Oil Spill: It Could Always Be Worse, But That Won't Make You Any Happier

Somehow I thought Elisabeth Rosenthal’s perspective on the oil spill in today’s Times Green blog might make me feel better. “It is important to remember that this mammoth polluting event, so extraordinary here, is not so unusual in some parts of the world,” she writes, pointing to the reporting of John Vidal from the oil fields in the Niger Delta in Africa.

“It is impossible to know how much oil is spilled in the Niger delta each year because the companies and the government keep that secret. However, two major independent investigations over the past four years suggest that as much is spilled at sea, in the swamps and on land every year as has been lost in the Gulf of Mexico so far.”

Then I read the whole Vidal piece-which is titled “Nigeria’s agony dwarfs the Gulf oil spill. The US and Europe ignore it”-nd I just feel much, much worse. But, y’know, everyone should probably read it anyway. Sorry.

Photo via Flickr user Sosialistisk Ungdom, used under Creative Commons licensing.