To find out information from people on the ground who might not other wise be able to get the word out....
>>>To find out information from people on the ground who might not other wise be able to get the word out.
This last speaker was one of our members XXX XXXXX an Oceanographer who just returned from down in Louisiana and was filling us in at dinner with all the information that doesn't appear in the newspapers or on TV, mostly because many Newspapers don't have reporters any more and because BP bought and got a relative News blackout in the US, especially in Louisiana. It will be really interesting to compare what the President says tonight with what XXX reports. No US newspapers would print her articles. Only Canadian ones.
XXX said the whole operation was being run like a military operation with exclusion zones onshore and offshore patrolled by private security companies that physically try and threaten people on shore and do the same with zodiacs, rubber inflatables offshore and in international waters where the slick is like 2-3ft deep in someplaces.
Offshore is like a giant jobs program with everyone running around in boats but no one cleaning things up because they don't have clean-up gear or coordination. Agencies like the XXXX Society which has clean-up gear (specific to helping birds) are excluded or are charged so much to rent boats and facilities they can't afford it. Essentially BP rented or put everybody in Southern Louisiana on their payroll and told them not to talk or
A-they wouldn't get part of the reparations payout
B-they'd never work in the state of Louisiana again.
Quotes from local workers.
So its like a war zone with security everywhere and everyone afraid to talk. No one will take journalists into the wetlands or offshore. Months now into the 'clean-up' little clean ups is being done even though its is being paid for because the crews have neither training or gear.
The scary thing is not BP's oil spill this stuff happens. But how long and far they have been able to carry on the coverup and how unable any US Government agency has been able to deal with it. If you want to get a look anywhere along the Gulf Coast you have to hire a boat in S. Florida and depart from there... and it helps to be armed.
It will be really interesting to hear what the President has to say about this. Now for the good news. The general view of the oceanologists at dinner was that while the main discharge was in the sweet spot for marine life in the water column the heavier tarrier elements will end up on the bottom covered by sediment in a year or too and much of the lighter more volatile elements will evaporate while because its warm water bacteria are going to have a field day dining There is going to be some damage to marshes and spawning grounds but a recovery in the 3-5 years for much of the animal life is not unforeseeable. A well-respected marine biologist put it thus: 'This is not trivial but there are other spots like the Niger Delta where they have huge leaks and massive degradation thats why they have a war there.' Another interesting piece of disinformation was that while the Financial Times from London was printing 50,000 bbls as the size of the daily week for the past month. Almost all the US Media said 5,000 barrels. When a company spokesman was asked about the discrepancy he responded that the British press got the numbers wrong they really meant gallons not barrels which at 55 gallons a barrel would almost work out. So much for truth in the fourth estate....
