Time magazine has a recent article which offers a surprisingly hopeful bit of news about the oil spill in the Gulf: it seems the effects aren't as bad as everyone thought. Here's an excerpt:

"Yes, the spill killed birds — but so far, less than 1% of the number killed by the Exxon Valdez spill in Alaska 21 years ago. Yes, we've heard horror stories about oiled dolphins — but so far, wildlife-response teams have collected only three visibly oiled carcasses of mammals. Yes, the spill prompted harsh restrictions on fishing and shrimping, but so far, the region's fish and shrimp have tested clean, and the restrictions are gradually being lifted. And yes, scientists have warned that the oil could accelerate the destruction of Louisiana's disintegrating coastal marshes — a real slow-motion ecological calamity — but so far, assessment teams have found only about 350 acres of oiled marshes, when Louisiana was already losing about 15,000 acres of wetlands every year."

While it is hard to know the full impact of the oil leak after only three months, this article offers us hope that it may not be the total environmental disaster that some people would have us believe.