Gulf Update #2

Gulf Update #2

I've now been in New Orleans for nearly a week, and it feels much longer. Since getting here, I have been spending my time orienting myself to all the various groups, individuals and organizations taking action around the catastrophe unfolding here. The group of people I originally came down to work with turns out to be a very questionable communist organization. However, the meetings this group has been hosting has attracted a broad spectrum of individuals and organizations that are committed to being the change in this battle. We are in the process of forming the People's Unified Command to confront the lies of BP, the government and other culpable organizations. P.U.C. will also work to come up with community-based responses to the human and environmental health hazards that are a result of the Deep Horizon spill.

My personal energies have been focused around developing a holistic ecological engineering plan to combat the toxic contamination from this spill and re-establish the vital marshes, barrier islands and coastal dunes of the Gulf Coast. I've also been lucky enough to be put in contact with the Dr. Sircus of the Barefoot Doctors who is going to help design an emergency detox routine for residents of the gulf. Detoxing the people down here is essential as there is no attempt by either BP or the government to protect the health of the people exposed to the toxic soup of crude and Corexit. This soup has chemicals in it that are known and suspected carcinogens and potentially endocrine disruptors. What this means is that the full health effects of this disaster may not be know for decades, or even generations.

We've been finding out a lot about what BP isn't telling us and what BP and various governmental agencies are lying about. Primary among them are the health risks associated with exposure to both the crude and the dispersants (Corexit). Shockingly, or not, BP is refusing to provide respirators to the clean-up workers. Its also been reported that if workers show up with their own respirators, they will be fired. In terms of the health of the general public, there has been no attempt to educate people about the health risks they are being exposed to. Many toxicologist P.U.C. has talked with have said that at the very least, pregnant women and children should be evacuated from Venice, Grand Isle and other communities close to ground zero. In Florida and Alabama, health officials have decided to leave the beaches open despite the immediate health risks associated with contact with the crude and dispersants. Indeed, in Florida, they have just recently posted health warnings about the crude, but do not mention the fact that even if you can't see the oil, it is still in the water.

Public Health Notice from Fort Pickens National Park



Disturbingly, the little warning that is out there, seems to be completely ignored by the public.






I'm not sure how easy it is to see in these pictures, but all the beaches were contaminated with tar bars and the water has both a visible sheen and a brown murky color as a result of the spill. Even more frightening is the reports of deteriorating air-quality. Louisiana has never had good air quality, which means residents of this area already have chronic exposure issues. Added on to it the massive amounts of benzine, touline and other chemicals from the crude and the dispersants the air down here is turning into a toxic soup. The efforts of the Unified Command are actually making the situation worse, as the burning and flaring they are doing are volitizing the chemicals and putting them into the air. There are also reports coming in that BP is spraying Corexit (aka poison) directly onto the land and into the air here. Its reported that they do this at night, in vehicles with their lights off. The prevailing theory is that they are doing this to disperse the crude at night, to further hide the depths of their sins. Ask a conspiracy theorist and they'll tell you they're spraying the chemicals to keep the populace sedated. Either reason seems plausible to me.

My personal mission in all this is two-fold: find a way to provide some healing for the people most greatly affected by this disaster and help develop an ecological action plan to deal with the long term consequences of this nightmare. I'm also greatly concerned by the looming threat of the coming hurricanes. Meteorologists have already been saying that this season reminds them of 2005- the year Katrina, Rita and Wilma hit. Even if the storm season is only as bad as 2008- the year Gustav hit- the communities of south Louisiana will be inundated with toxic water. And once the hurricanes hit, what will the response be? Will it be as shameful as the response to Katrina?