Working on the Beaches of the Gulf of Mexico
There is an official crew down here – ordered by government, paid for by BP (as I’m sure many of you already know from the media). I attempted to give them a hand, asked for a shovel, a pair of chincy plastic gloves, anything – even what to do. Their response was either them turning their back to me of simply stating “we can’t talk about it”. British Petroleum has stated that they haven’t told anybody not to talk but people, I tell you that’s a load of bull. I have asked more than one person in more than one crew in more than one location that were working for separate private contractors, so how would they all have the same response if they weren’t somehow informed to do so.
I planned to try to “go under cover” by getting an actual job with one of these contractors but I am running out of money and therefore time. It isn’t so easy around here to just find a place to pitch a tent in a non paid fashioned because things are very developed around here. I’m sure I could pull it off but parking my car somewhere where it won’t get towed is pretty risky in a land of vacation resorts and permit parking. I’ve slept in my car a few times but in the south its not a good idea – its real hot down here, by 6am if your asleep in a non-running car your asking for trouble.
Back to the working – I finally said the hell with joining their crew, paid or not, and observed what they were doing and copied it. They basically are wearing gloves, picking up the tar, bagging it and disposing of it (properly I hope if there is a such thing, the furthest I’ve been able to track it is to 24 hour holding facilities).
People seemed kind of shocked when they talk to me while I’m picking up these mostly coin sized dollups of earth blood because I actually talk back. Some are even more surprised by what I tell them. See I attended an emergency summit in New Orleans yesterday (I have a couple other stories about that in the works) and the information I found out I simply am restating to them. Things like the compounded devastation of the oil in conjunction with the dispersants they are using, the predicted “dead zones” and the actual magnitude of drilling happening in the gulf. (This is not the only oil well in operation.) The offshore “burning” of this spill, which I’ll get into later, is pretty scary as wel.
This is a fairly high-res image of the oil - to see it better please right click and select "view image"
I am currently in Panama City at Panama City Beach doing what I can. It's 95 degrees with 60% humidity. I'm gonna wait till sun down to get back out there. In the mean time I'm gonna catch up on somewriting.
To touch this stuff is like touching warm chocolate mixed with sand, glue and gasoline. As I pick it up, and the dead shells, algae and whatever else it attaches it self to, I know that I risk my health, but I also understand the risk to the health of the planet I take every time I start my car, use some tupperware or buy a bottle of soda. I’ve made the decision that I owe this risk back to my mother. While I can’t advise any body else do the same for liability purposes, I sure would smile if I heard this article motivated you to do so.
2 months into this and the oil still spills…