The BP Oil Spill

I haven't been blogging about the BP oil spill in the Gulf because, quite frankly, I can't seem to summon the words—my sorrow and my anger just get in the way each time I begin. Here, surrounded by the beauty of our own wetland, I have such a difficult time grasping the fact that so many people on this planet are simply unable to respond with awe and wonder when confronted with the splendid magnificence of the natural world. Indeed, they are so unmoved by it and care so little about it that they are willing to put the environment in harm's way to serve their own ends. Amassing money and wealth is a mirage, a foolish and fleeting illusion—you can't take it with you! So why not leave something behind for your children to truly enjoy—like a living, breathing, healthy planet that will be able to sustain them?

Vast acres of shoreline, inland waterways, marshes and wetlands will be irreparably damaged for decades to come. Entire populations of migratory as well as resident birds, marine animals, reptiles, amphibians and insects—many of which were already on the endangered species list—will be devastated. The death toll is rising every day. We won't see the full extent of the effects on living organisms, including humans, for a long time to come. The entire web of life in the Gulf bioregion is going to be compromised like never before. And BP seems no closer to a solution. I won't even begin to air my feelings about BP and their disingenuous PR patter here on this blog. As far as I am concerned, they are criminally negligent.

So no images of oiled birds here. At least not today. Such photos abound on the Internet. I'm not going to embed links to the countless articles and reports circulating. Yet please read and follow reports from CNN, PBS and other sources as well, such as Natural News. Learn the truth. Learn as much as you can about this heinous and disgusting event, which could have been avoided if BP had been a responsible corporate citizen in the first place with both preventive and emergency measures in place. Today, I simply needed to break my silence.

As we face these truly dark days ahead, however, let us all be more wary of corporations who apply a thin coat of green wash to their company policies then continue on business as usual, of environmental agencies and governments who are willing and complicit partners in the rape of the world by allowing themselves to be bought by big money, of the sad reality that collusion and greed are destroying this planet.

Politicians love to trot out the words "economic" and "employment" to mollify the populace, to have us believe that jobs and the economy must trump all other concerns.

Nothing is further from the truth: if we do not have a healthy, clean environment first and foremost—air, water and soil—then we will have nothing. We will not need jobs and we will not need dollar bills if we cannot eat, cannot breath and cannot find potable water to drink. It will not matter at some point if you are rich or poor. There is no insurance policy in the world that is going to get us out of this mess unless we humans change the course of events with our anger, our outrage and our sorrow. It is down to us.

The term sea change means "a marked transformation." We need a massive and global transformation in attitude about the environment. We ARE the environment. Brown pelican, sea turtle, dragonfly, human—we are all part of the web of life on this planet.

Unfortunately, for much of the marine life in the Gulf and the humans who hug its shores, depending on the waters for their livelihoods, it is already too late.