Oil spills vs. natural seeps in the gulf: "the dose makes the poison"

I'd like to point out a great, succinct analysis of the Gulf of Mexico's oil ecology on BoingBoing, which neatly cuts down Forbes' attempt to downplay the scale of the catastrophe:

Smaller amounts of oil, released a slower rate, into a local ecosystem that has evolved in tandem with the ongoing natural seep isn't as big of a deal as a whole metric crap-ton of oil dumped quickly into a larger area of ocean. (Just like smaller amounts of Corexit oil dispersant can be legitimately safe, even though we don't know anything about the toxicity of the product when used in huge quantities.)

Maggie Koerth-Baker hasn't written explicitly on permaculture, as far as I know, but the idea that too much of anything is pollution, even for a natural substance, is an important point that many people miss. It's good to see this kind of thinking from a wider variety of sources.

  Good point.
People introduced chemical farming thinking everyone would only use a bit in case of plagues and suddenly everyone started to use pesticides and herbicides always and just in case not because a seriouse problem had hit.
  For the purposes of swimming competently, impossible, but a bit more competently among our kind, trying to work out when adults are lying is interesting.  Want to get your arms round how great the possibilities are that supposedley responsible adults lien or what espressions they pull when they do, whatching about the oil spill is a good place to do it. BP is lying and lying and lying.
       That everyone shoud take out their shares in BP is interesting. Do they want to punish BP or have they really lost confidence. I think BP is suprised, they thought that if it was evident that they looked after the business before anything else they would keep the confidence of the market but their sharehold loss has been incredible, it restores confidence in the permies. agri rose macaskie