Oil Spill Damage Overhyped

Spill's effects don't appear all that catastrophic
By Kevin Spak,  Newser Staff
Posted Jul 29, 2010 1:56 PM CDT
Oil Spill Damage Overhyped
The Wax Lake delta is seen on the Atchafalaya Bay in St. Mary Parish, La., Wednesday, July 28, 2010.   (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)

Everyone seems to be calling the Deepwater Horizon spill the worst environmental disaster ever, but rumors of the Gulf’s death may be greatly exaggerated, writes Michael Grunwald of TIME. While there could be long-term ramifications from the spill, the damage so far actually looks pretty modest. It’s killed less than 1% as many birds as the Exxon Valdez spill, for example, and the region’s fish and shrimp have so far tested clean.

As for Louisiana’s marshes, the spill affected only about 350 acres of wetlands that were already disappearing at a rate of 15,000 acres a year thanks to oil and gas industry pipelines. One LSU professor likens the spill to “a sunburn on a cancer patient.” This is lighter crude than the Exxon spilled, experts explain, and Mississippi river currents are keeping it off the coast. “We're not seeing catastrophic impacts,” says one marine scientist. “There’s a lot of hype, but no evidence to justify it.” (More Gulf oil spill stories.)

Get the news faster.
Tap to install our app.
X
Install the Newser News app
in two easy steps:
1. Tap in your navigation bar.
2. Tap to Add to Home Screen.

X