Time's Michael Grunwald comes out with an online story today that contends the environmental damage from the BP gulf oil leak may not be as bad as some have reported.

He even quotes Rush Limbaugh's view and contends he may right: “The obnoxious anti-environmentalist Rush Limbaugh has been a rare voice arguing that the spill -- he calls it 'the leak' -- is anything less than an ecological calamity, scoffing at the avalanche of end-is-nigh eco-hype.

”Well, Rush has a point. The Deepwater explosion was an awful tragedy for the 11 workers who died on the rig, and it's no leak; it's the biggest oil spill in U.S. history. It's also inflicting serious economic and psychological damage on coastal communities that depend on tourism, fishing and drilling. But so far -- while it's important to acknowledge that the long-term potential danger is simply unknowable for an underwater event that took place just three months ago -- it does not seem to be inflicting severe environmental damage. 'The impacts have been much, much less than everyone feared,' says geochemist Jacqueline Michel, a federal contractor who is coordinating shoreline assessments in Louisiana."

He then attempts to downplay the damage from the oil debacle by comparing it to the Exxon Valdez impact and noting that wetlands are disappearing along the coast anyway:

“Yes, the spill killed birds -- but so far, less than 1% of the birds killed by the Exxon Valdez. Yes, we've heard horror stories about oiled dolphins -- but, so far, wildlife response teams have collected only three visibly oiled carcasses of any 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, shorelines assessment teams have only found about 350 acres of oiled marshes, when Louisiana was already losing about 15,000 acres of wetlands every year."