Oil Spill Goes From Bad to Worse

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I haven’t verified these numbers myself, but the friend who sent them to me is a trustworthy sort. Experts now estimate that five times more oil has been spilling into the water from that oil rig explosion off the coast of Louisiana than they thought before:

Okay. Here’s how much they estimated was leaking before this evening: 42,000 gallons a day.

Five times that amount means approximately 210,000 gallons a day have been leaking into the Gulf.

If this spill continues unabated for two months — and that seems to be the most likely time frame at this point — we’re talking about 12.6 million gallons.

Exxon Valdez? That was 10.8 million.

Enjoy your evening.

But even that might be low. SkyTruth.org estimates that the spill rate is 20 times higher than initial estimates and that 6 million gallons of oil have already spilled into the Gulf. An Exxon Valdez size spill might only be a few days away.

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THE FACTS SPEAK FOR THEMSELVES.

At least we hope they will, because that’s our approach to raising the $350,000 in online donations we need right now—during our high-stakes December fundraising push.

It’s the most important month of the year for our fundraising, with upward of 15 percent of our annual online total coming in during the final week—and there’s a lot to say about why Mother Jones’ journalism, and thus hitting that big number, matters tremendously right now.

But you told us fundraising is annoying—with the gimmicks, overwrought tone, manipulative language, and sheer volume of urgent URGENT URGENT!!! content we’re all bombarded with. It sure can be.

So we’re going to try making this as un-annoying as possible. In “Let the Facts Speak for Themselves” we give it our best shot, answering three questions that most any fundraising should try to speak to: Why us, why now, why does it matter?

The upshot? Mother Jones does journalism you don’t find elsewhere: in-depth, time-intensive, ahead-of-the-curve reporting on underreported beats. We operate on razor-thin margins in an unfathomably hard news business, and can’t afford to come up short on these online goals. And given everything, reporting like ours is vital right now.

If you can afford to part with a few bucks, please support the reporting you get from Mother Jones with a much-needed year-end donation. And please do it now, while you’re thinking about it—with fewer people paying attention to the news like you are, we need everyone with us to get there.

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