Oil Spill

I try to keep things light and fun on this blog, but you can’t appreciate all the dumb, meaningless stuff without sometimes taking a look at the real world. When I read this, it blew my mind and I had to share it.

All the Things BP Could Buy With the Money Lost from the Oil Spill:

BP could have bought 10 years of clean water for each of the 884 million people in the world without access to it. The cost would be $8.84 billion, or $1 per year per person.

BP could also have bought a new home to replace each of the 275,000 lost in Hurricane Katrina. The cost would be $48.125 billion at the median New Orleans market rate of $175,000.

With the lost money, BP could also have bought an ice cream sandwich for everyone on Earth. The cost of $3.395 billion included a 0.50 sandwich from Walmart for each person.

The company could have also purchased Yahoo, Inc. Its market value according to Yahoo Finance is $20.069 billion.

BP could have also bought a 2010 Toyota Prius for each of BP’s 92,000 employees. The cars would cost $21,400 each for a total of $1.968 billion.

The company could also have purchased a copy of the book Sh*t My Dad Says for every user on Twitter. At $8.79 each of Amazon.com, the total for the books is $922 million.

BP could also have purchased Twitter itself for a cost of $1 billion, according to its 2009 valuation.

With the lost money, BP could add an island in the Bahamas to their purchases. Lighthouse Cay has four miles of beachfront and costs $33.3 million.

BP could also purchase a pogo stick for every elementary school kid in the U.S. At $25 each from Amazon.com, the toys would cost a total of $621.25 million.

BP could also supply a three-pack of condoms to every teenager in the U.S. If they got the 1,000 count discount packs from Amazon.com, the condoms would cost $8.45 million.

The lost income could also purchase an iPad for every college student in the U.S. at a total cost of $8.305 billion.

BP could purchase a trip to outer space for every U.S. Senator. At $30 million each from Space Adventures, the total cost would be $3 billion.

BP could also have purchased a year’s sponsorship for one million needy kids at Children International. At $22 per month per child, the total cost would be $264 million.

BP could buy a three-wolf t-shirt for every person in America. At $10.99 on Amazon.com, the total cost would be $3.432 billion. BP could also buy a second wolf shirt for every person in Idaho. At 10.99 each, the total would be $17 million.

The total cost of all of these items is $100,000,000,000. This is how much BP stock has lost as of June 2010. This doesn’t include the $3.5+ billion spent in recovery efforts so far.

Here's a way you can help for free. Go to Amnesty International and sign your name to a letter demanding that BP be responsible for ALL damages from this disaster. They are only liable for up to $75 million of damages, which is clearly not enough.

And if you want to help and have the money to do so, go to National Wildlife Federation to donate. Or support my girl Sophia Bush in her Run For The Gulf half marathon.