BP Oil Spill Archives - Page 2 of 2 -

I Choose Love

By Simone Lipscomb | September 15, 2013

The past week’s meditations have been about connecting with animals…wildlife and domesticated. It has been challenging. Once we determine to be aware of what is happening in our world, we can never go back and forget. I discovered this while documenting the oil spill in 2010.

simonelipscomb (1) — Necropsy of young dolphin whose tail had been entangled in fishing line.

Ignoring news was my way to deal with the multitude of sins humanity commits against the planet. But when the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill occurred, I felt called to action. Ignoring was no longer an option. But it came with a cost. My life was changed and not in a good way. Once the blinders are off, there’s no going back into forgetfulness. No returning to blissful ignorance.

Fishing line discarded with hook...now embedded in sea gull's mouth/throat — Fishing line discarded with hook…now embedded in sea gull’s mouth/throat

So this week of meditating on animals has only served to remind me (as IF I needed reminding) of how humans perpetuate such darkness by our actions. Lack of compassion when killing for food, using fishing practices that harm sea turtles and marine mammals, not recognizing the spark of Spirit within all life….how can we do this and think it’s okay?

Northern Gannet being cleaned of oil in 2010. BP Deepwater Horizon spill.

There are excuses for all behaviors we practice. Haven’t we heard them all? Sacrifice the land to drill for oil with fracking procedures. Pollute the rivers because it’s cheaper. Deafen dolphins, whales and other sea creatures just to test sonar. Is anyone else just fed up? The grief I carry within is so vast, so deep I truly feel paralyzed at times by it. I look in the mirror and am ashamed that I am human…part of a species bent on destruction and selfish greed…profit at any cost.

Joanna Macy teaches us to stay with our grief for it will fuel us to make positive changes. Right now…and for the past several months….grief has simply clobbered me. And I’m not writing to generate sympathy for myself…not at all. But it is time to simply be totally truthful about what it feels like to be a human engaged in the planetary process…at least from my heart and mind.

I’m tired of pretending it will all be okay or things will magically get better. I am weary of humans ignoring responsibilities we have to clean up our messes and to stop doing destructive practices to our planet, each other…wildlife…domestic life.

I am crying out for an end to our closed hearts and an opening to love…to spiritual love that binds us to each other and all life. Living like we have been living is fast becoming an obsolete option. We have seen what living with closed hearts does to each other and the planet…ALL life on the planet. I refuse to live like that any longer. At the risk of standing alone I choose love. I choose an open heart!

I choose love. No matter the consequences. I choose love.

The Good Stuff Moves Closer

By Simone Lipscomb | July 7, 2013

The past three weeks have been incredibly difficult but I’m not whining. Simply stating a fact. The frustration has been centered around my work. Some days I have considered drawing a bullseye on the wall to give a target for head-banging.

Since I began documenting the BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill over three years ago, I have felt pressure to work hard to make a difference in the world. That’s always been my intention but since witnessing the devastating effects on wildlife and human life, I have been almost frantic to help raise awareness of what humans are doing to the planet.

This year I’ve been feeling the importance of documenting nature’s beauty as a way to increase passion and concern but with the same push–the panic thought that time is short, we are losing this beauty!

I’ve felt stuck lately…more than three weeks of stuck-ness. Months of it. I feel my work…the images and words….exist in a small circle of people. Appreciative and grateful people…but I’ve wondered if what I’m doing makes a difference. And the more I did, the more it felt as if I were treading ‘water’ in mud.

Two weeks ago I decided to let go and see what happened. This coincided with a question posed to me.

Each morning I light a candle, do a dedication and say a prayer. One day I specifically said, “Would you PLEASE show me what you want me to do?” Immediately and with a rush of force I heard, “What do YOU want to do?”

I stood astounded as my inner voice faded. Oh…so if I’m doing what I enjoy, it will be my best and most creative work and therefore fulfill my purpose. From that day on I have asked myself, “What do I want to do?” All through the day my work unfolds and when I focus on my website or do graphic design, or go on photography shoots it is effortless. It flows.

For the first time in many, many years I’m learning to relax and rest. When I work now it comes from my heart, not from a mental effort to push forward, to do, to make a difference, to work, work, work….because I have believed that it’s not okay to take up space unless I’m contributing. My mind loves to create things for me to do to justify my existence. But the fact is, that’s really not how it works. The more pressure I apply, the less I felt truly free to create my life’s work.

As I have stopped pushing and started breathing….living, the joy has returned. My work flows when I am in a creative mood and without the heavy hand I was using on myself, I feel lighter and more at peace than I have been since the oil spill occurred.

Joy, pleasure, happiness felt foreign to me since witnessing the spill and its effects. Slowly, I’m freeing myself from the self-imposed prison of my inner task master. As I do this the good stuff moves closer….I can FEEL it! My body vibrates with the goodness that has been waiting just out of reach. All it needed was a receptive spirit.

I am grateful.

Shady Deals on Alabama Coast

By Simone Lipscomb | May 9, 2013

*Gulf State Park shoreline is one of the last undeveloped places between Gulf Shores and Orange Beach.*

It shouldn’t surprise me. I used to work for the State of Alabama in Gulf State Park and witnessed first-hand the rape of our coast at the whim of politicians. So when I found out that much of the $85.5 million from the Natural Resource Damage Assessment (NRDA) funds from BP are going to build a lodge and meeting facility I didn’t faint…isn’t this how Alabama politicians work it?

*Walls of concrete and glass broken by undeveloped shoreline in Gulf State Park.*

Never mind that the convention center has been in the plans for years since the old one was destroyed by…what was it…Ivan? Long before the oil spill occurred and people started figuring out how to use natural resource restoration funding to build more developments on the coasts…and thus destroy the very thing the funds are supposed to restore.

Louisiana, the most hard-hit state from the 2010 BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill is using $340 million to restore four barrier islands and create two fisheries laboratories. That makes total sense. Imagine….using money designated to restore the natural resources to actually RESTORE NATURAL RESOURCES! What a concept! Bravo Louisiana.

Hard to believe that money designated for natural resource restoration is going to be used for CONSTRUCTION of a convention center on the beach. This photograph was taken at Gulf State Park Pier during the spill in 2010

But back to Governor Bentley of Alabama. He said that the first money Alabama will spend for the convention center will address the loss of human use from the oil spill. That’s some mighty smooth pretzel logic there governor.

“In addition to its catastrophic impact on local fishermen and tourism, the BP oil spill dealt a severe blow to our pristine beaches and sensitive environmental areas,” said U.S. Representative Jo Bonner, R-Alabama. So the way to restore our Alabama pristine beaches and sensitive environmental areas is to destroy them through the construction process. Of course. That’s makes sense…said no one ever.

The second project in Alabama will use $2.3 million in Mobile County to restore oyster beds over 300 acres. The third project will spend $5 million in Baldwin County to create an oyster breakwater and living shoreline in Weeks Bay. Both of these projects make total sense in that they utilize funds designated for N A T U R A L R E S O U R C E R E S T O R A T I O N. The old saying, throw the dog a bone, seems applicable perhaps. Of the $92.8 million Alabama is receiving, 92% goes to construction projects in Gulf State Park. Development. Oysters in Mobile County get 2% and oysters in Weeks Bay get 5%. So 7% of this ‘natural resource restoration’ funding goes to doing what its supposed to do.

But back to project number one. Thrown into the mix of the $85.5 million is an environmental research and educational facility (sort of like the one Auburn University was already planning on building here???), trail construction and an interpretive center. I didn’t hear of trails in the park being damaged by the oil spill…did you? Nor did the old convention center get destroyed by the oil spill.

I completely support environmental education but the funds are supposed to restore the natural resources that were damaged during the oil spill. Can the governor and his cronies read? Can someone find them a dictionary? My BS radar is beeping when words like environmental and education are grouped with a huge convention center construction project.

While tourism is at the highest numbers ever in Gulf Shores and Orange Beach over the past two years, politics remains the same in this state…my home state…where shady deals continue to thrive. Storm clouds loom over this news and Governor Bentley only adds to the abuse of our coastline…unless you put money and development over natural resources. Then bravo gubner.