Rush Limbaugh says there's no reason to spend millions of dollars cleaning up that massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. The conservative radio host said the spill is a natural occcurence:
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The ocean will take care of this on its own if it was left alone and left out there. It’s natural. It’s as natural as the ocean water is.”
Opposing Views: Rush Limbaugh: Oil Spill is Natural
This man (and every one of his fans who actually thinks this man is credible) is an idiot!
Represent Rush, represent.
Mind you I am not agreeing with Limbaugh that this particular spill should not be cleaned up because if it threatens coastlines and wildlife preserves, I think it must be - however natural oil spills and leaks are occurring all the time all over the world, including a massive one off the California coast right now.
ISA | Natural oil leaks equal to 8–80 Exxon Valdez spills
The spill in the Gulf of Mexico is nowhere near as large as the Santa Barbara natural occurring seep. Oil in its natural form is a part of nature, part of environment in the seas at any given time and the environment routinely handles the "clean up" of such seeps. Oil is not some kind of alien substance that never appeared in the environment or the seas until man found a use for it. Which is why there are life forms that thrive and feed off it.
Limbaugh is 100% correct that if left alone, the seas would take care of this oil spill all by itself over time. THAT isn't the real question though -it is what kind of damage will it cause before the seas naturally remove it. If it costs more to clean it up ourselves first than the damage it might inflict -then it isn't worth cleaning up and we can allow the seas to handle it. If the cost of the damage will be more than the cost of cleaning it faster than the sea would do -then we have to clean it up. So far this spill has not hit landfall anywhere and examination of sea wildlife shows minimal if any damage. But the risk that it will get caught in currents and make landfall where the damage could be enormous still exists and we must be prepared for that. But that the seas WOULD clean it itself -absolutely it would.