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(June 21, New Orleans, Lousiana) On Monday, Sophia Bush and Austin Nichols of One Tree Hill toured the Gulf oil spill by boat at the Bridgeside Marina.
The Video of their New Orleans trip is below. [Can't See The Video? Click HERE]
Before attempting to clean up one of the beaches, they stopped for lunch at the Barataria Restaurant. Later that afternoon they helped a group called the Bucket Brigade with some mapping of the spill. They also meet with fisherman and community leaders, accompanied by Global Green USA CEO Matt Petersen and Beth Galante of New Orleans GGUSA office.
On Tuesday, they met with city officials and toured the Global Green Holy Cross Project in the Ninth Ward built according to top energy saving standards, and met with Global Green staff and supporters for an assessment of actions and activities.
Many tv and film industry performers and producers have been spending more time in Louisiana due to the favorable tax benefits that have incentivized film shoots and production there. Many have bought homes in the area and return frequently. They have become concerned about the fate of the region. These young actors here on Monday and Tuesday have ties to Louisiana, have been discussing the spill, and plan to report back to their colleagues and fans on the impact of the spill with an eye to how they might support those there in Louisiana who have hosted them so warmly during the actors’ time there.
Global Green USA is a national environmental organization that merges innovative research, cutting-edge community-based projects and targeted advocacy to create a sustainable future. It has also pioneered partnerships with countless non-profits and government agencies. Please visit www.globalgreen.org for more information.
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By Leilani Munter
[Leilani, "Carbon Free Girl," is a Race Car Driver who competes at NASCAR]
After spending a week in Venice, Louisiana getting an up close view of the
BP gulf coast oil spill disaster, talking with locals whose livelihoods
are over, and seeing dead wildlife, I am trying my best to look at the
positive side. Keep in mind that I just got off the phone with one of my
boat captains in Louisiana and he told me he saw six dead dolphins and ten
dead turtles in the past few days. So the idea of looking on "the bright
side" is nearly impossible, and most days I fail, but I think it is human
nature to try to find something positive in the face of a catastrophe. The
only positive thing that can possibly come from this -- the largest
environmental disaster in American history -- is if it causes us to change
the way we are living on this Earth.
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Read More At The Source: http://twitter.com/BPGlobalPR
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On Monday, I toured the coast of Louisiana, talked with media covering the BP oil spill, and met and talked with fishermen who are devastated by the impact. It was a sobering day.
The whole region seems to be holding its breath, waiting for the oil to hit the coast. Volunteers were waiting to help clean the birds and wildlife, but the need was limited to date. That day will come soon enough, and we are already seeing the impact upon the wildlife with turtles and dolphins dying in the last few days due to the spill.Also disturbing were the testaments of media stating they were being prevented from getting to areas where the spill was worst, and documenting the disastrous impact. This should not be happening, and the reporters stated that it was BP officials holding them back.
The fishing community is in shock. Their lives and livelihoods are at risk. As one fishermen told us about watching the spill unfold, "Its like having a knife to your throat, and it is slowly cutting across."We need to create a cleaner future, and invest more urgently in renewable energy like wind and solar, and require higher standards for fuel efficient vehicles and mass transit to reduce our dependency on oil. We need to halt new offshore oil drilling, and ensure we are regulating BP and others more aggressively. We need to hold BP accountable to pay the full cost, and demand they not drag it out for 20 years as Exxon did after the Exxon Valdez disaster. We must demand that our federal government continue efforts now and in the future to ensure this never happens again.But we also need to help the communities on the Gulf Coast now - please help Global Green respond today. This Sunday we are helping mothers and their families by sending volunteers to Grand Isle (one of the impacted fishing communities), and helping host a community cookout for this community of fishermen, mothers, grandmothers, and kids. We will also be delivering healthy food to those who are already in financial crisis due to the spill.If you want to volunteer to go down and help on Sunday, please click here to learn more.
Thank you for all you do in your community and for others in need.
Sincerely,
Matt Petersen
President & CEO
Gore: Says Maggie Fox, president of Al Gore's Alliance for Climate Protection: "This tragic event is a deafening wakeup call that America's dependence on fossil fuels cannot continue. We know this dependence is a direct threat to our national security. This massive spill is a stark reminder of the environmental and economic dangers we face as well."
Ian R. MacDonald, an oceanography professor at Florida State University, said his examination of Coast Guard charts and satellite images indicated that 8 million to 9 million gallons had already spilled by April 28. ...
Alabama's governor said his state was preparing for a worst-case scenario of 150,000 barrels, or more than 6 million gallons per day. At that rate the spill would amount to a Valdez-sized spill every two days, and the situation could last for months.
If he [Obama] was looking for an opportunity to drive home the clean energy message, this was it -- the Katrina of fossil fuels. Yet all Obama has done is blandly reaffirm his support for offshore drilling. I haven't heard a word about clean energy alternatives or, God forbid, efficiency...
Lifted off of the comments at DailyKos, this one originated on Grist:
It's even worse than Devilstower thinks From a commenter at Grist, and this sounds correct. A reader who is an engineer of considerable experience says watch this one evolve carefully because it is destined to continue to grow and he shares this long (but worthy) explanation why: "Heard your mention of the oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico this morning, and you (and most everyone else except maybe George Noory) are totally missing the boat on how big and bad of a disaster this is.
First fact, the original estimate was about 5,000 gallons of oil a day spilling into the ocean. Now they're saying 200,000 gallons a day. That's over a million gallons of crude oil a week! First, the BP platform was drilling for what they call deep oil. They go out where the ocean is about 5,000 feet deep and drill another 30,000 feet into the crust of the earth.
This it right on the edge of what human technology can do. Well, this time they hit a pocket of oil at such high pressure that it burst all of their safety valves all the way up to the drilling rig and then caused the rig to explode and sink. Take a moment to grasp the import of that. The pressure behind this oil is so high that it destroyed the maximum effort of human science to contain it.
When the rig sank it flipped over and landed on top of the drill hole some 5,000 feet under the ocean. Now they've got a hole in the ocean floor, 5,000 feet down with a wrecked oil drilling rig sitting on top of is spewing 200,000 barrels of oil a day into the ocean. Take a moment and consider that, will you!
First they have to get the oil rig off the hole to get at it in order to try to cap it. Do you know the level of effort it will take to move that wrecked oil rig, sitting under 5,000 feet of water? That operation alone would take years and hundreds of millions toaccomplish. Then, how do you cap that hole in the muddy ocean floor?
There just is no way. No way. The only piece of human technology that might address this is anuclear bomb. I'm not kidding. If they put a nuke down there in the right spot it might seal up the hole. Nothing short of that will work. If we can't cap that hole that oil is going to destroy the oceans of the world. It only takes one quart of motor oil to make 250,000gallons of ocean water toxic to wildlife.
Are you starting to get the magnitude of this?
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An adult Brown Pelican gets evaluated upon his arrival at the International Bird Rescue Research Center in Fort Jackson, Louisiana. The IBRRC cleans birds covered in oil from the Deepwater Horizon wellhead. Photo: Daniel Beltra
