Ruinous Repercussions

"Unless they put a cap on that well in a week, that oil is coming in here. A gallon of oil goes a long way in water, any sailor will tell you that."

A third of all the oil that is used in the United States is pumped from the gulf of Mexico. Coincidentally, nearly all of the seafood that Americans consume also come from that area. Over 60% of oysters, for example, come from the area an hour's drive from New Orleans, where the residents hugely rely on the water and its resources for their livelihood. It's also the area that was the eye of the storm five years ago when Hurricane Katrina touched down.

"There's nothing else in this parish - oil or shrimp. Everything revolves around one of them." This, from a fisherman. Who also happens to be a former oil worker. Who should know, if not he? Can you get closer to the two industries, both vital to the function and needs of the country; one posing a threat to the other, and at the same time providing the means by which harvesting of sea life is accomplished...?

While no one, not the experts at British Petroleum, or any government agency has any clear picture what caused the Deepwater Horizon rig leased by BP off the Louisiana coast to explode - rupturing an oil well located offshore and 1,500 metres underwater - everyone is now deeply aware of the catastrophic consequences of the seemingly unforeseen. Apart from the abysmal loss of the lives of eleven oil rig workers.

President Obama is desperately attempting to reassure the Gulf coast that it will not be abandoned; the official federal response will be swift and effective, unlike the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Firmly announcing also that British Petroleum will be held fully accountable, and would be responsible for paying for the entire cleanup. This is a truly grim scenario.

"We need to work more speedily to protect wetlands, to protect marshes, to protect our ecosystem here", said U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano. Who might have thought that if not having first heard it from her? Of course nature is heedless of the disaster and its consequences; nothing but bad weather ongoing, huge waves interrupting and forestalling all efforts to restrain the worst-possible scenario.

"When winds come up and the seas come up, unfortunately we can't do much on the surface of the sea. Because of wave heights we are not able to skim"; the dour account by a BP spokesman. Which company is leaking between $6 and $7 million in profit a day in its fruitless containment efforts, as oil gushes below the ocean floor in a heated rush to greet the frigid waters surrounding it.

In laggardly desperation, the U.S. government announced its intention to "supplement" the response of BP with people and equipment from the Defense Department, the National Guard. All of whom will hold BP "accountable" for deployment costs. BP officials, on the other hand, claim to have done everything humanly possible to respond to the disaster.

Heads are turning to gaze at the federal government, wondering why it acted with so little haste to respond to an environmental disaster. The delay in the response by the Homeland Security Department has people wondering, making comparisons to the lack of alacrity and reasonable effectiveness in the aftermath of Katrina.

Its head admitted she was not aware if needed equipment was even in the hands of the Defense Department. As seemingly lacking in awareness as the Coast Guard official in charge of the response, and BP officials who initially claimed the well's blowout preventer had kicked in; claiming too that the oil leak was slow, and would never reach the coast.

Wrong on so many fronts. And this oil rig is just one of thousands that exist for the purpose of pumping oil out of the bowels of the Earth. Costly contrivances, state-of-the-art and incredibly technologically advanced, yet with deficiently-unreliable safety features. Is this the same administration that looks askance at the environmental impact in oil extraction from Alberta?

"This is the nursery of North America - and we have spilled oil right across its surface. Anything that swims, flies or crawls in the gulf, this is where they feed. They feed on the surface." Mark Floegel, senior investigator, Greenpeace USA.