Stefanie Penn Spear
Today is the second anniversary of the BP oil disaster.
We all remember the horrific images of the Deepwater Horizon explosion in the Gulf of Mexico on April 20, 2010, that killed 11 oil rig workers, injured 17 others and released about 4.9 million barrels of crude oil into the ocean for more than three months. This disaster devastated the Gulf region’s economy, and threatened—and continues to threaten—the health of its residents and the environment.
Yesterday, EcoWatch.org revealed in a breaking exclusive piece that BP executives withheld the facts of a nearly identical blow-out two years earlier in the Caspian Sea. Going undercover in the Caspian nation of Azerbaijan, investigative reporter Greg Palast discovered that BP hid the fact of a blow-out caused by BP’s money-saving “quick-dry” cement technique.
On Wednesday, EcoWatch.org posted a piece on a new investigation by Al-Jazeera that confirms the worst about the residual impacts of the BP Deepwater Horizon Gulf oil spill. According to the network, scientists and fishermen are stunned by their recurring findings: “horribly mutated shrimp, fish with oozing sores, underdeveloped blue crabs lacking claws, eyeless crabs and shrimp” along with “shrimp with abnormal growths, female shrimp with their babies still attached to them, and shrimp with oiled gills.”
It’s time we take a stronger stand against corporations, like BP, that put profits first and show a total disregard for human health and the environment.
Thanks to Save Our Gulf, an initiative of Waterkeeper Alliance in support of Gulf Waterkeepers directly impacted by the BP oil disaster, for working on a petition to encourage the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement, and the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management to adopt the Oil Spill Commission’s recommendations for strict regulations on off-shore oil drilling.
Sign this petition today and ask the directors of the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement and Bureau of Ocean Energy Management to enforce strict regulations that make off-shore drilling safe.
CLICK HERE TO SIGN THE CHANGE.ORG PETITION
anything that will or could effect any part of the worlds environment should have strict controls, and i do mean world controls
Enough damage has been done. We cannot allow another Deepwater Horizon catastrophe.
IMO ocean dirlling should be nixed until and unless accuontability of the oil companies is secured by international and enforceable laws, including US laws.
The big oil companies have been and still are polluting major parts of the planet in both hemispheres, north and south. They need to be curtailed. If this drives up oil prices even farther, good: more pressure to developed windfarms and solar energy.
If you guys at ecowatch think that advising in favor of regulation will do the trick, forget it. These companies are favored by US lobbies and also they are adept at figuring out how to avoid rules and regs.
Read: Joel Achenbach, “A Hole at the Bottom of the Sea: The Race to Kill the BP Oil Disaster”
and you won’t support further off-shore drilling.
For future generations!
I fear there is just too much political money out there to hope for any constructive change on this issue. Hundreds of billions of dollars running through the world’s economies pacify and stabilize populations. At least in the short run. But the short run is where the attention span lies. We do bad things in the short run because we don’t want to think of the damage that may result in the long run. So sad.
I would like to sign the petition but live in Quebec, Canada, and change.org evidently doesn’t allow Canadians to join in this petition. Oh well, perhaps saving whatever remains of health in the Gulf of Mexico isn’t all that big of an issue, after all. Otherwise, change.org should be permitting all of humanity to sign.
The Gulf is important to everyone; not just people in the USA.