Yesterday, Mary Matalin and her husband, James Carville toured the Louisiana marshes at the mouth of the Mississippi with a CNN crew that included Anderson Cooper filming a report for his show, 360. The phrase they kept repeating was “no one was out there.” There were no skimmers, no volunteers, no spray aircraft – nothing just quiet that reminded them of the Antarctic.
James particularly wanted to know where were the environmentally friendly organizations like Ducks Unlimited, the National Wildlife Federation, etc. Well James, sad to say that legally, many cannot do anything right now when BP is in emergency mode trying to stop the flow. This is outrageous and this is something that needs to change. But under the law, the Coast Guard and BP are in control of the situation and all actions must first be approved by them. [See Congressional Research Service Report of 4/30/2010 here]. The CNN report underscored the need to revise the law without mention of it.
Here is the CEO of Ducks Unlimited to explain the reason his organization is not yet helping in the region:
Here here is the link to the page with this video and a background on Ducks Unlimited. Keep checking for updates.
Meanwhile, here two critical reports from Aljazeera The first is a documentary produced and aired months before the spill, “Losing Louisiana” that reviews the sad fact that life on the coast was literally sinking long before the oil spill. The last report is on the cost of this spill:
[YouTube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZQcPOQXc9vE]
Here is the Aljazeera video on the cost of the oil spill:
[YouTube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hILdS6VE9Zk]
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Posted on May 27, 2010