Since the Deepwater Horizon oil disaster erupted back in April, many of us have sat helpless, watching the crude ooze its slow-motion destruction across the Gulf waters and coastline. We may have seen the satellite images put out by NASA showing how the spill is progressing and heard countless times about how much money BP is forking over for recovery. And we've read many reports about how the oil is killing wildlife, threatening the fishing industry and ruining cultural cuisine.
But for those of us who do not live in the Gulf area, the implications of such a disaster are still many hundreds or even thousands of miles away.
Well, thanks to the Internet, Google Maps and 29-year-old software developer, Andy Lintner of Royal Oak, Mich., we can have a touch of reality.
Lintner created ifitwasmyhome.com, a website that allows you to get an up-to-date graphic of the oil spill laid over a map of your region. The point is not to show how the spill might look in your area had the rig exploded there (oil moves differently over land than water), but to show the size of the oil spill relative to your area, to give you a better sense of its scale. Above is how the size of the spill compares to my region of Boston, Mass.
I called Lintner to ask him why he developed the site. He said that a couple of weeks ago, he and his wife, Kristen had seen a graphic of the spill overlaid onto New York City. But that didn't mean much to them since they weren't from New York. So he tinkered around with Google Maps and spill data from NOAA that gives the latitude and longitude points for the slick's area to overlay it onto Royal Oak.
That made an impact.
"I spent the rest of that night throwing the website together," he said.
The result is a simple, but effective site where all you need to do is enter your city's name, state and country to see how the spill size compares to your region.
"I shared it on Facebook, and it spread from there," said Lintner. "I’ve had more than 3 million visitors."
Lintner thinks his site has been effective because in general, people have had a hard time grasping the size of the spill.
"People who live outside those areas aren’t used to thinking about the scale of the coast," he said.
Once on the site, viewers learn a little bit about the spill and are also directed to other resources to talk, think, volunteer, or donate money for coastal relief.
Lintner has to update the site with new data from NOAA everyday. But he's committed to doing it.
"I’ll keep it up as long as the spill is going. It’s a decent amount of work, but it’s worth the investment of time," he said.
"I feel like it’s helping to increase the perception of the spill."
Tags: Internet, Oil Spill, Online Community and Social Networking, Take Action
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