Yes, its bad. Really bad. But if you added up ALL of the spills, blowbacks, leaks, etc... in the history of the Oil industry, taken together they don't add up to the damage inflicted on the world in a week or 2 of automobile use.
Take the Exxon Valdez. The article says it killed "tens of thousands of seabirds, otters and seals along with 250 eagles and 22 killer whales".
Do you have any idea of the total roadkill per day on U.S. highways alone?
Oil is BAD STUFF. Oil let's us do fun/easier stuff.
100% of the incremental gain in daily production since the mid 1970's, 100%!, came from offshore production. If governments were insane enough to stop all off shore production, billions of people would starve in short order and the world plunged into chaos - simple as that.
We are between a rock and a hard place, but there is no question as to what is not going to happen. No matter what, the world is going to look for, and try to produce, Oil & Gas offshore, and sh*t happens. All those pundits telling you NOT to listen to us Peak Oil lunatics just assumed that technology will be able to solve the deep water issues; egh! wrong, thanks for playing!
Here are some plain truths for the FOS:
The folks that whined about this the loudest drove their car to work today, then to the gym, then to a protest... each of them killed a bird or 2, several toads, countless insects, snakes, lizards, your cat... and tomorrow they are going to do the same - they are FOS.
The various national governments around the world are going to continue to produce and explore offshore while giving voice to the knuckle headed jag offs mentioned above to continue to whine about ocean birds killed by Oil - they are FOS.
Vegetarians are going to order a bowl of oatmeal, with raisons and sugar... the machines necessary to raise their non-animal foods are going to kill thousands of rabbits, birds, foxes, groundhogs, mice, etc... that make their home in Oat, Wheat, or Corn fields, the trucks and trains that deliver their food are going to wrack up the road kill, as is the pollution emitted by these machines... but its all OK because these folks MEANT WELL. After indulging in a bowl of grains, berries, and skim milk, these mealy mouthed nit wits are going to DRIVE over to an abortion rights rally (after all, killing animals is inhumane; killing unborn children that might have been inconvenient is OK), kill a few more animals on the way (ever break down on a highway? Ever notice all of the smaller, dried up road kill? If you drive, you did this in between songs by the BeeGees and Snoop Dog... vegan or no), and then consume some bottled water - bottled in PLASTIC made from an offshore Oil well - these people are FOS.
In the end, the world will run out of Oil... and not all that far into the future, maybe a lifetime more or less - and that is NOT FOS.