A very scary, very real experiment is being conducted on the ecosystem and food chain that is likely to impact all marine life and consequently your body as well. A group called Project Gulf Impact has started getting information about the impact of the actions in the Gulf out into the mainstream. This is just one of the many videos that is part of their advocacy work. If you have relatives in the south, you should consider suggesting for them to leave prior to the arrival of hurricanes.
The New York Times has published an interactive map that shows the growth of the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. It shows the estimated minimum and maximums of oil output since the spill started. Click on the link or the picture below to try it out. The area and volume of the the impact is rather staggering. The minimum size on the surface is half the size of Vancouver Island, but when considering the depth of the water, one has to wonder what the total volume of oil is in actuality. The oil has apparently already reached the ocean currents that will carry it into the atlantic ocean, see a computer-generated model below.
An impassioned first hand account by a local with security clearance of the events on the US coast line. A must see. Part of the massive grass-roots movement that is emerging as a reaction to the inaction of BP. Fundraising has started to empower people to fight for justice. http://www.gulfemergencysummit.org/
A video that documents the condition of wild juvenile Sockeye Salmon on the Fraser River as they pass through areas licensed for fish farming of Atlantic Salmon. Filmed in 2008, it predicted the collapse of the 2010 Sockeye run BC and Canada's most valuable fish stock because of sea lice from fish farms.
From Twyla : "in this film we accompany a research crew as they sample the juvenile sockeye fry migrating up the coast, past the lice plumes of dozens of fish farms. This video is especially important as it illustrates how the salmon farms are impacting Canada's largest run of salmon…"
GET INVOLVED: Sign a petition for the immediate closure of 5 active fish farms in BC kept in the Sockeye Salmon migration route – Click here to add your voice
Only after the last tree has been cut down, and the last river has been poisoned, and the last fish has been caught, will we learn we cannot eat money.
The discussion of the BP spill has brought attention to information that wasn't covered before in the media. Just this morning, a local television show showed off a woman's daily beauty regimen and how 100% of them were petroleum based byproducts from toothpaste and face creams to lip balm. Thinking that not driving your car is going to be helpful in the grander scheme of our pattern of consumption doesn't begin to address the reality of the use of petroleum products and how much of a change needs to occur. Here is a video about a new film being showcased by PBS called Gasland on the realities of Natural Gas by film maker Josh Fox. Natural gas is quite often thought of as a safe alternative energy source, however if you have followed the so called "eco-terrorist" cases in north-eastern BC and Northern Alberta as they relate to the poisoning of habitat by sour gas wells (Read about Sour Gas via Wikipedia), then you are likely aware that natural gas extraction is just as bad as crude oil in many ways.
Thank you for the feedback from yesterdays post on oil eating microbes. It was brought to my attention the preparedness of such a solution was greatly over exaggerated and only exists in very small quantities in labs too unstable to produce in massive amounts. That doesn’t however stop the fact that the US is facing the largest environmental disaster possibly in recorded history. How big is the spill compared to your city?
Rachel Maddow has a point and I’d like to discuss it, please watch the movie if you havn’t already for some context the please leave your feedback after you’ve read my essay.
An Essay on Ignorance
This isn’t just another event. It is a catastrophe. It is a test of a system. Our culture made this happen. Our governments let this happen. It is happening now. It isn’t stopping any time soon. It is likely to affect many many more people than we think is likely or even possible. A system that is the product of a culture is likely going to have to end to prove that it won’t be allowed to happen again.
The irony of the destruction of the environmental wealth in the Gulf of Mexico by the BP Deep Horizon event, is that the spill results from cultural practices that are part of a system that emphasizes the pursuit and conservancy of wealth. The preservation of wealth is however in a singular form that can only apply back to the human system and not the natural systems. The human system we have created is in fact so good at preserving wealth in the form of currency, it has evolved globalized production of commodities disempowering the influence of citizens and globalized production of deregulation influencing governments to remove rules where operations exist to maximize potential profits by whatever means necessary.
The prevailing message for the past few decades has been one of deregulation in the name of economic growth and job creation. The message of a strong economy has begun to replace the meaning of safety, health and environmental conservancy, different kinds of wealth that in many ways cannot be purchased. Regulation is the application of laws and rules of operation for business. These laws are the responsibility of the government and duty of democratically elected officials to ensure so safety of citizens is maintained. Regulation often comes from citizens whose efforts to prevent harm bring a message from their community to their local elected officials who then work collaboratively with the community to change policy and law. However, the US has come to be known as a country where deregulation of industry in the name of profit and capitalism are not just a norm, but an ideal to pursue.
Deregulation apparently aids in the growth of industry, but it has also prevented development of health care and development of restrictions on companies gaining control of the political process. Lack of knowledge and awareness of the activities of companies prevents citizens from being able to part of the political process. Citizens and communities being removed as a source of production of regulations allows companies to pursue maximizing profits unencumbered by the political process. Change is being prevented by the system and the political process effectively no longer works.
Activities once carried out in our communities have been relocated and scaled up with the means of production hidden away from places we live as their very existence shames us for the benefits we draw from them. Nowadays, large companies benefit from complacent government officials and a public unaware of gross misconduct as it is out of sight and out of mind. Complacency for the ugliness and destruction behind our culture’s need for easy access to energy has perpetuated a relationship to exist past the point of abuse, mistrust and into criminality.
If you experience this relationship via TV or the internet it can’t convey the same message as an oil well spewing toxic fluids and gases into your community until everyone is either leaving, sick, or dying. We have enabled this relationship with gas and the creation of a system that relies on this industry. It is us who will need to leave this abusive relationship and start over. If oil and gas production can’t be done within 50 ft of your home without any type of destruction, then it shouldn’t be done at all.
The BP Deep Horizon event should mark a point in history where humanity faced a collective ignorance and chose to change. However, no amount of positive forward thinking championed by the elders of today will change the grave disrespect and shameful abuse of trust this event represents for every child of the future.
This I know, if this spill had happened in my neighbourhood perhaps anyone’s neighbourhood where children are raised, it would be enshrined in monuments and local history, institutions, and family stories so that the conditions for this kind of thoughtless destruction of our collective futures would never be allowed to happen again.
My big picture hope for the future is that we learn about our culture and how we feel about the proximity of our immediate environment and the political process that maintains it. I hope for a global treaty on the production of offshore drilling and oil production. I hope for a return to regional self-succiency from globalized production and to the ugliness of our needs not going unseen by future children. Let us see our meat being butchered, let us see our crops harvested, and let us see what evils are necessary to produce gasoline.
Please, be sure to include this in a family talk at your kitchen table this weekend. Let us all hope that we learn a lesson about what we allow to happen to keep a roof over our heads, shirts on our backs, and food on our plates and what it will take to change.
Pass this on to your friends via Facebook and let the world know. If you live in the US, let Obama know.
As a solution, this one seems fairly sound and I believe it to be the most responsible action that could be taken against the oil spill. With the additional benefit of spurring on a growth in marine life from the byproduct that will hopefully help to restore fish stocks and other types of marine animals that were killed during the spill, this solution is immediate and doesn't cause additional harm like the chemical dispersants.
If you havn't seen what kind of impact the oil spill is having, and how much you should be concerned about it, here are some pictures of some of lives it is impacting.
Instead of these images, we could be seeing birds with full stomachs of fish and shrimp sometime next year from the bloom in marine life these organisms would jump start.
However, in the event that short-sightedness and lack of action prevents this type of solution from moving forwards, I thought I'd share the information that I have so far on BP.
The US Department of Defence is the largest customer of BP by a wide margin.
If you would like to read more about these expenditures you can find them here:
Here is a list of products by BP that I hope you, like myself, will likely boycott for the rest of our lives. Be sure to tell your mechanic and your friends as well. The product you are most likely to know about is Castrol GTX motor oil. Send a message to BP by declaring to your friends and family a pledge that you won't use Castrol brand products from here forward. In case you wanted a much longer list, see below.
(Amalgamated from several web-forums that have been started specifically to help educate and inform on products BP provides.)
List OF BP Products, Buyers and Businesses They Supply
B P Investments Limited
Establishments primarily engaged in operating oil and gas field properties. Such activities may include exploration for crude petroleum and natural gas; drilling, completing, and equipping wells; operation of separators, emulsion breakers,… (More)
B P Lubricants
Establishments primarily engaged in the wholesale distribution of petroleum and petroleum products,… (More)
B P Marine Americas Inc
Establishments primarily engaged in the wholesale distribution of petroleum and petroleum products,… (More)
B P North America
Establishments primarily engaged in the wholesale distribution of petroleum and petroleum products,… (More)
B P Ohare Terminal
Establishments primarily engaged in the wholesale distribution of petroleum and petroleum products,… (More)
B P Oil
Establishments primarily engaged in operating oil and gas field properties. Such activities may include exploration for crude petroleum and natural gas; drilling, completing, and equipping wells; operation of separators, emulsion breakers,… (More)
B P Oil Co
Establishments primarily engaged in the wholesale distribution of petroleum and petroleum products,… (More)
B P Oil Corp
Establishments primarily engaged in operating oil and gas field properties. Such activities may include exploration for crude petroleum and natural gas; drilling, completing, and equipping wells; operation of separators, emulsion breakers,… (More)
B P Oil Inc
Establishments primarily engaged in operating oil and gas field properties. Such activities may include exploration for crude petroleum and natural gas; drilling, completing, and equipping wells; operation of separators, emulsion breakers,… (More)
B P Oil Jobber
Establishments primarily engaged in the wholesale distribution of petroleum and petroleum products,… (More)
Establishments primarily engaged in the wholesale distribution of petroleum and petroleum products,… (More)
B P Productions Corp
Establishments primarily engaged in operating oil and gas field properties. Such activities may include exploration for crude petroleum and natural gas; drilling, completing, and equipping wells; operation of separators, emulsion breakers,… (More)
B P Products
Establishments primarily engaged in the wholesale distribution of petroleum and petroleum products,… (More)
B P Products North America
Establishments primarily engaged in the wholesale distribution of petroleum and petroleum products,… (More)
B P Products North America Inc
Establishments primarily engaged in the wholesale distribution of petroleum and petroleum products,… (More)
B P Station
Establishments primarily engaged in the wholesale distribution of petroleum and petroleum products,… (More)
B P Terminal
Establishments primarily engaged in the wholesale distribution of petroleum and petroleum products,… (More)
Establishments primarily engaged in the wholesale… (More)
B Ramos Oil Co Inc
Establishments primarily engaged in the wholesale distribution of petroleum and petroleum products,… (More)
B T Oil Field Products
Establishments primarily engaged in operating oil and gas field properties. Such activities may include exploration for crude petroleum and natural gas; drilling, completing, and equipping wells; operation of separators, emulsion breakers,… (More)
B T Operating
Establishments primarily engaged in operating oil and gas field properties. Such activities may include exploration for crude petroleum and natural gas; drilling, completing, and equipping wells; operation of separators, emulsion breakers,… (More)
B T Resources
Establishments primarily engaged in operating oil and gas field properties. Such activities may include exploration for crude petroleum and natural gas; drilling, completing, and equipping wells; operation of separators, emulsion breakers,… (More)
B V Oil Co
Establishments primarily engaged in the wholesale distribution of petroleum and petroleum products,… (More)
B W Quick Stop
Establishments primarily engaged in the wholesale distribution of petroleum and petroleum products,… (More)
B. J. Services S.R.L.
Oil… (More)
B.B. Energy Trading Ltd.
Founded in 1969, B.B. Energy Trading Ltd. is a privately owned, independent business that trades in gasoline and crude oils. The company offers jet, light and heavy fuel… (More)
B.D.R. Fioul Services
B.D.R. Fioul Services is primarily… (More)
B.Lpg SRL
B.Lpg SRL is primarily engaged in… (More)
B.P. Belgium
Manufacture… (More)
B.P.P. SpA
B.P.P. SpA is primarily engaged in… (More)
B.V. Mabanaft
B.V. Mabanaft is primarily engaged in
the wholesale distribution of petroleum and petroleum… (More)
B.W.O.C. Ltd.
Founded in 1982, B.W.O.C. Ltd. is one of the largest, independent suppliers of fuel and bio and ultra-low sulphur diesel cards in the United Kingdom. The company offers kerosene, gas oil and derv… (More)
B-1 Propane
Establishments primarily engaged in the wholesale distribution of petroleum and petroleum products,… (More)
B2B Direct
Establishments primarily engaged in the wholesale distribution of petroleum and petroleum products,… (More)
Ba.Co. Gas SRL
Ba.Co. Gas SRL is primarily engaged in… (More)
Bablick Conoco Oil Co
Establishments primarily engaged in the wholesale distribution of petroleum and petroleum products,… (More)
Establishments primarily engaged in the wholesale distribution of petroleum and petroleum products,… (More)
Baccarelli Nazareno Sas di Leonardo Baccarelli
Baccarelli Nazareno Sas di Leonardo Baccarelli is… (More)
Bach Oil
Establishments primarily engaged in operating oil and gas field properties. Such activities may include exploration for crude petroleum and natural gas; drilling, completing, and equipping wells; operation of separators, emulsion breakers,… (More)
Bacherotti SRL
Bacherotti SRL is primarily engaged in… (More)
Backus Oil Co.
Establishments primarily engaged in the wholesale distribution of petroleum and petroleum products,… (More)
Badajoz Diesel Service S.L
Wholesale of… (More)
Badano Gas SRL
Badano Gas SRL is primarily engaged in… (More)
Badger Energy Services LLC
Establishments primarily engaged in the wholesale distribution of petroleum and petroleum products,… (More)
Badger Fuel Oil
Establishments primarily engaged in the wholesale distribution of petroleum and petroleum products,… (More)
