Death and Destruction on the Gulf of Mexico

The explosion of the Deepwater Horizon oil rig, owned by British Petroleum (BP), happened on April 20th of this year, when 11 men tragically died. To date, current estimates of the amounts of oil spilled are anywhere between 1,900,0000 to 16,000,000 litres PER DAY into the Gulf. Sickening isn't it? And now, pictures are finally surfacing of the impact of this damage; pictures that BP hasn't wanted anyone to see! Of the birds, fish, turtles, dolphins, sharks, all kinds of sea life is now completely slathered from top to tail in thick, stinky, greasy oil & are now washing up on the shorelines in droves. More than 400 species live in the islands and marshlands at risk. In the national refuges most at risk, about 34,000 birds have been counted, including gulls, pelicans, roseate spoonbills, egrets, terns, and blue herons.As of May 30, dead animals collected from the spill zone included 491 dead birds, 227 sea turtles, and 27 mammals including dolphins The pictures, which I just can't stomach to look at any longer have left me grief stricken & heartsick. And thoroughly, completely angry at "man's" sheer incompetence & irresponsibility, all in the name of the almighty buck!

People will argue that "WE" the consumers are all just as much to blame, but I say that that's a load of bunk! "WE" the consumers were not to blame for this company's gross negligence! It has been reported that in fact, it IS a fact that they blatantly ignored their own safety regulations & recommendations & took short cuts when this well was built, because they were in such a damn huge hurry to get their operations under way.

BP CEO Tony Hayward was quoted as lamenting in the news that he wants his life back, wished for this to all go away. The absolute audacity of this ignorant man kills me! Another example of his ignorance,when he attempted to downplay the seriousness of this "accident" at the beginning of this tragedy when it was in it's infancy, he was actually quoted as saying,in effect, that this spill was small in comparison to the size of the Gulf of Mexico. Say whaaaaaaaaaaaaat????? Clearly, this man did not have a clue. I would like to hope that at this point in the tragedy, he's gotten far more up to speed on things.

So, I woke up angry at the state of those poor animals & mammals that are suffering so horrendously. All day today while I was at work, it was on my mind, I am wishing that I were able to do something more than just throw money at the problem. If there were some way, some how, I would absolutely love to offer myself to help. To volunteer to try & was away the muck & the oil from the animals that have suffered so. I am going to be giving some thought to this, but I am totally serious. I would love to go down to Louisiana & help in some small way. Whether I do or not remains to be seen, but I would go in a heartbeat.

Aside from all the animals that are suffering & will be lost to this, there's also the human cost as well. Other than the 11 men who died out on the ocean, there's also a whole way of life going to needless waste as well. All of the men & women along the coasts of Louisiana, Alabama, Florida, who's whole way of life is now or will soon be a distant memory. For those who made their living on the ocean, that way of life is now almost certainly gone. What do you say to someone like that who worked a shrimp boat, or ran a tour boat? OOPS! Sorry about that! There is absolutely nothing that could ever make up for the damage that BP has done. The cost of the loss is beyond anything that they will ever be able to make up for. Sadly it is beyond the beyond & will take generations to repair. Just chalk it up to yet another black mark against the already badly beaten environment.

*the numerical stats in this blog were obtained from the most recent information on the Wikipedia page listed as Deep Water Horizon oil spill*