What would the BP oil spill look like over your home?

It kills seabirds, devastates livelihoods and is having a go at doing both to BP's share price. But how big, you may ask, is the Gulf of Mexico oil spill? Website 'If it was my home' takes an image of the oil spill and overlays it on a Google map. It will either detect where you are (newer browsers, such as Firefox, will know this) or you can add a postcode or town name in a search box when you click through to it.

Above is the spill pictured as though it surrounded the Guardian offices, in central London. As you can see, this would take it south to Brighton, west to Bristol and as far north as the upper reaches of the Wash, in Lincolnshire. East takes it right out into the North Sea.

Of course the spill is not static. An oil spill tracker from the New York Times shows it growing and changing shape since the Deepwater Horizon rig sank on 22 April.

Opinion

This is really useful to know, mainly because many people around the world are still curious about how big the split is and towards where it is heading. The website name 'if it is my home' is very catchy and I thing people would just click on it because they are curious about it. I will try it out, so should you...

Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/blog/2010/jun/10/deepwater-horizon-oil-spill