Category Archives: Audobon Society

John James Audobon’s 226th Birthday

Posted on April 26, 2011 | Leave a comment

John James Audobon has had an enormous influence on Louisiana culture and its asthetic sensibilities. The great, hunter painter, collector and naturalist who specialized in birds was also ve y accomplished in depicting both their actual food and behavior in a still scene. He was even more accomplished in showing their environment correctly with almost no exceptions. He made bery careful observations when he found a bird and set those down in a permanent record of real artistic merit. His work, though criticized by some of our own era has provided a vital benchmark for many aspects of conservation and ecology in our time.

For a good summary of his most important stay in Louisiana well presented with art see this product of LSU press:
http://www.lsu.edu/lsupress/bookPages/9780807133309.html
One of the reasons that my own political opinions favor more radical than conventional change is because I think we will need such change to be effective as regards the environment and our environmenal policy. But we are not starting without any assets. Among the greatest part of the conservationist heritage of the Western Hemisphere is the work of John James Audobon.

A documentary is based on the book above which aired on Louisiana Public Broadcasting and is quite good I think. It gives a glimpse into the life Audobon lived here. http://beta.lpb.org/index.php/site/programs/a_summer_of_birds/

To see some of theart he did as provided by the society which acts in and under his name you can check out this website: http://web4.audubon.org/bird/BoA/BOA_index.html

The actual first edition prinitngs of his great works in book form are among the great treasures of humanity and deserve to be. Pricey as such thing are they are probably undervalued. However, better or worse prints of his works adorn walls in Louisiana and elsewhere with frequency and form well beloved connections with the outside world.

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Posted in Acadians, Arts, Audobon Society, Louisiana, Wetlands

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Taking a Break From the Wind-Down of Coverage of the BP Leak

Posted on July 8, 2010 | Leave a comment

I watched the 2010 Louisiana Legends Gala on LPB tonight after going to my nephew’s birthday party.  The Louisiana Legend honorees were  a musician of great accomplishment named Burton and a man of many accomplishments in politics, music and the life of his family and community named Michot. They also included a woman who had reared children as a politician’s wife and been on the one hand a patron and organizer of the arts and an actual artist and designer named Morrison as well as a man who at the college, professional and other levels had distinguished himself as basketball player, coach  and mentor in the world of hoops and hardwood.  It also included former Governor Buddy Roemer.

My sister had just put on a big birthday party for her son and then she had to head off to Mexico. It was also garbage night.  I was looking at all the achievement of these people and thinking about all the fullness of family life. That and other thing sort of pushed the oil leak out of my mind, except that Buddy Roemer was a governor who cut pollution. There was also the fact that Louis Michot alluded to the man-made setbacks. It also played on my mind as I thought about my nephew growing up.

But overall, I am just plain tired, distracted and willing to forget about this leak for a day or so. No real BP oil gusher story for today….

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Posted in 2010 Roemer. Burton, Acadians, Audobon Society, Bobby Jindal, BP - British Petroleum, BP Chairman Svanberg, Frank W. Summers, Geopolitics, Gulf of Mexico, Ken Feinberg, Louisiana, Louisiana Legends Honors, Michot, Morrison, Reed, United States of America, Western civilization, Wetlands

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The BP Oil Spill & The Anderson Cooper Response

Posted on July 1, 2010 | 7 comments

There have been a great number of competent and quite a few gifted journalists who have covered the leak and consequences of the leak that followed the sinking of the Deep Water Horizon at the Macondo underwater feature in the Gulf of Mexico just off the Coast of Louisiana. I will say that I have even seen more than one production that could be called a full-length documentary film.  I think many of these people deserve commendation and some deserve censure for their response to this crisis.Even BP itself has spent quite some significant amount of cash collecting and reporting information in various formats and through various people who have differing levels of expertise and candor as regards these events and their consequences. The BP response and other responses are not really so surprising when one considers that at least thirteen human deaths have been tied to these events, billions of dollars in trade and economic effects (including BP stock value fluctuations)  can be tied and related to these events. I have seen the disaster covered on ABC, NBC. CBS, Fox, MSNBC, PBS, the BBC, CNBC and many other venues in the electronic and broadcast media. The local and regional broadcast stations have had many significant exclusive stories. Also I have seen the print media from Gannett ( my former employer) as well as many other competitors cover the story. All these people have done work that deserves to be considered carefully by students, critics and practitioners of modern journalism. But none of those people and institutions are the subjects of this blog post.

I want to take an absurdly short amount of time and space to acknowledge the work of Anderson Cooper and his crew and staff on the CNN show AC360. Anderson Cooper has traveled the marshes, formed relationships with Governor Jindal, Plaquemines Parish President Billy Nunguesser, Grand Isle Mayor Dave Camardelle and local observers James Carville and his Republican wife Mary. He has taken time to tie into the cultural background stories, the family histories, and the political history. He has kept up a stream of steady reportage of the facts and has spiced that up with interviews of people like Lenny Kravitz and other celebrities who really know the area. He has owned the story and in my opinion has been a significant force in driving better coverage elsewhere.

In a climate where CNN has lost ground to more adversarial and advocacy driven networks like Fox and MSNBC he has found and area where he can bend his lines and not break them in advocating the case of voiceless animals and plants as well as millions of American citizens threatened by this disaster. So I think he has probably helped CNN fight back while being CNN. He has shown how they can still cover a big and long story and that they can do it in the new media environment. So he is adding his own professional quest and knight errantry to that of the people he has chosen to stand beside.

So, before it is too late, I take this chance to salute Anderson Cooper. Good job,  Sir. You are one of those we need around more than ever.    I hope this leads to new but probably not more important opportunities.

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Posted in Acadians, Anderson Cooper, Audobon Society, Bobby Jindal, BP - British Petroleum, BP Chairman Svanberg, CNN, Environment, family, Frank W. Summers, Ken Feinberg, lly Nunguesser, Louisiana, media, Oil & Gas Industry, United States of America, Western civilization, Wetlands

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Why the Oil Leak in the Gulf has Dominated this Blog

Posted on June 29, 2010 | 1 comment

I am not running a specialty blog here. I have a personal and fairly general purpose blog.  Yet there have been so many posts on the BP Oil Leak and none that were not at all related to the oil disaster in the Gulf in quite a while.  I want to use this post to discuss briefly why I have given so much more attention to this situation than I have to anything else since I began this blog. In case anyone reading has any doubt, I had not started this blog when the September 11, 2001 attacks occurred.  If I had this blog in those days I think that I would have posted about it for a similar length of time with relatively comparable intensity. I did in fact bring it up fairly often and fairly early in the newspaper articles that I published when writing as a reporter and as a feature writer in those days.

I did  and do think that World Trade Center and Pentagon wrecking crisis was a life changing kind of crisis.  I also think that this wetlands crisis is a life changing kind of crisis.  I think that this crisis makes us aware of the vitality, importance and threatened state of Louisiana and Gulf Coast wetlands. I think that this crisis can make us aware of certain strengths and weaknesses of our global , national and regional economies that are not well enough known nor carefully enough considered. We need to also understand how little planning, responsibility and mitigation exists in huge areas of our economic life. We need to understand how often we punish those behaving responsibly and excuse those pillaging the planet. I have pointed out repeatedly that BP is a British corporation. In balance I would like to encourage you to hear this address from Prince Charles of Wales, Duke of Cornwall  to the Copenhagen Conference on Climate Change before all of this began. I think his words show that there are many tie to be formed and bridges to be built to secure a decent future. British Petroleum’ s disaster is in contrast to these words of a British Prince:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JyLpo3rHHQ4&playnext_from=TL&videos=hu-_iGvuMXU

I have given this disaster so much emphasis because it is an incident about which I have a great deal of background knowledge. I am positioned to understand a great deal about all of this and explain some of it my blog’s readership. I have fished and boated these waters. I have done research and paralegal tasks for lawyers involved in spill and oil industry law suits. My life has involved a great deal of study about the peoples and history of Louisiana and the Gulf Coast. These frames of reference and sets of facts have given me an understanding of how this tragedy has been playing out across this region.

Now I am not going to blog about this oil mess forever. If I do not die first of something beyond my control I expect to write on other subjects again soon enough. In fact it will be a relief to reassert the independence of this blog from any one subject.

But for now this is my subject. For now it is what I need to be thinking and blogging about more than most other things.  I hope that you will keep reading for now.

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Posted in 9-11 attacks, Acadians, Audobon Society, Bobby Jindal, BP - British Petroleum, BP Chairman Svanberg, Environment, family, Frank W. Summers, Geopolitics, Gulf of Mexico, Ken Feinberg, Louisiana, media, Oil & Gas Industry, Royalty and Empire, Sweden, United States of America, Western civilization, Wetlands, White House

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BP Oil Leak and the Technology We do not Have

Posted on June 28, 2010 | 1 comment

It occurs to me that as hurricane season approaches there are a variety of technologies we do not have. I do blame BP primarily for not having them. I do blame the Oil and Gas industry significantly but not solely. I know not every one would agree that we should have all these things and I cannot argue that we must have every single one but here are a few things that I wish we had around.

1.  We do not have ultra speedy drill ships that could be assigned for emergencies to start drilling relief wells in the least dangerous phase and then be replaced by more substantial ships later. If we did have these the relief wells would be farther along in this case.

2. There are floating oil bladders used in conjunction with skimming operations. But we do not have neutral buoyancy production rigs for emergency siphons, caps and risers which could transfer oil to sub surface reservoirs for short (3-5) day periods when sites must be evacuated for storms.

3. There are no aerator buoys which could channel bubbles into the water column in areas where adding oxygen could make a real difference over weeks and days.

4. We do not have the barrier island bases and sound coastal policies I and others have suggested.  https://franksummers3ba.wordpress.com/2009/10/02/ideal-wetlands-policy-on-the-louisiana-coast/

5. We do not have flocculents in mass marketable scale. Floculents are a theoretical set of tiny clusters of microbial cultures, inert clays and solvents which could be used in areas where dispersants are not appropriate.

6.We do not have sophisticated instrument remotely operated submarines owned  by states are the US Coast Guard to measure flows and document damage independently.

7. We do not have an electronic world resources and technologies clearinghouse online.

8. We do not have sophisticated modeling software for predicting the behavior of loose deep water source oil in the Gulf of Mexico.

9. We do not have a National Mental Health Emergency Support Infrastructure.

10. We do have a set of readily deployed products and services for assisting those cleaning marine vessels and small boats unusually affected working to clean or simply passing through oil slicks and other oiled waters.

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Posted in Acadians, Audobon Society, Bobby Jindal, BP - British Petroleum, BP Chairman Svanberg, Environment, family, Geopolitics, Gulf of Mexico, Ken Feinberg, Louisiana, Oil & Gas Industry, technology, United States of America, Western civilization, Wetlands

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Watching the BP Oil Leak in Gulf : An Acrostic Verse

Posted on June 22, 2010 | 1 comment

When did this tragedy of oil and gas spill start? Were we watching a spill cam?

Always to discuss dead and dying turtles, pelicans and  rare terns– normal is it?

The truth is we discussed limits, coastal erosion and small spills here and there.

Cameras showing  jetties and reserves were in planks politicians had to  cram.

However, sportfishing, jet skis and music in good crowded bars marked a visit.

In oysters, crabs, shrimp, fin fish and airboat rides came wealth with care.

Nobody thought everything was going forward and would turn out well.

Great care was had for all threatened by an oil coated kind of deadly hell.

*

The decades of struggle to protect and heal and fill the coast with profits too.

How we argued and fought as to all there was to know and plan and do.

Each since April of two thousand ten are brought to a  struggle new. 

*

British Petroleum changed its name to letters before Deep Water Horizon’s fire.

Petroleum and natural gas heated pipe, plate, tanks  and white-hot steel wire.

*

Of the day’s  pain and fear we hear and  of dire and painful  escape from woe.

It is known that eleven tales are unheard in studie of fire and lingering flow.

Lives of eleven consumed and families grieve those who at sea to work did go.

*

Lives lost, others wounded and injured and in pain on  lonely  lifeboats.

Each still wounded and in pain came into ships rescued from an oiled fiery sea.

As these waited lawyers met them with right-waiving legal notes.

Kept for many hours in  mental  and social stress before set on land as free.

*

In days to come Transocean, Halliburton and BP PLC parsed the blame.

No coffins eleven had for bodies consumed in a gusher’s raging flame.

*

Greatly wrong series of  estimates of  flow — vast oil flowed out in doom.

Until a vast spread of emulsions, slicks, sheens raged across the wild seas.

Lapping nearer and into swamps that are breeding and nursery room.

Fingering first past burns and booms lines of  fouling forces flow with ease.

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Posted in Acadians, Acrostic Verse, Audobon Society, BP - British Petroleum, BP Chairman Svanberg, Environment, family, Frank W. Summers, Gulf of Mexico, Ken Feinberg, Louisiana, media, NOAA, Oil & Gas Industry, Organizations making change, Poetry, United States of America, Wetlands

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BP Oil Spill & A Tour for Kenneth Feinberg

Posted on June 18, 2010 | Leave a comment

i have given lots of small informal tours to those visiting the Gulf and Louisiana. I think that Kenneth Feinberg needs such a tour. I am too disconnected to give him the tour I would recommend. But I would recommend a tour for his orientation and to get him established. in his tasks.

For those reading this blog post who may not know much at all about Kenneth Feinberg I recommend starting by going to this link and then coming back to the post here. http://abcnews.go.com/Business/bp-gulf-oil-spill-ken-feinberg-appointed-head/story?id=10933766

I would make this an “Open Letter to Kenneth Feinberg” except that I have no reason to believe he reads this blog and I also am not  writing a post in a good letter format. But I am going to write in manner such as I might use in writing to Mr. Feinberg if each item were imbedded in a letter

First, before we begin this tour you may wonder why you need it.  I think the federal government should pay for it.  That may seem an unnecessary expense.  That is all the more of a sign that you do need it. It is not only pleasurable although there should be some pleasure in ti. Cultivate a really open attitude and disposition.  Be more humble than usual. Mr. Feinberg you followed the news about Agent Orange for years before you mediated that dispute ( whether you were aware of it or not). You knew a great deal about the cultural features and institutions of the area of Manhattan that included the World Trade Center. You had heard of the Zapruder film for decades and you spent lots of time in universities like Virginia Tech. Certainly you could not call yourself an ingenue as regards Wall Street executive life. However, you are probably very much an ignoramus here. Asode from hiring consultants and masters to assist you I would urge you to take a tour although you will be criticized for some it and it must create some bad photographs which will (not merely might) hurt your image. Do it anyway, spend three days:

Evening One New Orleans:

a. Have someone knowledgeable discuss the Urner- Barry Seafood Price Current and  the free wildlife and fisheries brochures of Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida (and maybe Texas as well).  Have them quiz you on a few areas. Then with the same small group order up some seafood and have a film party watch Louisiana Story and Angels of the Basin. Then have an offical of the Louisiana Seafood Promotions and Marketing board discuss the seafood that has been eaten and present a brief slide show on various species and fisheries. Get a good nights sleep.

Morning One New Orleans:

b. Take a special tour of the Aquarium of the Americas with the Audubon Institute. Then take a paddlewheel river boat to the Audubon Zoo. Have the Coast Guard point out various kinds of river vessels and industries.  Let the Port Authority present a brief sideshow and the Hotel Association cater a brunch. When you arrive at the zoo tour the relevant part of the zoo with the Audubon Institute.  Then walk across Audubon park to Tulane University.  Meet with the Environmental Law faculty and students. Let them report on what is going on. Have a few snacks and coffee with members of the environmental bar and the licensing community.

Afternoon One and Evening Two Louisiana and Mississippi:

c. Have a helicopter pick up you and a couple of consultants and fly you over the wetlands and over Venice before dropping you at Port Fourchon. Tour the LOOP and have the various petroleum associations present you with a sideshow.    Let Louisiana State University give you a history of the oil industry in the Gulf Coast with papers you can refer to later.

d. Take the refueled helicopter over the Atchafalaya and the marshes around Vermilion Bay to Delcambre, Louisiana have the business community, shrimpers and officials present the way that industry functions and the way people live. Have dinner at Jefferson Island and meet with representatives the eco-tourism industry. Watch the film about the Lake Peigneur Disaster. Tour the island and have The University of Louisiana at Lafayette present a lecture and slide show on the cultural history of Coastal Louisiana.

e. Drive to a small plane and have it fly you over the Gulf’s oil rigs on a special flight plan at night. Land in Biloxi, Mississippi. Take a brief tour of the Towns sights and stay in a casino hotel. Preside over a dinner hosted by the tourism community. Go to sleep.

Morning Two Mississippi and Alabama.

f. Drive on a high touring bus from Biloxi to Dauphin Island Alabama stopping to see beaches. In Dauphin Island here from the charter boat community. Have a seafood lunch. Take the fastest available charter boat from the Island to Mobile Bay.

Afternoon Two and Evening Three Alabama and Florida:

g. Attend a lecture in the Fort on historical tourism on Gulf Coast presented by the University of Alabama.  Have dinner in a nice hotel in Mobile and hear a presentation on how the coast functions as an economic region across and within states presented by the banking community. Fly in a small plane to Pensacola, Florida. Have a geographer discuss patterns of lit up settlement. Stay in a very upscale beachfront condominium and have the real estate community present  a sideshow and lecture on coastal real estate. Go to bed.

Morning Three Florida: 

  h. Drive from Pensacola to Destin stopping to see beaches and piers. Have a discussion with University of Florida faculty over lunch on the patterns of recent migration to the Florida Coastal regions and it national economic significance.

Afternoon Three Long Helicopter Flight :

i. Take a long helicopter flight over rigs ports and wetlands to Houma, Louisiana. Go to the BP Claims Center and have a discussion session with everyone working there. Ask questions, tour the facility meet some claimants who have been invited to dinner with you.

After dinner you will be free man. You will not know all that much but you will know what you do not know. Then when you do your job it need not be a long string of  insulting misunderstandings.

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Posted in Acadians, Audobon Society, BP - British Petroleum, Environment, family, Geopolitics, Hot Summer Weather, Ken Feinberg, Louisiana, Oil & Gas Industry, Organizations making change, Personal Philosophy and Moral Economics, Wetlands, White House

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Ten Questions related to BP Oil Spill and Wealth

Posted on June 17, 2010 | Leave a comment

This is going to be one of my briefer posts. It is also one of the least finished. It sticks with simply asking some large questions that are not easily answered. That is because I want to focus on Carl-Henric Svanberg’s BP’s generous response to us “small people” for whom they have given up one year of dividends and also setting up a special fund for victim compensation.  

The fact that BP has placed twenty billion dollars into a victim’s compensation escrow account is certainly a very good thing. We are mostly pleased by that development and I think that Ken Feinberg enjoys a fairly high level of goodwill and respect here. So let us be clear about the fact that the money helps.  This is without regard to whether or not it is enough money.

1. Louisiana, most of all and other Gulf Coast states  have developed a system of leases, licenses, seasons, turtle excluders, pollution control and cultural traditions which has maintained a highly productive seafood industry while preserving the resources that are the basis of fisheries far from here from which we receive little money. We internalize the cost of responsibility and now have been agin greatly assaulted by obvious deluded idiots in the larger world.  Will there be a fiscal response to this set of financial obligations and their effects?

2. American policy of sending everyone into unstable industries and cheapened college educations is clearly moronic. We have maintained a whole class of high paying and decent skilled careers of the type this society hates. Now this sector is again assaulted and the whole infrastructure will tend to tear it apart if nothing is done. Will there be sector support?

3. BP is clearly run by people whose social skills are just above those of a gorilla troop. Will there be an effort by skilled people to work within the complex and enduring social fabric of our coast?

4. When food production is affected in any big way more food is taken from the poor in the world economy by a long string of events. Will anyone  actually care about the misery that may be suffered as far away a s rural China or Ecuador?

5. Will the natural resources management  professions be given social support in this context or will money men and politicians make all the policy decisions?

6. Will the utter cluelessness of policy regarding Louisiana’s unique wetlands in the federal government be really examined?

7. Will the pelicans of the next five generations get health support under Obamacare? Will there be funds to study wildlife survival and reproduction over years?

8.  Will the realities of seafood processing piece work be understood by anybody? Or will all decisions be made by people who think food comes from stores in plastic sheathing?

9. Will    there be any effort to clear the backlog of coastal restoration projects which will have to compete with the aftermath of this disaster for various resources?

10. Will someone give these BP executives a chance to meet with all the small people here who love their big strong protectors from across the Atlantic so very much?

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Posted in Acadians, Audobon Society, BP - British Petroleum, BP Chairman Svanberg, Environment, family, Geopolitics, Gulf of Mexico, Louisiana, Nguyen Lineage, Oil & Gas Industry, Sweden, United States of America, USA--UK Relationship, Vietnamese community, Western civilization, Wetlands

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BP Oil Spill, The World Cup & The Better Chances

Posted on June 11, 2010 | Leave a comment

I am not going to take a complete break from the Posts about the BP oil spill to discuss the World Cup. But I do want to discuss the World Cup nonetheless. I have been a sportswriter. As a sportswriter and as a feature writer for newspapers I have often written about soccer. As a world traveler I have often called it football or Futbol. As the games begin with South Africa and Mexico battling it out in the new Soccer City near Soweto, South Africa  I am watching and thinking of the US versus England which airs in the early afternoon Saturday my time.  England is a tough team and brings a great deal of respect to the event and commands it from us.

BP did not bring that same level of respect to its task here and does not command such respect. I have read and heard from many sources that their disaster response plan for this well dealt with walruses and sea lions (which do not live here) while ignoring most of the hundreds of species they threatened. What a horrible grotesque group of people for us to have to deal with who love and depend on these unique wetlands. Such vile minds inflict themselves on us all in a way unimaginable among the World Cup contenders. Maybe BP should hire some of the England staff and players to give them a basic orientation lecture about preparation.

 To be so hostile in fact to South Louisiana  and other areas in preparing this venture is beyond the parameters of mere greed and laziness. I am hopeful that somehow the story will end better than it has begun. In a few years I may finally leave this region for good but it will always be home. I will simply not be living at home any more. That is something I have done for years at a time before, leave here and live abroad. However, I used to hope a life would come together for me here but I have reached a point where it just seems impossible. The oil spill is the last great horror in a lifetime of reasons to give up on being here. Yet still it will always be home.   I do not think it would be right to discuss best case scenarios of recovery from the oil spill yet. However, it may be permissible to discuss some better case scenarios. Despite all the ongoing destruction and suffering it may be possible to behave in a moral way and discuss the possible better-rather-than-worst  results of the oil spill. For me there is a certain sense that in the small niche this blog occupies in the big world of cyber space there is little room to speculate on the good that may come out of this tragedy. But nonetheless, whatever good may come of this is part of  the event and its consequences. Since I am blogging so much about this I might as well blog about those good consequences as well. Just as every qualified country  from the more than thirty participants can at the time I write this at least fantasize about winning it all so I can fantasize about some good results.

1. Maybe the whole Oil Pollution Act regime will be improved.

2. Maybe a really sound coastal policy will have a better chance moving forward.

3. Maybe after the purifying trials of the present the reservoir of oil will fund a dynamic economy in the region  and nation.

4. Maybe state revenue sharing will work out sooner and more rather than later and less.

5. Maybe Gulf of Mexico oil will help the Arab world to sober up in its addiction to bad policy and fanaticism in religion among other things. If there is a large US oil find then all sides will have to adjust geopolitical positions. This could be the start of a large enough find.

I am not counting on any of these things happening. I am tired, discouraged and depressed. But in the spirit of the World Cup’s start I am focusing on the path to glory. Although few reasons for confidence may present themselves.

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Posted in Audobon Society, BP - British Petroleum, Geopolitics, Gulf of Mexico, Louisiana, Mexico, Oil & Gas Industry, South Africa, Sports, The World Cup, United States of America, USA--UK Relationship, Western civilization

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BP Spill: Environmental Awareness links & questions

Posted on June 4, 2010 | 1 comment

Will there be a system producing the oil and gas before the relief wells are completed, supposedly in August?  Will the relief wells be fully successful early on?  There are so many distressing images coming to us over the spill cam.  For me there is so much of my memories and hopes long ago lost are brought to mind. my own life was already pinched in before this disaster. To understand the freshwater sytem behind the saltwater marshes that are behind the almost lost barrier islands. One can see that there are oil and government scars that are still across Louisiana. This spill is an attack on a struggling set of ecosystems and while they are vital and fertile they are not extremely resilient. So we hope BP gets it capped, will they?  

The Cut and Cap had not succeeded to the fullness of its potential when I posted this blog.  British Petroleum is working its robots all over the wreckage they have tried to clear and clean up. They have a trimmed Blow Out Preventer gushing more oil than ever before and a cap that was lowered down without a riser pipe to collect the oil. In addition the seal certainly seemed to be spewing lots of oil.  I of course am not sure what exactly is going on and I do believe that restoring the barrier islands is important. I have however seen that in the context of a larger system. my idea is described in the next link. https://franksummers3ba.wordpress.com/2009/10/02/ideal-wetlands-policy-on-the-louisiana-coast/ 

I hope that I wake up tomorrow to the news that the gusher is capped. However, I probably will not. Even if I did there is already a great deal of oil to deal with.  For me the world was already in a very big mess before this spill and the spill threatens a very strained set of cultures and ecosystems. So I want to look at the spill just as an environmental issue and incident in this post and yet also connect it to the  events and an analysis that have been developing. 

 The situation in the Gulf of Mexico is dire and not likely to get better very soon. I want to use this blog post to discuss this as an ecological and environmental disaster. I will also provide links that discuss this incident from that point of view.  Then I am providing some links and samples from other sources to just give a context and vision of what is happening in the Gulf of Mexico.

The Audubon Society has a unique claim to be involved and informed in this struggle.  That is because John James Audubon, the namesake of the society did much of his natural history research and bird painting in Louisiana.

1.http://www.audubonaction.org/site/PageServer?pagename=aa_HowtoHelp

2.http://www.auduboninstitute.org/gulf-oil-spill-resources

Besides the Audubon organizations there are many other major environmental organizations weighing in on the situation. I have located a few major links here as well. No two of these groups have exactly the same perspective.

3.http://members.greenpeace.org/blog/greenpeaceusa_blog/2010/06/03/the-ixtoc-blowout-31-years-ago-today

4.http://oceansociety.blogspot.com/2010/05/oil-spill-in-gulf-proves-need-for-oil.html

6.http://www.gulfmex.org/director.htm#oil

7.http://www.defenders.org/programs_and_policy/wildlife_conservation/threats/offshore_drilling.php

II. Assessment of the Situation

Besides these organization above that are advocating for various kinds of environmental policy and response there are others in the world trying to report on the situation. I list a few of those in links by home country. These reports are all very different and may offer useful insights into what we can expect different groups and interests to be discussing.

USA

Time has photos of affected wildlife.

1.http://www.time.com/time/photogallery/0,29307,1992275,00.html

New Orleans has a major newspaper covering the situation.

2.http://www.nola.com/news/gulf-oil-spill/index.ssf/2010/06/bp_places_cap_on_gulf_of_mexic.html

Scientific American Magazine looks at how the Spill could affect the microbes and their role in the Gulf, especially that area called the dead zone. 

3.http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=how-will-the-oil-spill-impact-dead-zone

The Society of Petroleum Engineers marks  the event and refers visitors to three other sources. See their text.

“Gulf of Mexico spill

The Society of Petroleum Engineers wishes to express its concern for all those impacted by the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico and support for our colleagues who are working to resolve this situation. Updates on the situation are provided at the following locations: BP, Deepwater Horizon Response and API Gulf spill.”

4. http://www.spe.org/index.php

China

China’s National English Language TV discusses alternate energy policy in light of this spill.

5.http://english.cntv.cn/program/newsupdate/20100603/101270.shtml

United Kingdom

BP reports to the Prime Ministry in London, England.

6.http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/natural_resources/article7143846.ece

III. GOHSEP Sightings in Louisiana

I have decided to end this post with the GOHSEP report on oil sightings so we can base the rest of the reading and discussion on basic facts about the oil’s landfall.

“Oil Sightings Report June 3, 2010

Plaquemines:
Sighting: Large dark red/brown ribbon of oil southwest of Tiger Pass (north-east to south-west direction).
Date: 3 Jun 10.

Sighting: Thick brown streamers with rainbow sheen in a one mile area running north to south, 11 miles west of lower Plaquemines Parish.
Date: 3 Jun 10.

Sighting: Two separate lines of oil 1.7 miles due south of the Mississippi River Delta.
Date: 3 Jun 10.

Sighting: Sighted oil in the reeds on the east side of Redfish Bay.
Date: 3 Jun 10.

Sighting: Oil reported of a mile east of Loumis Bay.
Date: 3 Jun 10.

Sighting: Shoreline impact of oil 0.17 miles south of Grand Bayou Pass.
Date: 3 Jun 10.

Sighting: Small patches of silver sheen 50 – 200 feet in diameter; 18 miles south-east of Mud Lumps Historical Landmark.
Date: 3 Jun 10.

Sighting: Line of emulsification 3.8 miles north-east of Timber Bayou.
Date: 3 Jun 10.

Sighting: Heavy black oil one mile long by 350 yards wide in north-west Wreck Bay.
Date: 3 Jun 10.

Jefferson Parish:
Sighting: Sheen and spots of heavy oil 200 yards off Shell Island. Beach impact is eminent.
Date: 3 Jun 10.

Lafourche Parish:
Sighting: Boom washed up on island of a mile north-west of Hacket Lake.
Date: 3 Jun 10.

Terrebonne Parish:
Sighting: Oil impacted on a small, unnamed island north of Whiskey Island; did not appear fresh and possibly remnants of a previous impact.
Date: 3 Jun 10

Sighting: Patches of light sheen at the intersection of King Lake and Mud Hole Bay.
Date: 3 Jun 10

Sighting: Ribbons of sheen on Bayou Little Caillou near Lake Boudreaux.
Date: 3 Jun 10

Sighting: Light continuous sheen approximately ten yards wide, six miles south-west of Coupe Colin Island.
Date: 3 Jun 10″

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