BP Toxic Epoch-"The scene is post-apocalyptic."

[kpete]

How Has it Come to This?

Sunday 22 August 2010

by: Dahr Jamail and Erika Blumenfeld, t r u t h o u t | Report

photo
(Photo: Erika Blumenfeld)

The scene is post-apocalyptic. Under a grey sky, two families play in the surf just off the beach in Grand Isle, Louisiana. To get to the beach, we walk past a red, plastic barrier fence that until very recently was there to keep people away from the oil-soaked area. Now, there are a few openings that beach goers can use. The fence is left largely intact, I presume, for when they will need to close the beach again when the next invasion of BP’s oil occurs.











There are several inland pools that are literally oil pits. We are appalled at what we find. In one of the pools, brown liquid oil floats atop areas where the sand underneath is literally black with crude oil.


Throughout the day, the question "what have we done" drifts into my consciousness. What have we done? How has it come to this?

Thousands of lives along the Gulf Coast are being devastated by this disaster. This is merely the beginning of yet another toxic epoch for the Gulf of Mexico, all the humans that live along the coast, and all the marine life and wildlife that make their homes here.

What have we done? How has it come to this? Where do we go from here?
http://www.truth-out.org/how-has-it-come-this62558

[lunatica]

1. These photos are just horrible

It truly looks grotesque and infernal.

[another saigon]

2. the C word

unbridled capitalism above all else. This should be crystal clear to americans by now.

-snip-

"I guarantee you they'll come pick that up," Craig says angrily, mocking BP. Given that there is boom washed ashore and oiled PVC pipes around much of the island, it's clear that BP is aware of the island being hit by oil. It is also clear that nobody has been back to check on it for a very long time.

We offload from the boat and step ashore. Oil-soaked marsh abounds, and the island smells like a gas station. Noxious fumes infiltrate my nose, causing me to cough. Piles of oiled oysters rest on the tide line.
Tide pools filled with brown oil and sheen.

Everywhere I step near the water, sheen bubbles up out of the soil. Hermit crabs scuttle over dead, oiled marsh grass. Inland, we find tide pools filled with brown oil and sheen. The horrible smell makes me dizzy and nauseous. Each of us walks around on our own, trying to take in the devastating scene. Anger and a deep sadness comingle inside me. Rage at BP melds into a broader anger at all of us for having let it come to this.

:cry:

[indepat]

3. Our government is willing to spend trillions of dollars to keep us safe from evil terraists

from abroad, but was unwilling to require the BPs of the world to install state-of-the-art equipment designed to help prevent this type of mega environmental disaster. :P

[madrchsod]

4. we`ll see what happens...

when the birds try to nest this winter.

[TheKentuckian]

5. What have were done? The most powerful are trying to keep us from knowing

[Angry Dragon]

6. If it looks like this today

why is the government not having bp have crews out cleaning this up??


The years is 2046, and 200-300 miles inland the Gulf Coast region is a wasteland.

[Desertrose]

7. Where DO we go from here?

We have fouled where we live.....and those who did it just merrily go on their way and maybe some even "get their life back" while the rest have to face and deal with this horrible unspeakably obscene thing that has been done.

My heart is so heavy.......

[QC]

8. But I thought the oil went bye bye! n/t