Above: In some cases the birds are so soaked and coated with oil that volunteers can't tell what type of bird it is.If it was up to me the CEO and other executives of BP would be the ones cleaning off these birds one by one. I would also not just charge them for every gallon that is leaked but charged for every bird and animals found saturated in their oil.I never understand the people who think it's no big deal when animals die. People who think animals are just "collateral damage." As if the loss of animals doesn't impact humans. Well, these people are dangerously ignorant because what happens to animals are warning lights to our future. The "canary in the coal mine" if you will. They are people who forgot about the whole eco-system and interdependent food chain.Oil soaked eggs in the wetlands of Louisiana. Can you imagine how fast we'd get off oil if millions upon millions of gallons of it washed over our houses, us, and/or our children like the babies of these birds? We need to start seeing the reality that we're all interconnected and what happens to one species could affect even we humans who have gotten so arrogant that we no longer think we're apart of the chain. Stupid humans. Meanwhile, the latest projections show this oil spreading not just past and around Florida. As well as up the Eastern seaboard but up into the UK perhaps, which would be fitting since BP is a British company.
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 isgood 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:
This 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?