP's earlier claims of 5000 barrels per day (2.4 million gallons spilled as of May 24, 2010), according to an exclusive analysis conducted for NPR.[37]"

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=1268095... Gulf Spill May Far Exceed Official Estimates by Richard Harris

If that is true the speed of leakage this time was immense compared to other events, so prompt action is justified.

[papachito]

We're upvoting it because everybody including Obama act like this is the first time oil spill is happening and there was no way to prevent it because it was so improbable, and also because once again we failed to learn from history.

[euroclydon]

500 feet of water vs. 5,000 is a BIG difference.