Tag: Gulf of Mexico

The Picture Gets Clearer

The Picture Gets Clearer

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This morning came in with force and grabbed me by my tee shirt and shook me awake. Two things happened that really made me engage with the day. First, BP’s oil that magically disappeared is washing up at Gulf State Park pier again and second, Senator Burr’s office called me and we had a down-home chat about energy.

Oil is washing ashore again in Alabama in the form of the slimy crude. Not just tar balls (BP and Thad Allen said just this week tar balls were only in Louisiana–which is false…I documented them last week in every area I visited in Alabama–Ft. Morgan, Bon Secour National Wildlife Refuge, Gulf State Park and Romar Beach, and Florida–Gulf Islands National Seashore at Johnson Beach). Nope…the nasty, brown-water crude is coating beaches at Gulf State Park possibly due to the tropical storm in the Gulf churning things up. Perhaps nature is helping us by showing BP and our government that the oil really has NOT disappeared, evaporated, or magically been consumed by an oil-eating gulf spirit. And where is BP? Nowhere to be seen. Elvis has left the building folks!

A couple weeks ago I wrote Senator Richard Burr’s office stating my disappointment in the Senate not moving forward with an energy bill, even as watered-down as it was. Kyle, from Senator Burr’s office, called me this morning. He started reading his statement about how Senator Burr supports domestic production of energy. I interrupted Kyle and said, “Oh, you mean he supports oil and gas drilling.” Kyle replied that we have to wean ourselves off of foreign oil. I guess Senator Burr hasn’t studied the oil map of the world’s oil reserves. We don’t have the oil reserves/resources in the USA to come close to weaning (his word) us off our foreign oil need given our current consumption rate.

Our conversation progressed….Kyle continued by saying, “The cap and trade scheme…” WHOA Kyle…”Scheme?” I said. I didn’t realize it was a scheme. Then he got totally lost in his statement having not guessed that I’d answer the phone much less interrupt his well-practiced speech. After recovering he went on to say that the current “regime wanted to implement…” REGIME? Oh, so that’s the game…Senator Burr and his associates are indulging in word war in the media and with citizens by referring to our current Commander in Chief as leading a regime. I didn’t realize they were trying to promote the current administration as communist. Seriously?

I had about enough by then so I said, “Could we just stop with the political jargon and talk about the real issue? Our planet needs us to stop being polarized with politics. I am sick and tired of all politicians struggling for power and not even focusing on the issues at hand. Please tell Senator Burr that’s what I want him to hear from me.” Kyle referred me to Senate bill S. 3535 and said that’s Senator Burr’s answer to the regime’s scheme.

I researched S. 3535 and it has three major components. First, it gives a tremendous boost to natural gas production. Heard of hydraulic fracturing? The folks who have been victimized by Haliburton and others using this process might tell us a thing or two about what this very dangerous procedure does to the environment and to people. The second part of this bill pushes nuclear energy. Yes, it’s clean but who inherits the mess left behind by it? To me it’s just a short-term fix for energy that leaves our grandkids with a toxic environment. The third part of the bill addresses renewable energy to which it basically continues the tax credits already in place and calls for a DOR, EPA and DOT study (another government study???).

The energy picture is becoming clearer to me in two ways. First, the BP oil that magically disappeared never really went away….it sank. Thank goodness for citizens and scientists who know better than to believe BP and the government and to tropical storms and other forms of nature that divulge the truth. Second, we must stop deferring the messes we create to our grandchildren. NOW is the time to take responsibility for the way we use energy, how we can create a better way and leave a better world for our heirs. Do we want to be remembered as the generation that had an opportunity to make a difference and chose not to because it was too difficult?

Hope

Hope

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Today I visited the Theodore, Alabama, Oiled Wildlife Rehabilitation Center. For the first time since first coming back to Alabama to document the BP Oil Crisis in mid-May, I have hope.

I have witnessed so much disorganization with cleanup crews, local, state and federal governments and have left the beaches very frustrated and angry, not just at BP but at all the agencies involved. Today’s experience at the rehab facility was a breath of fresh air for me.

Under the guidance and direction of Dr. Heidi Stout, Tri-State Bird Rescue and Research director, the Theodore center is doing an amazing job of helping wildlife. FINALLY! Something related to this oil crisis is working. (Please clap out loud and dance). Along with staff from all over the country, Dr. Stout provides excellent care for oiled birds and other animals.

When a bird is captured, it is stabilized over a period lasting from 1 to 3 days. It is treated medically and monitored. Then the bird is cleaned and, depending on the bird’s size, cleaning can take 45 minutes (pelicans) to 10 minutes (gulls). They are cleaned in diluted Dawn in 104 to 105 degree water, their body temperature. They are thoroughly rinsed and kept for two weeks or so for monitoring and recovery.

The center has been open since early May and was fully prepared to receive wildlife prior to any known oilings in Alabama. So far they have treated 50 animals successfully. Dr. Stout and her staff give us hope that agencies can work together effectively and produce an organized, well-run program. Agencies involved in the center include the US Fish and Wildlife Service and the National Park Service. The center is funded by BP.

These northern gannets have been cleaned and are recovering nicely. Visiting this center gives me hope that we can come out on the other side of this disaster. Step by step, one bird at a time, we have hope.

The Big Disconnect

The Big Disconnect

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Imagine seeing this on the beach, smelling almost overwhelming heated diesel smell, and watching people in protective gear cleaning the beach. What would you do?

Would you be curious and concerned and walk out on the beach? Maybe take a few photographs? Touch it? Take a bit of oil as a souvenir?

Or would you stare blindly at cleanup workers, laying on your beach chair sipping cocktails while your children frolic in the surf? It’s not that I want to be a party pooper but now is the time for brains to engage and synapses to fire correctly. We are, you see, living in a very toxic environment…in case you’ve been in a media blackout for the past 70 days.

Just ask the sea gulls. I witnessed several whose feet were showing signs of walking in the toxic sludge. The webbing between their toes is beginning to ‘melt’ away. I know many folks don’t want to hear this news but I can only report what I see and feel. I don’t want to be disconnected from this horror because I am a part of it as are all of us who drive cars and use petroleum products.

I had dinner with a friend who has been on the beach a good bit during this crisis and she shares the same concern I have–there’s a schism in many people’s psyches. They see the oil, smell it and see cleanup crews lining the beaches but somehow cannot make the leap to understand that their kids don’t need to play in it and they don’t need to sit out for hours in the hot sun breathing the fumes.

Is this part of a larger disconnect our society has about cause and effect, about conservation of resources versus rape of the environment. Are people really that out of touch with the physical reality of now?

Turtle Prayers

Turtle Prayers

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Today the Deepwater Horizon Incident Joint Information Center released a plan formed by the US Fish and Wildlife Service, NOAA-Fisheries and the Florida Wildlife Commission to translocate an anticipated 700 sea turtle nest eggs this season along the Florida Panhandle and the Alabama Gulf Coast. This is not an event to be taken lightly as nest disturbance risks killing the eggs; however, given the oiled beaches and waters, biologists think this is the best plan for the potential hatchlings.
In this extraordinary plan, permitted surveyors search the beaches at night for sea turtle tracks. Since females come on land only to lay eggs, the tracks lead to nests. The nests are marked and left to incubate until a point is reached in the incubation cycle where disturbance is less likely to injure eggs.

Experts will then place the eggs in special containers and transport them to a secure, climate-controlled location. Once the hatchlings emerge, they will be released on the east-central coast of Florida.

Under normal conditions a retrieval, removal and remote hatching of an entire season’s nesting would never be considered but given the unlikely survival of hatchlings due to oil in the water and on the shore, scientists feel they must make this drastic move.

The majority of sea turtles nesting along the northern Gulf Coast are loggerheads but we also have Kemp’s ridley, leatherback and green turtles.

As you go through your day say a little prayer for the mother turtles coming ashore to lay eggs. They are moving through toxic waters onto shores that are sometimes covered in oil and dispersant chemicals. Just the task of surviving to lay eggs this year is difficult. Then…say more prayers for the babies as they lay safely tucked inside their eggs. May their ocean dreams be filled with much love.

Image of green sea turtle in rehab with helpers Hans (holding turtle) and Tim Tristan, DVM …Texas.

BP Offers “Elaborate” Funeral to Boat Captain’s Widow

BP Offers “Elaborate” Funeral to Boat Captain’s Widow

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A BP representative offered the widow of Captain William Allen “Rookie” Kruse as an elaborate a funeral as she wanted to give her husband. More than just a slap in her face, this finally gives us the bottom line of what BP just doesn’t get. It’s not about money or fancy good-byes to one whose life was intertwined with the sea, it’s so much more.

For those lucky people who live their lives on the Gulf of Mexico, the connection they feel to Her is more than dollars and cents. She becomes part of them. Their lives are enriched by knowing Her and the creatures who live in and around Her. When She begins to die, a part of each person dies as well.
Their hearts are one with the sea. Watching the Gulf become choked with oil, witnessing the devastating effect on wildlife, and breathing fumes of death while working to help in the cleanup takes a toll on all involved. Even though these guys are old salts and may be a bit hard-edged, at their core they recognize the priceless value of a healthy sea, something BP cannot understand.
For so many decades BP and other oil company’s focus has been on profit…the ‘drill baby drill’ mentality. Our government has endorsed this behavior. They have not stopped to consider the consequences of their actions. Everything has been about money, the bottom line, and increased gain in their stock. That’s their modus operandi.

We are being given a golden moment in which we can re-educate BP and other oil companies about true values and morality of a higher level. They must learn from fishermen and children, scuba divers and surfers, residents and visitors, and from boat captains like “Rookie” about what it means to truly love…not money and profit but the magnificent resources of which we are caretakers.
May Captain Rookie’s death serve as a warning to all who put profits first instead of natural resources. May his life teach us all to value the wondrous gifts of nature and be honorable stewards.