re: #26 Walter L. Newton

There’s a difference between oil that naturally leaks into the oceans, which has been going on since the formation of oil and gas deposits around the world, and which is a gradual process, and the leak here, which is a massive amount of oil leaking in a compressed period of time.

According to this older report:

Nearly 85 percent of the 29 million gallons of petroleum that enter North American ocean waters each year as a result of human activities comes from land-based runoff, polluted rivers, airplanes, and small boats and jet skis, while less than 8 percent comes from tanker or pipeline spills, says a new report from the National Academies’ National Research Council. Oil exploration and extraction are responsible for only 3 percent of the petroleum that enters the sea. Another 47 million gallons seep into the ocean naturally from the seafloor.

Don’t know what that figure is worldwide. Those figures appear to be just for North American waters.