'Top Kill' has failed.
'Junk Shot' has failed.
Now they propose to cut off the pipe and drop a funnel over it.
The entity once known as British Petroleum behaves like a rogue cattle thief, ignoring government directives and the muted indignation of the population, who, in their misguided disaffection, are now blaming a president who inherited the patronage-based mess from the oil industry presidency that went before.
Meanwhile, the natural systems, oblivious to the machinations and hand-wringing of the humans above, continue to bleed the toxic goo into the ocean, where BP sinks it with the Orwellian-named dispersant Corexit, and then has the gall to say that it never existed. The public nods dumbly on, abdicating the responsibility of citizenship to the directives of the corporate big brother.
Where is the outrage?
Where is the personal commitment to stop contributing to the problem? Have we all sunk so far into self-indulgence that we can't even see our complicity?
I'm flying from Houston (capital of the petro-based economy) to Mobile, a city bracing for the onslaught of oil tomorrow. The clouds seen from my window over the Gulf are a surreal red, lit by the evening sun filtered through the pollution above Houston.
Between the hydrocarbons bubbling out of the water into the atmosphere, and those being burned, the Macondo site generates its own weather.
What will it take for people to generate the appropriate outrage and demand sensible action? Dead dolphins floating to the beach? Pristine beaches covered in tar? Plummeting property values?
(BP will probably collect the dolphin carcasses in the night like during the plague, and tell us there were none)
There is a team of dedicated people watching the events unfold, and trying to clarify them for the media and the public beyond the usual sound-bite coverage.
Tom Hutchings, Southwings pilot, is out flying over the horrors of the Macondo site on a daily basis. John Amos and Skytruth are getting current satellite imagery and interpreting it so we have some overview of the progression. Don't listen to the people that have a vested interest in this issue, listen to those lonely voices with a penchant for the truth.
This is big. Don't believe otherwise.
very straaightforward assessment of the situation. i agree that john amos and skytruth have been one of the few touchstones on the vast internet...
we also need wildlife observers who are not part of the unified command, or whose observations are independent of the official Deepwater Horizon Response...
any who has any data on spill effected birds, or other wildlife, would like to get that information published in some fashion can email an advocacy group - bird ally x - info at birdallyx dot net
Thank you for writing about this. You are painting a picture that many don't want to look at. I've been wondering why 'we the people' aren't doing more. And what is that "more"? I'm signing petitions left and right, sharing info as I find it, feeling depressed and helpless about the disaster. My car has been on empty for a number of days and I'm way overdue for an oil change, but can't bring myself to take care of it. Are we all too busy keeping up with American Idol to get together and say "enough!" ??? Many want to deny it's a big problem. It's easier that way. But what can we--should we--do that will truly have an impact? I will limit my driving as much as possible. I certainly won't purchase BP products. What if we organized lots of people to do a citizen's arrest of BP execs. There is steam coming out of my ears.
I'm not sure what's more ludicrous... the fact that people are blaming on the President or the fact that there are other oil disasters that have received little fanfare. In Nigeria, more oil is spilled every year than what's spilled in the Gulf. Then there's Chevron's dumping of toxic waste and oil in Equador, which has impacted so many indigenous people and the rainforest. http://ow.ly/1TGpu
I am outraged--BPO'd--but I think we need to mention these other disasters to shake people up a bit more: this is not a one-time problem. It's been happening for years and will continue to happen. This one just happens to be in our own backyard.
In today's world, we make changes to live a healthier, greener life by consciously spending money. Don't want to use gas, live centrally located to where you work and shop, ride a bike or tricyle with a little wagon type part hitched on for groceries, walk and shop local, fresh, daily, purchase a vehicle that doesn't use gas. The entire social, cultural, economic system is riveted to a profit platform. Why no outrage? Maybe its shockwaves rolling onto the shores of awareness, as the oil may slick our Gulf shores. We know, in our core, how we have been supporting the BPs of the world. Weekly tank fill-ups, 3000 mile oil changes, many other goods and services that require oil. How to become in earnest vigilant about the outstream and inflow of our money. If I don't like a business, then, don't work for them. We have a ways to go. It's easy to say nasty things about BP, and I have. But press the responsibility button, and there it is. Me. Giving my time, my dollars to entities that don't resonate with my personal values, or with my New World View of beautiful and clean and ___________ you can fill in what you like here, life. We will take as long as we take to evolve beyond messy, disastrous dirty creations and create something worth passing on to our children and grandchildren.
What follows is a "bolus of insight" from a great poet regarding a breach between a civilization and "the strong earth".
The Purse-seine, by Robinson Jeffers, 1937
.......I cannot tell you
How beautiful the scene is, and a little terrible,
then, when the crowded fish
Know they are caught, and wildly beat from one wall
to the other of their closing destiny the
phosphorescent
Water to a pool of flame, each beautiful slender body
sheeted with flame, like a live rocket
A comet's tail wake of clear yellow flame; while outside
the narrowing
Floats and cordage of the net great sea-lions come up
to watch, sighing in the dark; the vast walls
of night
Stand erect to the stars.
Lately I was looking from a night mountain-top
On a wide city, the colored splendor, galaxies of light:
how could I help but recall the seine-net
Gathering the luminous fish? I cannot tell you how
beautiful the city appeared, and a little terrible.
I thought, We have geared the machines and locked all together
into inter-dependence; we have built the great cities; now
There is no escape. We have gathered vast populations incapable
of free survival, insulated
From the strong earth, each person in himself helpless, on all
dependent. The circle is closed, and the net
Is being hauled in.......
Photographer J Henry Fair is best known for his Industrial Scars series, in which he researches our world’s most egregious environmental disasters and creates images that are simultaneously stunning and horrifying. His photographs captivate audiences, as they more
...Photographer J Henry Fair is best known for his Industrial Scars series, in which he researches our world’s most egregious environmental disasters and creates images that are simultaneously stunning and horrifying. His photographs captivate audiences, as they more closely resemble abstract paintings by Georgia O’Keeffe and Jackson Pollock than the disturbing scenes of actual reality that they depict. Mr. Fair’s work has been featured in segments on The TODAY Show, CNN, FOX News, and WDR German TV, as well as in most major publications, including National Geographic, TIME, New York Magazine, Harper’s Magazine, and GQ. Additionally, Mr. Fair’s work travels around the world in fine art exhibitions at major museums, galleries, and educational institutions.
Mr. Fair has an active lecture schedule, presenting photographic symposia to audiences in the US and abroad. Recent engagements include The Collegiate School, Bloomberg, Die Spedition, and Green Mountain College, where Mr. Fair will return this fall for an artist-in-residency. He gives readers a first-hand look inside the important issues he studies, writing and blogging about art and the environment, and is a regular contributor to the Huffington Post.
J Henry Fair supports a number of environmental organizations that share his commitment to changing destructive consumer habits and effecting positive change in our environment. He is co-founder of the Wolf Conservation Center in South Salem, NY, an organization that is dedicated to the protection of and education about the world’s wolf population.
Mr. Fair’s first book, The Day After Tomorrow: Images of Our Earth in Crisis will be released Fall, 2010, published by powerHouse Books in cooperation with Random House. His work is represented exclusively in New York City and Santa Fe by Gerald Peters Gallery.
More Close