Prediction: The BP spill will reach the East Coast

A new computer model shows the Gulf oil slick spreading up the Eastern Seaboard this summer. See the four-month projection here

Best Opinion:  Mother Jones, Forbes

If new projections prove accurate, the oil now spilling in the Gulf of Mexico will be hitting East Coast beaches in the next few months. Based on computer models, researchers at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) are predicting that ocean currents will carry BP crude around the tip of Florida, up the coast to North Carolina, and out into the open Atlantic. Unfortunately, says NCAR researcher Synte Peacock, "our best knowledge says the scope of this environmental disaster is likely to reach far beyond Florida." There's only one word for this, says Kate Sheppard in Mother Jones: "Horrifying." Indeed, says Brian Caulfield in Forbes. And on a more practical level: It's time to "rethink renting a beach house." Watch the computer simulation: