The BP Nightmare that They Don't Want You to See.

~The Green Man has Spoken~

EPA Demands BP use a Less Toxic Oil Dispersant. Also, BP Bullying Reporters.

The Environmental Protection Agency told British Petroleum to find another chemical dispersant to break up the Gulf oil spill. The EPA has given BP until midnight tonight to find an alternative to Corexit and 72 hours to stop using it, CNN reports. The chemical has been rated less effective and more toxic than many others on the list of 18 EPA-approved dispersants, the story says. Read more about Corexit in a prior Green House post. Of course BP course the most toxic one--probably because yet again they were cutting corners and using the cheapest one.

Green Man: So, this is good news, bad news. The good news, of course is that we're going to use less toxic dispersant to help clean up the oil mess. The bad news is what many of us worried about--that the dispersants used for the last month were indeed toxic. Great. We have been fighting toxic oil with other toxic chemicals. Yet even the good news is rather bad because breaking up the oil into smaller bits still doesn't remove the oil from the ocean. It just makes it smaller and more likely to get into fish gills, etc.

In the meantime heavy crude is now soaking the Louisiana wetlands, which are like giant sponges that absorb and retain a lot of water until it seeps down into the soil. So, obviously it is going to soak up this oil, which will kill off the grasses that help buffer against hurricanes and other large storms. As well as provide habitats for countless species from insects to birds to amphibians to small mammals. In related news, BP is trying to intimidate citizens and journalists from investigating the damage of this leak to the beaches of Louisiana:

Watch CBS News Videos OnlineThis video is appalling. What is the Coast Guard doing backing up BP wanting to keep reporters away from showing how bad the oil disaster is affecting beaches and wetlands?

PHOTO CREDIT: REUTERS/Daniel Beltra

~The Green Man has Spoken~

BP-Halliburton-Transocean Oil Gusher Video.

No wonder they can't cap this pipe!! This thing looks like one of those natural "smokers" down at the bottom of the ocean. Emphasis (of course) on natural:

Now the REAL "Black Smokers" (below):

~The Green Man has Spoken~

BP Oil Disaster Solution: Plug Hole with Golf Balls, Old Tires and other Junk.

JENNIFER LEBOVICH,
DONNA MELTON and PATRICIA MAZZEI,
McClatchy Newspapers

BILOXI, Mississippi -- If you can't turn it off, try clogging it: Golf balls and shredded tires may be the latest solution to stop a leak spewing crude into the Gulf, a top Coast Guard official said Sunday morning. "The next tactic is going to be something they call a junk shot," U.S. Coast Guard Commandant Thad Allen said on Face the Nation.

Green Man: However, "experts" are saying that there could be problems with this method. REALLY??? What could possibly go wrong from with the tried and true, "Wing-It method" which sounds like it was hatched while a bunch of redneck guys sat around, drank beer and got drunk? What's next? Duct tape? These "scientists" and "engineers" at BP must have received their degrees from the University of Cutting Corners."

From what I've heard, these oil company executives clearly have no clue what to do at those depths. Thanks to years of packing the courts with ringers, these companies haven't had to deal with regulations requiring they be able to get out of those depths as safely and easily as they get into them.

And wouldn't this, "plug" (if it even works) cause pressure to build up until at some later date it blows again??? It sure sounds like it, and I have no faith whatsoever that BP knows what to do to fix this nightmare.

Then you've got Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal who famously trashed government spending/intervention after the Great Bush Recession. This is the same guy who now wants that very same government intervention to pay to clean this all up. Of course the government should help but you can't say the government can't do anything right, and then expect them to come in and fix everything when there's a mess you can't deal with. This just underlines what the adults in the political room have known for awhile--there are some problems that are just too big for one company, state or region to recover from, and that is where government comes into play.

Expecting to live without government intervention is like thinking you don't need the guard dog to protect you while you sleep in the jungle. Therefore, I expect Jindal, and all the other right-wing critics of government to thank the government after this is all over, but I'm not holding my breath in anticipation.

---End of Transmission---

Exxon Valdez Oil Spill Still Affecting Alaska Communities.

(Green Man's commentary follows the news article below):

From Dan Simon and Augie Martin, CNN

Cordova, Alaska (CNN) -- For third-generation fisherman John Platt, the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill is a financial and psychological nightmare that won't end. Three years after the 11 million-gallon spill in Prince William Sound blackened 1,500 miles of Alaska coastline, the herring on which he and other Cordova fishermen heavily relied disappeared from the area. Platt and some others stuck around, fishing for salmon and hoping things would improve. The herring never returned to Cordova. Platt's income plummeted, severely straining his marriage and psyche. He dipped into his sons' college funds to support his family.

"I wasted 20 years of my life," he said. Platt and other people in the Alaskan village of about 2,500 people say they still are suffering economically and emotionally 21 years after the oil disaster. The herring loss alone has cost the region about $400 million over the past 21 years, according to R.J. Kopchak, a former fisherman who is now developmental director at Cordova's Prince William Sound Science Center. The average fisherman suffered a 30 percent loss in income after the spill, but those who specialized in just herring lost everything, Kopchak said.

The surface oil from the spill had largely disappeared within three years of the spill, according to studies conducted by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Office of Response and Restoration. But oil residue still can be found on the shore. "It is a lingering problem, as they say, with no easy solution," Kopchak said.

Money from Exxon hasn't made the fishermen's problems disappear. Besides the $2.5 billion that Exxon is estimated to have paid for the cleanup, it reportedly paid $300 million soon after the disaster to 11,000 fishermen, fish processors and others affected. In 1994, a federal jury ordered Exxon to pay $5 billion in punitive damages, but appeals reduced that award to $507.5 million. Last year, a federal court ordered Exxon to also pay $470 million in interest on the punitive damages. Platt says he has received about $600,000 from Exxon. But most of it was used to clear liens on his fishing permits and boats, he said.

Green Man: This makes me think about all this talk about "cleaning up" these oil spills. We need to be careful when talking about "cleaning this up" because it will never be fully cleaned up, and after the cameras and journalists go away the people who live there can't as easily leave. Their whole lives are there in that region (families, friends, churches, schooling, etc) and their way of life, (whether it be fishing or farming) is all they know how to do.

It's good, honest work but even their strong traditions can't over-come a disaster like this. They're stuck in this oily nightmare for decades at least. Perhaps what's worse though is that the oil guys will have to go back to doing that dangerous and dirty job again because that's what they are trained in. Yet B.P. will recover and be back to making billions every time their CEO takes a breath that they'll be fine. They won't be the one's to feel the brunt of this disaster that they caused.

In a related note, as you know I adore animals and seeing all these sea turtles, birds and fish sick or dying because of this disaster makes me wonder if we can nail these oil bastards with animal cruelty laws. I bet we could. We should be hitting them with every charge we can think of but even then it wouldn't make up for this nightmare. The tooth paste (or oil in this instance) can't be put back into the tube.

~The Green Man has Spoken~

The BP Gulf Oil Disaster: An American Chernobyl.

I heard someone refer to the BP Gulf oil spill today as an "American Chernobyl" which I think is an apt comparison given the scope. I sure hope this injects some steroids to finally getting off oil. Our oil addiction is like a combination of doing heroin while playing Russian roulette. Let's use natural gas as the transition fuel to totally green, clean, alternative energy as it is the cleanest fossil fuel. No more dirty energy!! Our Earth and thus, WE, can't take it any longer. It's killing us all.We need to get back to our roots and return to the ways of our Pagan ancestors who were reliant upon nature to a greater degree than now. They knew that to damage Mother Earth was to damage themselves and risk their own destruction but because of technology we've been lulled into believing that somehow we don't need to worry about nature any longer. We sure like to label our ancestors as ignorantly superstitious but their way of living served us well up until the industrial revolution when we began destroying nature in the pursuit of materialism.We sometimes think that our ancestors lived during a bleak time but their lack of possessions seemed to serve them better than all of our toys do. We have all kinds of gadgets, money and status but without a planet to live on it's all just literally shiny trash. They knew that not all that glitters is gold and they were on to something because when you really absorb nature you begin to see it as pretty damn cool.It's offers better visuals than any computer game as well as having just as good precious art as the best museums. The neighbors (animals) are more exciting and unique than those at the best cocktail party. And the best part is that if we protect it--all that beauty, wonder, heritage, art and richness is free. As a final note, check out this ironic BP commercial about how much they care about the environment:LAST PHOTO: Arenal volcano in Costa Rica. Picture taken by Green Man.

~The Green Man has Spoken~

Belated Arbor Day Celebration: The Mighty Buttress Root Tree.

We just returned from lush, pristine Costa Rica for our 10th wedding anniversary and I'll do a post of that with some pix soon. However, I missed one of my favorite holiday's while gone--Arbor Day and I wanted to touch on that in this post. For those outside the U.S., Arbor Day is a day in America when we honor trees, which are beings that I cherish and have deep connections with. So seeing how I came back from the rain forests that I love so well I thought I'd chose a tropical tree for this years Arbor Day honor. The only name I could find for this is the Buttress Root Tree (seen above):

They were my favorite tree during my two year stay in Cote D'Ivoire West Africa as I made my way through the rain forest trails there. So, to see it again in Costa Rica was like seeing an old friend again--and she really is old. These trees can be many, many years old. In Costa Rica the indigenous peoples' often use the large buttress roots as drums to announce their locations to one another during animal hunts or when wanting to pass on news of a dangerous animal ahead, etc.They grow in poor soil and so they need to the large buttresses to keep their sky-scraping trunk from falling over. The roots often intertwine with other buttress trees creating a network that forms a symbiotic relationship between all the trees. It's almost as though they are a family holding hands to withstand strong winds. The roots are often taller than most humans!! They are truly the great giants of the rain forests -- the silent sentinels of its mysteries. In Costa Rica they are sometimes called "Dragon's Blood" trees because their sap looks like blood seeping down the trunk.

LAST PHOTO: A picture I took during a hanging bridges tour in a rain forest in Costa Rica. Click to enlarge the picture and see if you can spot the bridge in the center of the jungle. Can you see the people walking on it?

~The Green Man has Spoken~

Spill Baby Spill.

Just returned from paradise in Costa Rica where they take "green living" seriously and it shows. Their country is spotless and raking in the tourist dollars from it. They have pristine coastlines and rain forests. So, to return to the shocking horror of our own beautiful Gulf Coast being awash in oil is sickening. Do you see what happens when we drill off shore Obama?

Why is that government sucks until we need it -- like how BP's oil slick needs to be cleaned up. No one wants to regulate business but then government (that everyone hates) is expected to go in an clean it all up and make it better.

Well, it can't be made better that easy and now the fishing industry in the delta is crushed already during a time of great recession. As Bill Maher said, I hope that the "Drill, Baby, Drill" crowd is required to go down to the Gulf Coast and report for clean-up. They want the cheap gas but they don't want to deal with the bad aspects of fossil fuels.

~The Green Man has Spoken~

PHOTO CREDIT: This satellite photo, taken on Thursday, shows the oil slick in the Gulf of Mexico as it moves towards Louisiana's fragile islands and barrier marshes, threatening migrating birds, nesting pelicans, river otters and mink. Photo: AP, NASA