BP Deepwater: Some Perspective

Here's a letter to the New York Times:

David Brooks's list of those human cognitive limitations that arguably led to the BP Deepwater oil spill is useful ("Drilling For Certainty," May 28).  This list, however, contains one item that seems mistaken – namely, the claim that "people tend to spread good news and hide bad news."

Some good news is that, using government-scientists' maximum estimate of the amount of oil spilled daily into the Gulf of Mexico from BP Deepwater, this spill today ranks...