If It Was My Home – Today it’s enough to mention the word ‘oil’ for everyone to get on the exact same oil spill disaster page. We all agree this is a terrible blight, the long term consequences of which are barely known to us at this moment. The BP oil spill is disastrous to our seas and to the animals that live there, especially the ones we count on eating. Although the world is acknowledging the severity of this ecological blow, nothing puts it in perspective like seeing the size of the oil spill in proportion to your regional area. If It Was My Home does just that, instilling in users all around the world the scale of the oil disaster.

The site uses a fix sized spill stain (representing the spill size in scale) on your local Google Map (simply enter a location in the box and hit ‘Move The Spill’) to show you the vastness of it, compared to areas you are familiar with. See the two screen shots below for an eye-opening realization. The first is in the East coast area of PA, NJ, NY and MA. See how most of NJ and the entire 5-borough city of New York are entirely engulfed by the oil, not to mention parts of PA and MA – that’s a huge area! The second screen shot presents the oil spill in the southern tip of Florida’s mainland. Multiple cities including Miami, Ft. Lauderdale and most of the Everglades National Park are overshadowed by it.

If It Was My Home is an excellent medium to show the greatness of the oil spill disaster, and I’m not using the word ‘great’ in a positive sense. This is a very effective tool for teachers throughout the country. Dear teachers, please share this website with your class students, friends and colleagues.