Oil Spill

Hello!

I'm finally back from my month of Hell! Yay! Originally I wanted to talk about a veg podcast I've become addicted to, but I felt that due to recent circumstances there were more pressing matters to discuss. (So next post will be about my new addiction). I know this is a subject that is probably more near and dear to Allie than it is me, but it also has me pretty upset right now, and I wanted to talk about it in case there's anyone else reading this blog-now or even somewhere down the line. What is it? The Gulf Coast Oil Spill.

Being from Pensacola with its formerly sandy white beaches (which are no longer white or natural thanks to off-shore dredging of sand and bringing it to shore to build more condos) and it's beaches just now recovering from Hurricane Ivan (we had just gotten Fort Pickens back), I know this is going to hurt our local economy, which has been based on tourism for years. But REALLY, the big issue isn't our economy or the seafood industry- it's the animals. The sea and marsh animals and birds who are being threatened aren't even being talked about in the media with the exception of how being "tainted" with oil will effect the people who's livelihood depends on killing them.

This is a media issue and an executive issue that needs to be talked about. Not only did BP respond badly to the explosion and leaking of the oil rig, but the media did as well. The media has been trying to play the blame game at the start of this, and really that is not (or at least it should not be) the main point. The main point is that this explosion and giant leak occurred (and still occurring in the case of the leak) and now we have a disaster of unforeseen proportions. We are talking about the large variety of sea creatures and birds being threatened out at sea, the wetlands and marshes, the amphibian creatures bridging the shore. These animals are being threatened because of our own negligence and we're too busy throwing around accusations about who's fault this is that we're not taking care of them.

I'm home right now and I've been watching the local news and so far they've been cleaning only a few birds and testing dead sea turtles to see if their death was oil related or not, coming to the conclusion of no. We need to be stopping the leak and preventing further damage. BP needs to be paying for not only the stopping of the leak and prevention of landfall of the oil, but also for animal clean up and care, for searches to go out and at least find the birds far out at sea (I realize it's impossible to scoop up all of the fish in the area to save them by taking them away from their homes). When this leak finally ends, there will be fishermen suing for damages for years to come, but who's fighting for the fish? The dolphins? The shellfish? The frogs? The alligators? The birds? What about the endangered species? The manatees? The sea turtles? The red snapper (which are still allowed to killed by fishermen, but are capped at a limit because of the population size)? Who's fighting for them? Not ABC, CBS, FOX, NBC, CNN, etc. Noone on TV.

And what are these dispersants doing that BP is throwing in the water? They break up the oil yes, but they mix it throughout the ocean column, the fish at all levels of the ocean column are being exposed to the oil. Not only that, but the dispersants themselves are toxic to the sea life. I realize that this is kind of a last minute aid to try and take care of the oil situation, but I really feel that at no point were these animals considered with their right to life, but rather how much BP can spend to make their problem go away and not be sued by all the fishermen for effecting their income.

I leave this rant with a few resources that I hope people will check out:

An article from the Pensacola News Journal about getting training to clean wildlife covered in oil
http://www.pnj.com/article/20100505/NEWS01/100505007

An article about the endangered species affected by the oil spill and how dispersants work from an activist organization
http://www.takepart.com/news/2010/05/05/oil-spill-dolphins-marine-mammals

An article from the Discover Magazine blog about how sea turtles are being affected by the spill
http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/intersection/2010/05/05/beyond-politics-oil-water-shrimp-and-sea-turtles/

And some Facebook cleanup groups trying to get volunteers (Note: the ones I know of are for the Pensacola area, but I'm sure there are more for areas further west)
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=115890201776737
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=117019351652257