https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=My9GaopvWm4&feature=related
Love Always
mudra
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — About 800 miles from the Gulf of Mexico, Dave Edmonds is struggling to remind people about the BP oil spill.
There aren't many magazine covers with photos of oil-drenched birds now that BP has capped its massive gusher at the bottom of the sea. People aren't looking online for information about the historic spill like they were a few weeks ago.
So Edmonds, who lives on the Delaware coast, has started a nonprofit organization to keep the disaster on people's minds with a website and social networking campaign.
Since the blown-out well at the Mississippi Canyon 252 Macondo site has been capped and the cleanup operations in the Gulf declared a success, BP has summarily fired thousands of workers without notice who were left unemployed as a result of the disaster. Local, state and federal agencies have been working to present a picture of normalcy, declaring the seafood safe to eat, the beaches clean and the water free from oil. The actual situation along the Gulf Coast is far from normal, with many people evacuating due to sickness and financial distress. Independent scientific reports continue to conclude the safety of the seafood is questionable at best, the beaches remain thoroughly contaminated, and the majority of the oil and dispersant is still in the water column or at the bottom of the Gulf.
WASHINGTON – Deep water oil drills quieted by a six-month moratorium will again hum off the Gulf Coast, helping an industry that, despite its dangers, puts needed money in the pockets of thousands along the Gulf Coast. What's less certain is just how soon the jobs on hold because of the six-month ban will come back to a region trying to recover.
Thirty-three deep water operations were halted by the moratorium imposed as the BP oil disaster unfolded. Meeting new federal safety requirements imposed since then will take time for oil companies.
TERREBONNE, La. -- The flock of pelicans taking flight along the shore of Lake Raccourci in coastal Terrebonne Parish was a picture-perfect moment. But behind them was a disturbing sight on the shoreline: the edge of the marsh dead, with black clumps of oil tangled in the grass, strangling it.
"After the grass dies, then it is going to go further in with the high tide," said fisherman Russell Dardar.
Russell Dardar of the Pointe-Au-Chien Indian tribe says neighbors are still finding fresh oil coming ashore, but what adds to the worry are the places where older oil is continuing to damage the marsh. Under the hard black surface is still liquid oil that coats gloves, and plants.
"Oil this thick right here, all through these grasses," said Russell. "Further in, that's all oil, and that's the next grass that is going to die."
"Very frightening, I've been shrimping, and crabbing, and oystering for over thirty years," said his brother Donald. "It's got me real worried."
Along a coastline dotted with oil deadened marsh, Russell is marking the worst locations, so he can check back to see if the damage spreads, eroding the fragile marsh.
Mercuriel wrote:I have returned Dear Sister...
They can't keep Us down. We will endeavour to persevere...
Gulf of Mexico coastal residents are civilian casualties of a chemical and biological warfare. We have most of the same toxins in our blood and we share the same symptoms experienced by soldiers who survived and died after exposure to debilitating and deadly chemicals in the European trenches of WWI.
While the rest of the world has been deliberately kept in the dark, the Gulf of Mexico has become a chemical and biological battleground. Our shorelines and coastal areas are now the front lines of this deadly war that will bring an onslaught of casualties during the next decade and beyond. We are all entrenched in a war for our survival and the survival of our families for generations to come.
Washington, D.C. — Gulf coast shrimpers and affected community groups from Alaska to Louisiana to Florida pressed the federal government today to better regulate dispersants -- the chemicals that oil companies routinely use to break up oil slicks on water – before these chemicals are used in future spill cleanups.
The non-profit environmental law firm Earthjustice filed a petition (PDF) on behalf of the Louisiana Shrimp Association, Florida Wildlife Federation, Gulf Restoration Network, the Alaska-based Cook Inletkeeper, Alaska Community Action on Toxics, Waterkeeper and Sierra Club asking the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to write rules that would set out exactly how and when dispersants could be used in the future.
The move comes just one day after the Obama administration announced it was lifting a moratorium on Gulf Coast oil drilling.