[Karl]

Originally Posted by altyfc

Have a look here:

Major oil spills since 1960

This second map looks like oil spills everywhere except Antarctica and the Arctic. But who knows, that may change in the not too distant future (at least so far as the Arctic is concerned).

However, regardless of what one may think of the NOAA in relation to the current “climate change” debate or their actual track record with regard to oil spill response, that does not mean that they have never done anything of positive value, a good example being their Environmental Sensitivity Index (ESI) ranking and mapping system for oil spill response:

http://www.fws.gov/Contaminants/FWS_...t/esiintro.pdf

This particular application of the system is for the California coastline; however, based on personal professional experience, the ESI ranking/mapping system of the NOAA for oil spill response planning is an extremely valid and useful tool that can be applied anywhere in the world (of course with appropriate adjustments for its relevance and utility factored in, where imperative). So there is no need to be too harsh on the NOAA, at least insofar as oil spill contingency planning is concerned.

Originally Posted by seven

Sad thing is that most of those spills in Nigeria are probably due to terrorism.

Right, and everywhere else the oil spills were caused by , not so?