The Shame of British Petroleum
Posted on May 20th, 2010 in Uncategorized | 5 Comments »
Has there been a worse environmental disaster than the spill in the Gulf of Mexico? Hard to think of one offhand. And yet, British Petroleum is compounding its nightmare by trying to steamroll the press. Check out this CBS News video, in which a news crew trying to film a public beach is ordered to stop by Coast Guard agents acting on behalf of BP. WTF?
(Incidentally, what a bunch of wimps this news crew is-probably a testament to cuts in TV news that have purged old-school vets from the biz. Someone says, “You can’t cover this on orders of British Petroleum,” the proper response is a raised middle finger-and a silent prayer that they’re stupid enough to arrest you.)
5 Responses
5/20/2010 8:33 am
I always like to tell when you are being snarky. But you are right on here, Richard.
5/20/2010 9:36 am
What’s interesting here is how quickly Couric changes the subject from BP’s presumably illegal direction of the Coast Guard
5/20/2010 9:58 am
I agree, Richard. Shows Couric’s soft news instincts.
5/21/2010 9:21 am
Great catch, Rich. You should do some more with this. Got any good Hill contacts?
5/25/2010 12:10 pm
Thanks for putting this out Richard. I have seen it already. It is an outrage.
For us in southern Louisiana this spill is Katrina II. The spill has the potential to be catastrophic - not only for Louisiana but the entire Gulf region and possibly the country. Once the oil gets in the marshes and wetlands (and it already is) it will be almost impossible to remove without killing the vegetation. Of course the oil itself is killing the vegetation and animal life already. Everyone here is worried that if the disaster gets big enough it will set off a chain reaction of death in the marshes that cannot be stopped in the near future. Dieing organisms use up the dissolved oxygen in the water to decompose which create ‘dead zones’ in the water. This phenonamon already happens ever summer off of the coast of the Mississippi River due to fertilizer use in the midwest. We are concerned that once this process starts in the marsh it will be difficult to stop - potentially killing off miles and miles of normally vibrant marsh life. Also don’t forget that the spill is also invading the gulf stream which runs down the western side of Florida, around Key West and then up the east coast to Canada and eventually Europe.
What if we get a hurricane in the Gulf this summer? Where is the oil going then?