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More relevant than the comparison to other disasters is the list of largest oil spills:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oil_spills#Largest_oil_spills

on which it is currently somewhere between third and sixteenth, depending on which estimate you believe. The point being that if the ecosystem recovered from all these other oil spills (most of which you've never heard of) then it'll recover from this one too. If you want to worry about something, worry about overfishing in the oceans instead.

Besides, hasn't there been a shocking lack of photogenic oil-drenched wildlife washing up on beaches? Anyone know what the deal is with that?



Tighter controls over the media? Did they have no-fly zones and tightly restricted waters during the Exxon Valdez spill?


The entire coastline is free and populated... I haven't seen any pictures of dead wildlife or even oil on land yet.


There was a story[1] posted to HN last week with oil-covered animals and oil on land. I don't remember of there were any dead animals though.

[1] http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2010/05/oil_reaches_louisia...


Ah, I see. This isn't the worst oil spill ever, so it's really no big deal.

Kind of like if a tornado destroys your house, it doesn't really matter, because it wasn't the mythical F6 tornado.




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