Well, look at this. Rush found a nut:

Now, I’m not suggesting anything other than trying to present you a fact. More oil [is] spilled every year in Africa, in Nigeria, than so far in the Gulf. So it’s not unique, it is not exceptional, it is not the largest. Mexico had a spill that is larger than this. Nobody talks about it except apparently me. Ixtoc I, it went on for nine months.

This is completely correct. Nigeria has a tragic history of spilling untold amounts of oil on an annual basis. And if the EIB network wants to relocate to Lagos and experience that hell on Earth, by all means. Nigeria has basically been fouled, and the result is extreme poverty and environmental degradation. Similarly, Ixtoc I (which has been mentioned at least a few times by others) did spill non-stop for 10 months, as the Mexican company Pemex employed the exact same failed steps as BP to try and reverse it.

I don’t know how these facts play as justifications for Rush’s position, however, that somehow the Earth mimicks a self-cleaning oven and eradicates its own oil spills. Actually, no, not really. In fact, the depressing reality that there’s nothing unusual or exceptional about the BP disaster argues AGAINST being so beholden to our oil addiction that we keep engaging in the same risky practices. Because no environmental damage, to my knowledge, has ever come from a wind spill.