As the environmental nightmare that the ruptured BP oil well in the Gulf of Mexico has unleashed upon humanity becomes more apparent, there are some burning questions that we desperately need answered.  The truth is that it has now become exceedingly obvious that BP has been lying to us all along.  Researchers have doubled their previous estimate and now say that up to 1.7 million gallons a day may have been escaping into the Gulf of Mexico ever since this disaster began.  If this new figure is correct, that means that over 90 million gallons of oil have gushed into the Gulf of Mexico in the 53 days since the rig exploded.  To put that in perspective, that would be eight times the amount spilled during the Exxon Valdez disaster in 1989.  The truth is that we are looking at the end of the world as we know it for those living along the Gulf of Mexico.  It is hard to even put into words how horrific this nightmare is.  But the sad thing is that there is still a lot about this oil spill that we do not know.

The following are 17 questions about the Gulf of Mexico oil spill that we desperately need answers to....

#1) Why is the FAA shutting down the airspace above the Gulf of Mexico oil spill?  Do they not want anymore pictures taken of the area?

#2) What is BP doing so much to keep the press away from the oil spill?

#3) Should we be concerned that birds are flocking north by the thousands?

#4) If the smell of the oil on some beaches is alrady so strong that it burns your nostrils, then what in the world is this oil doing to our wildlife?

#5) When BP officials say things like "we discovered things that were broken in the sub-surface" and when they say that the damaged well was leaking "out to the side, into the formation", what does that mean?

#6) Is there evidence of multiple oil leaks possibly coming from other rigs?

#7) Has the Gulf of Mexico oil spill caused additional ruptures in the sea floor?

#8) Why are scientists finding concentrations of methane at up to 10,000 times normal background levels in Gulf waters?

#9) About a third of all rescued birds have died so far - but what is the death rate for the birds that have not been rescued?

#10) BP is being accused of trying to manipulate the search results on sites like Google and Yahoo.  So what is it that they are trying so desperately to hide?

#11) If "70% or 80%" of the protective booms are doing absolutely nothing at all, then what is going to stop the millions of gallons of oil in the Gulf from eventually reaching shore?

#12) If BP starts burning a large amount of the excess oil, won't that be really bad for the air?

#13) Houston attorney Tony Buzbee claims that he has new evidence which shows that Deepwater Horizon’s managers knew that the oil rig had major problems before its explosion on April 20th.  Does that mean that there is clear negligence involved here?

#14) If Kevin Costner's oil-cleanup machines work so well and could have kept the oil from getting to the shores of the Gulf coast, then why did BP wait for so long before purchasing some?

#15) Why are three states along the Gulf of Mexico preparing for a massive call up of thousands of National Guard members?

#16) If the primary dispersant that BP has been using, Corexit 9527, ruptures red blood cells and causes fish to bleed, then why are they continuing to use it?

#17) Is there a serious risk that the entire Gulf of Mexico could become one gigantic dead zone if the oil is not completely stopped soon?

With each passing day, the environmental horror being caused by the Gulf of Mexico oil spill becomes more apparent.  Some of the most unique wildlife habitats in the world are being obliterated, entire species are being threatened with extinction and scientists are telling us that the Gulf of Mexico will never be the same again during any of our lifetimes.  This is not just another Exxon Valdez or Hurricane Katrina.  This is the end of an entire way of life for millions of people and for millions of birds, animals and fish.  It is impossible to even put a price tag on what we are all losing as a result of this spill.  BP will never make enough money to repay the damage that has been done already.  And yet the oil just keeps gushing into the Gulf of Mexico.  It is a nightmare that we can't wake up from and from which there is no escape. 

Each day the news just seems to get worse.  In fact, if you really dig into the news reports that are coming out about this spill it quickly becomes apparent that there is a whole lot more going on than we have been told.

The following are 9 horrific facts about the Gulf of Mexico oil spill that will blow your mind....

#1) According to an iReport on CNN, "significant amounts of oil" are floating ashore in the Florida Keys.

#2) Some workers are now finding dead dolphins rotting in the shore weeds along the Gulf coast.

#3) Scientists are telling us that the primary dispersant that BP has been using, Corexit 9527, ruptures red blood cells and causes fish to bleed.

#4) Professor Prosanta Chakrabarty of Louisiana State University says that she believes that "every fish and invertebrate contacting the oil is probably dying".

#5) There are new reports that fishermen all over the Gulf of Mexico are becoming seriously ill from breathing the toxic brew being created by this oil spill and BP's response to it.

#6) Transocean, the firm hired by BP to operate the Deepwater Horizon offshore drilling rig, recently announced that it will distribute $1 billion in dividends to shareholders even as oil continues to pour into the Gulf of Mexico.

#7) Not only that, but Transocean also has announced that it will make a $270 million profit on the insurance policy for the damaged oil rig.

#8) Matt Simmons, an energy adviser to former president George W. Bush, recently went on national television and claimed that "there's another leak, much bigger, 5 to 6 miles away" from the leaking riser and blowout preventer which everyone has been watching on the underwater cameras.

#9) Unfortunately, this disaster is far from over.  In fact, some experts are now warning that the oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico may continue gushing until December.
 

The environmental horror caused by the massive oil spill spreading rapidly throughout the Gulf of Mexico is becoming more apparent by the day.  In fact, it would be very difficult to understate the damage that all of this oil is already doing to a very intricate ecosystem in the Gulf of Mexico or the danger that this oil spill represents if it continues to spread.  Hundreds of species of animals and plants are at risk.  Millions of living things in the Gulf of Mexico are going to die.  The entire region is going to be an environmental nightmare for years - perhaps decades.  This really is "the end of the world as we know it" for hundreds of thousands of people living in the Gulf region who depend upon the Gulf of Mexico for their economic survival.  What we are witnessing is the death of an entire region of the planet - and perhaps more than that if this thing continues to spread. 

Yes, this disaster is really, really, really bad.  Just consider the following quote from Richard Charter of the Defenders of Wildlife....

"It is so big and expanding so fast that it's pretty much beyond human response that can be effective. ... You're looking at a long-term poisoning of the area. Ultimately, this will have a multidecade impact."

So just how much oil is flowing into the Gulf of Mexico at this point?

Well, BP spokeswoman Ayana McIntosh-Lee said on Monday that the damaged well is releasing 210,000 gallons of oil a day into the Gulf of Mexico.  Barack Obama is calling this oil spill a potentially unprecedented environmental disaster.  In fact, federal officials have already closed a portion of the northern Gulf of Mexico to all fishing.

It would be hard to underestimate how serious this is for folks who live along the Gulf coast.  Residents of the Gulf region are starting to fear that the damage from this oil spill will be worse than the damage caused by Hurricane Katrina.

One Louisiana resident recently put it this way....

"A hurricane is like closing your bank account for a few days, but this here has the capacity to destroy our bank accounts."

But there are signs that this disaster is going to get even worse before it starts to get better.

It is being reported that a confidential government report on the disaster in the Gulf makes it clear that the Coast Guard now fears the damaged well could become an unchecked gusher shooting millions of gallons of oil per day into the Gulf.  One Alabama newspaper has posted excerpts from this alarming report....

"The following is not public," reads the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Emergency Response document dated April 28th that was posted on . "Two additional release points were found today in the tangled riser. If the riser pipe deteriorates further, the flow could become unchecked resulting in a release volume an order of magnitude higher than previously thought."

If that report is even partially true, then we may not have even seen the worst of things yet.

Even if things remain as they are, it is already being projected that this could be the most costly environmental disaster in history.

Estimates vary at this point, but it is being reported that some analysts are already projecting that the costs related to the oil spill could exceed 14 billion dollars.  The cost to the fishing industry in Louisiana alone could top 3 billion dollars, and it is being projected that the tourism industry in Florida could lose even more than that. 

But the truth is that it is way too early for estimates, because as long as the damaged well keeps gushing oil the nightmare is only going to get worse.

So how long until things get better?

Well, U.S. Representative Charlie Melancon of Louisiana has made a couple of statements about this disaster which are extremely chilling....

"The best-case scenario is that this lasts for a couple of weeks."

"The worst case is that we've got several months to go."

In fact, the Obama administration and BP are both now indicating that the worst case scenario is more likely.  Officials said on Monday that it might take up to three months to completely seal off the leaking oil well.

That is not good news.

BP is certainly freaked out about all of this, and they are already trying to claim that it was not "their" accident that caused all of this.

Tony Hayward, the CEO of British Petroleum, told NBC's Meredith Vieira on Monday that his company was not responsible for creating the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico but that they are responsible for cleaning it up....

"It wasn't our accident, but we are absolutely responsible for the oil, for cleaning it up, and that's what we intend to do."

That sad thing is that this is the type of world we live in - a world where the lawyers are in charge and nobody takes responsibility for anything.

For once it would be really nice to see a CEO stand up and admit responsibility for something.

But that just isn't going to happen.

Meanwhile, the more we learn about this oil spill the more frightening it becomes.

The reality is that we simply do not know at this point just yet how incredibly destructive this disaster may become.  In his recent article, "The Oil Mess - The Takedown Of World Economy?", George Ure posted a message from one of his readers this is extremely troubling.  The reader is a very experienced engineer, and his diagnosis of the danger that we are facing from this oil spill is incredibly frightening.  If what he says is true, then we are headed for a complete and total nightmare....

A reader who is an engineer of considerable experience says watch this one evolve carefully because it is destined to continue to grow and he shares this long (but worthy) explanation why:

"Heard your mention of the oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico this morning, and you (and most everyone else except maybe George Noory) are totally missing the boat on how big and bad of a disaster this is.

First fact, the original estimate was about 5,000 gallons of oil a day spilling into the ocean. Now they're saying 200,000 gallons a day. That's over a million gallons of crude oil a week!

I'm engineer with 25 years of experience. I've worked on some big projects with big machines. Maybe that's why this mess is so clear to me. [and is so unclear to the millions without such knowledge]

First, the BP platform was drilling for what they call deep oil. They go out where the ocean is about 5,000 feet deep and drill another 30,000 feet into the crust of the earth. This it right on the edge of what human technology can do. Well, this time they hit a pocket of oil at such high pressure that it burst all of their safety valves all the way up to the drilling rig and then caused the rig to explode and sink. Take a moment to grasp the import of that. The pressure behind this oil is so high that it destroyed the maximum effort of human science to contain it.

When the rig sank it flipped over and landed on top of the drill hole some 5,000 feet under the ocean.

Now they've got a hole in the ocean floor, 5,000 feet down with a wrecked oil drilling rig sitting on top of is spewing 200,000 barrels of oil a day into the ocean. Take a moment and consider that, will you!

First they have to get the oil rig off the hole to get at it in order to try to cap it. Do you know the level of effort it will take to move that wrecked oil rig, sitting under 5,000 feet of water? That operation alone would take years and hundreds of millions to accomplish. Then, how do you cap that hole in the muddy ocean floor? There just is no way. No way.

The only piece of human technology that might address this is a nuclear bomb. I'm not kidding. If they put a nuke down there in the right spot it might seal up the hole. Nothing short of that will work.

If we can't cap that hole that oil is going to destroy the oceans of the world. It only takes one quart of motor oil to make 250,000 gallons of ocean water toxic to wildlife. Are you starting to get the magnitude of this?

We're so used to our politicians creating false crises to forward their criminal agendas that we aren't recognizing that we're staring straight into possibly the greatest disaster mankind will ever see. Imagine what happens if that oil keeps flowing until it destroys all life in the oceans of this planet. Who knows how big of a reservoir of oil is down there.

Not to mention that the oceans are critical to maintaining the proper oxygen level in the atmosphere for human life.

We're humped. Unless God steps in and fixes this. No human can. You can be sure of that."