(Alternate title: Life's a beach, until you're drowning in oil!)
As some of you may have heard, there was a "little" incident off the coast of Louisiana ~ 55 days ago ~ in the body of water knows as The Gulf Of Mexico.
It seems the current 'powers that be' had not been very diligent in their safety regulations and compliance check duties and there was an explosion on a little oil rig owned and operated by a company named British Petroleum.
The initial explosion was a horrible tragedy in and of itself. Eleven hardworking men lost their lives. Fathers, sons, brothers, husbands....
Unfortunately, the tragedy did/does not end there.
Since the explosion of the Deepwater Horizon on April 20th, an estimated 2.5 million (BP's worst case estimate) and 4.2 million (scientists'/experts' worst case estimate) gallons of oil have been flowing into The Gulf... DAILY.
Both BP and Obama administration officials had been 'lowballing' these numbers from day one.
Well, the truth seems to be out now. At least the truth about just how much oil has been flowing and continues to flow into the Gulf Of Mexico and the truth about BP's use of BANNED dispersants being sprayed over and injected into the Gulf of Mexico.
"Is the EPA aware of this?", you may ask. Why, YES... they are and they're not doing a damn thing to stop BP's usage of these banned (in the 1980's) chemicals.
So, not only is the GOM, our waters, our marshes, our wetlands, our wildlife, our sealife and our seafood industry being POSIONED and destroyed by the millions of gallons of oil spewing into the gulf each day; we're all being posioned by banned disperants and no one is doing a gosh dang thing!
And, did I mention how many people, families, small businesses have been affected by this mess? Fishermen, oystermen, shuckers, crawfishers, crabbers, crab pickers, charter boat operators, family owned and operated restaurants ~ their cooks, waiters, waitresses, buspeople; small hotel/summer rental owners, campground operators... thousands of livelihoods lost.
This disaster is not "just" an ecological disaster physically affecting four states (as if that wouldn't be bad enough). It's a HUMAN TRAGEDY as well. Affecting even more people than Katrina did.
So, my questions are:
WHERE IS THE HELP NOW?
Where are all the people screaming at the federal government NOW?
WHERE IS THE NATIONALLY TELEVISED OUTRAGE NOW?
Hello world... is anybody out there? Is anyone paying attention to what's happening "down here"?
S O S!
WE ARE STILL AMERICANS!
Please visit the following sites to learn more and to help:
4 comments:
Wow. I knew it was horrendous, but had no idea it was catastrophic and devastating. I'll take a look at those websites, for sure.
Amazing what certain people place their priorities on, isn't it?
This is just terrible isn't it? Not to mention it makes me angry that the wildlife, the marshes, the oceans are threatened and being covered in the disgusting oil.
Ugh. Shame on BP, and it seems that Obama is not doing enough to press them to suck the oil out of the waters. I wish I could down there and help somehow. I'm seriously considering it, but I'm not sure how.
Either way, I would be happy to head on down there and volunteer if possible.
Hello Sweetcheeks and J!!!
Thanks to the both of you for reading and commenting!
Yes, this is a terrible catastrophic event. One that should have never happened. An ongoing one that has no end in sight.
Even if SOMEONE stepped up, took charge and provided some sort of REAL leadership for handling this disaster and plugged the damn well ~ TODAY ~ the horrific consequences of this event would still last for decades.
57 days of oil free flowing into the Gulf of Mexico.
57 fricken' days!
143 million gallons of oil so far.
Imagine 15 Exxon Valdezs going down off the coast of Alaska. That's what we're dealing with... and counting.
And despite the load of bullshit the world is being sold there is NO LEADERSHIP. NONE!
Not from BP, not from the Obama administration.
State and local officials have had their hands tied from day one. They have been to Washington, testifying to congress, BEGGING for help ... begging for SOMEONE to take charge of this. For ONE person to take control.
Hell, I'm going to have blog more about this with the way I'm ranting in this comment!
Sweetcheeks: I know you would be down here, helping, if you could. I know that! Thank you, sweetcheeks!!!!
Hugs and Much Love,
6/Wendy
hey wolflady
still taking names and kicking ass.
good for ya.
dont you think you should change that byline. unless you plan to go back this year.
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