BP Oil Spill: "Words like 'tragedy' and 'disaster' do not do justice to what is happening"

[Bluebear]

National Wildlife Federation scientist Doug Inkley gives an eyewitness account of how the oil spill is impacting wildlife in the Gulf ...

Dr. Doug, as we like to call him, has always prided himself on being a scientist first, believing that facts speak for themselves. However, when Dr. Doug visited the Gulf of Mexico to tour areas devastated by the oil spill, his reaction was more emotional than rational.

Despite all the news reports, photos and videos coming out of the Gulf, nothing prepared Dr. Inkley for what he saw out on the water:

"I still find it unbelievable that when we stopped our boat some 50 miles from the spill site, we were completely surrounded by black and brown sticky oil at least half an inch thick. These were our nation' waters, which are supposed to healthy and clean! Far from it! The smell was overwhelming and I just don't know how any living creature could survive swimming in it. In fact, there were dead jelly fish everywhere."

For a week, Doug and a team of NWF staff hosted boat tours of Louisiana's fragile marshes and wetlands. As you can see in the video below, efforts to keep oil from seeping into fragile bird nesting areas are not working.

"Right now is nesting season for brown pelicans, roseate spoonbills and a host of other birds," said Inkley. "Knowing that it only takes a drop or two of oil to kill the developing chick in an egg, I could not help but feel a great sense of loss as I watched birds return to their nests after diving for food in the oily waters of the Gulf. It is going to take years, maybe decades for the fish and wildlife in this region to recover."

MORE:

http://www.nwf.org/News-and-Magazines/Media-Center/News-by-Topic/Wildlife/2010/06-03-10-Dr-Doug-Inkley-Visits-the-Gulf.aspx

[Uncle Joe]

1. I believe catastrophe to be the most accurate adjective.

Thanks for the thread, Bluebear.

[Tansy_Gold]

2. I think we're just one step shy of cataclysm, and closing in on

apocalypse.

But what do I know?



Tansy Gold

[roguevalley]

5. seeing pictures of sea birds flopping in the surf coated to a gelatinous

level in oil, even their eyes are black, makes me want to take pills and go to sleep.

[Bluebear]

6. It's heartbreaking, rv, I can't stand it.

Helpless, put into terror and agony for what?

[blindpig]

7. It makes me want to kick some ass.

[damntexdem]

3. Megadisaster, gigatragedy.

Possibly, the worst disaster ever perpetrated by humans. (Or maybe second to global warming, but contributing mightily to that.)

[blindpig]

4. Ecocide.

Kill Capitalism

[maryf]

8. Unconscionable, egregious, unforgivable result of the drive for profit....

capitalism is the source of all this death and destruction, the drive of consumerism must end...the need to consider even 3 generations with every decision, much less 7 generations, needs to be considered...

I am spitting mad and anyone who isn't human...

[zazen]

9. I'll use term "gulf catastrophe" from now on, though capitalistic ecocide is prob more accurate

I guess capitalistic ecocide isn't entirely redundant, since I believe humans hunted certain animals to extinction at different points over the last 50k years, and they contributed to the desertification of Australia by using fires to smoke out big game. So, ecocide isn't only a symptom of capitalism. Nice to know we can be even more idiotic thousands of years later, with all of this knowledge and "civilization" at our fingertips.