This article is republished from the original by Jen Roth at Clean the Gulf Now
Many of you know I spent last week working with Project Gulf Impact, a film crew from L.A., on the gulf coast to document the crisis, and the story NOT being told. I left them last Friday and they continued on to NOLA for several days. Yesterday they went out in a boat in Pass Christian, MS with some locals to get a closer look at the damage.
At my urging they had picked up respirators (with Organic Vapor barrier) and wore them on the boat, though the locals were not wearing any protection. A storm came up while they were on the water and took them by surprise. My guys tell me their skin began to burn, they hurt all over, and everything (including their equipment) became very oily-feeling, leaving a slick surface all over them and the camera.
Earth Changes
© Eric Gay, The Associated Press
A truck pulling an RV toward South Padre Island, Texas, passes under a sign warning of the approach of Tropical Storm Alex on Tuesday.
A truck pulling an RV toward South Padre Island, Texas, passes under a sign warning of the approach of Tropical Storm Alex on Tuesday.
Its maximum sustained winds are 70 mph; hurricanes have sustained winds of 74 mph or more. Satellite imagery suggests that Alex is strengthening. Rain bands associated with Alex are spreading onshore in northeastern Mexico and southern Texas.
It is moving toward the west-northwest at 12 mph, with that general motion expected to continue through Wednesday. It is expected to make landfall late Wednesday. Its minimum central pressure is 980 millibars or 28.94 inches.
A hurricane warning is in effect for the Gulf Coast from south of Baffin Bay in Texas to La Cruz, Mexico. A tropical storm warning is in effect for the coast of Texas from Baffin Bay to Port O'Connor and for the coast of Mexico south of La Cruz to Cabo Rojo.
© Carolyn Cole Los Angeles Times
While much attention has focused on the pictures of oiled birds, marshes and beaches, the media is showing only the tip of the iceberg of the ecological disaster unfolding in the Gulf of Mexico. What is the condition of the ocean itself? The likely answer is: not good.
Scientists at sea and sampling the ocean on the scene of the oil well blowout are reporting plumes of oil throughout the water column for tens of miles from the blowout site. Dead organisms are covering the surface near the blowout. A dead sperm whale has been found far from shore.
To make matters worse, the area of the blowout and oil slick is the most productive part of the Gulf. This is because nutrients from the Mississippi River promote algal growth, which is at the base of the food chain. This plankton falls to the bottom, creating the richest shrimping and fishing grounds in the Gulf.
© www.myanmar.gov
The announcements of the discoveries of white elephants in 2001 and 2002 in Burma was seen by opposition leaders as bolstering support for their parties
The announcements of the discoveries of white elephants in 2001 and 2002 in Burma was seen by opposition leaders as bolstering support for their parties
The female elephant was captured by officials on Saturday in the coastal town of Maungtaw in Rakhine state, according to news reports in Burma, also known as Myanmar.
She is aged about 38 years old and seven feet four inches tall, the English-language New Light of Myanmar said, although it did not mention where she would be kept.
White elephants are often depicted as snow white, but are in fact grey or reddish-brown in colour, turning light pink when wet. They have fair eyelashes and toenails.
Kings and leaders in Burma, a predominantly Buddhist country, have traditionally treasured white elephants, whose rare appearances in the country are believed to herald political change and good fortune.
© Jon M. Fletcher/The Times-Union
A dead red fish floats belly up in the St. Johns River north of the Buckman Bridge Monday, June 7, 2010. A multitude of dead red fish have been reported for the past two weeks with the cause being unknow at present.
A dead red fish floats belly up in the St. Johns River north of the Buckman Bridge Monday, June 7, 2010. A multitude of dead red fish have been reported for the past two weeks with the cause being unknow at present.
If you think the month-long fish kill on the St. Johns River is an annual event that just came early this year - think again.
That's the message that two men with close ties to the river want you to know.
The persistent plague of dead fish on the St. Johns that began around Memorial Day isn't caused by a cycle of summer oxygen depletion, insists Jimmy Orth, the executive director of the St. Johns Riverkeeper.
"This kill is unprecedented," he said. He explained that fish kills due to low oxygen levels are typically confined to smaller areas, not as widespread as the problem has become.
© na
"Unless we send the Navy down deep to blow up the well and cover the leak with piles and piles and piles of rock and debris, which may become necessary - you don't have to use a nuclear weapon by the way, I've seen all that stuff, just blow it up - unless we're going to do that, we are dependent on the technical expertise of these people from BP," Clinton said.
Clinton was speaking about British Petroleum's efforts to staunch a massive leak that erupted after one of the oil rigs it was leasing blew up Apr. 20. His remarks about the explosion solution come at about 2:30 into the recording, posted below.
© Margaret Burin
Fluoride from a nearby alumininum smelter is making Portland kangaroos ill.
Fluoride from a nearby alumininum smelter is making Portland kangaroos ill.
The poisonings appear to be occurring due to emissions of fluoride from the Alcoa aluminum smelter at Portland and the Austral Bricks factory at Craigieburn, the state's first and second biggest emitters of fluoride dust, respectively. According to Bruce Dawson of the EPA, the toxic chemical is being absorbed by nearby plants that kangaroos and other animals forage on. The animals may also be breathing in the chemical directly.
The levels of fluoride being emitted by Alcoa and Austral are fully legal under Australian law. The smelter emits 120 tons of the dust per year, while the factory emits 66 tons.
© Igor Golubenkov
Some of the oil would undoubtedly wind up as the petrochemical based fertilizers and pesticides which are creating the dead zones in the Gulf when they are washed off of agricultural land. Also contributing to this killing of the oceans is all of the oil based cleaners, solvents and other products that we send down our drains.
Naturally a good proportion would go into the plastics that are so ubiquitous in our lives. Many of those wind up dumped into the oceans where they kill wildlife and form the huge garbage patches at the centre of the circulation gyres (the North Pacific patch is larger than Texas).
Some would help power the industrialized fishing that is destroying the worlds oceans. There is some evidence that the collapse of all fisheries could come in as little as three or four decades . Most of the oil would be burned for power, thereby producing more of the CO2 that is acidifying (i.e., killing) the oceans.
Residents fear mass relocations should a hurricane kick the Gulf oil spill onto resort towns. 'Hazmat cards' are a hot commodity among residents, since they could be the key to return.
Orange Beach, Alabama - Ron Greve expects the worst is yet to come in the oil spill drama that is haranguing beach towns all along the US Gulf Coast. So, like a growing number of residents, the Pensacola Beach solar-cell salesman took a hazardous materials class and received a "hazmat card" upon graduation.
Those cards, says Mr. Greve, could become critical in coming weeks and months. In the case of a hurricane hitting the 250-mile wide slick and pushing it over sand dunes and into beach towns, residents fear they'll face not only mass evacuations, but potential permanent relocation.
© Dave Martin/Associated Press
Mark Woodward of Daphne, Ala., looks for tar balls as he walks along the beach at dawn in Destin, Fla., Saturday, June 26. Oil from the Deepwater Horizon spill has started coming ashore in Destin and other beaches on the Florida and Alabama coasts.
Mark Woodward of Daphne, Ala., looks for tar balls as he walks along the beach at dawn in Destin, Fla., Saturday, June 26. Oil from the Deepwater Horizon spill has started coming ashore in Destin and other beaches on the Florida and Alabama coasts.
Those cards, says Mr. Greve, could become critical in coming weeks and months. In the case of a hurricane hitting the 250-mile wide slick and pushing it over sand dunes and into beach towns, residents fear they'll face not only mass evacuations, but potential permanent relocation.
© AP Photo/Charlie Riedel
Oil from a BP spill in the Gulf of Mexico washed ashore at one of the largest tourist beaches in Mississippi on Monday, forcing tourists to pack their bags and evacuate the shore.
Sludgy brown oil, light sheen and tar balls arrived at a series of points in small towns in the Gulf state on Sunday, the first time oil has hit Mississippi's mainland. On Monday, it reached Biloxi, a major resort city famous for its casinos.
One day after state and local officials complained vehemently about the slow pace of cleanup efforts, just three people from a private contracting company hired by BP were working on Biloxi's shore, putting tar balls into containers.
Some children on holiday in Biloxi stepped into tar balls before their parents whisked them away from the beach.
"We are leaving today. My child stepped in oil yesterday as we were playing on the beach. Obviously we are cutting our vacation short. This is a complete shame and very sad," said Susan Reed, who came with her family from Texas on vacation to Biloxi.
