Tag Archives: along-the-gulf

16 Burning Questions About The Oil Spill That We Deserve To Have Answered

The Gulf of Mexico oil spill is a national nightmare that seems to have no ending. Every day new details come out that are even more shocking than what we learned the day before. The truth is that life will never be the same in the Gulf of Mexico or for those who live along the Gulf coast. Now Barack Obama has made a big Oval Office speech and has tried to convince all of us that he is in charge of the crisis. Well, perhaps if he had tried to take decisive action a month ago the American people may have rallied around him. But right now the BP/government response to this disaster remains completely and totally chaotic. Nobody seems to be able to stop the leak, and BP has made the environmental nightmare far worse by dumping over a million gallons of highly toxic dispersants into the Gulf. U.S. government officials are running around holding press conferences and waiting for BP to do something. Meanwhile oil is pouring ashore and toxic gases are being detected at very alarming levels. The biggest environmental disaster in U.S. history is also quickly becoming one of the biggest economic disasters and potentially one of the biggest public health disasters. The truth is that the American people deserve some answers about what in the world is going on down there in the Gulf. BP does not own the Gulf of Mexico and they have no right to keep the American people from seeing what is happening. There are some very serious health and environmental questions that have been raised in the media recently, but both BP and the U.S. government are not giving us any answers. But we need some answers. People are getting sick. Crops are dying. Wildlife is being devastated. Birds are flocking north by the thousands. READ MORE AT THE LINK…………. http://beforeitsnews.com/news/88/246/16_Burning_Questions_About_The_Oil_Spill_Th… added by: TomTucker

Antiquated Law Preventing Foreign Naval Aid for Gulf Oil Spill Says CNBC’s Santelli, Heritage Foundation

When a protectionist law is enacted and nearly a century later it is inhibiting a recovery from major ecological catastrophe, it’s probably time to scrap it or at least temporarily waive it. But instead a nearly century old provision known as the Jones Act of 1920 is wielding the wrath of unintended consequences. According to the Heritage Foundation, this protectionist measure was put in place to defend the American maritime industry, but is endangering far more jobs than it is protecting. “The Jones Act, which is supposedly about protecting jobs, is actually killing jobs,” Heritage co-authors James Dean and Claude Berube wrote in a June 8 The Foundry post . “The jobs of fishermen, people working in tourism and others who live along the Gulf Coast and earn a living there are being severely impacted. There are also additional private sector jobs which are NOT being created in the United States since the Jones Act effectively prices U.S. based companies out of the ability to be competitive on the competitive global market. As we strive to develop new technologies for a cleaner environment at sea, the Jones Act continues to hobble our own capabilities, sometimes with devastating results.” And CNBC’s Rick Santelli also noted this impediment to recovery. According to the Belgian newspaper De Standaard , European firms could complete the task in four months, rather than an estimated nine months if done only by the U.S., and just three months if working with U.S. firms. “They are playing this war of words,” Santelli said on CNBC’s June 9 “Closing Bell.” “Just consider this, there’s an old law on the books Ron, called the Jones Act of 1920. I’ve looked at three articles in a Belgian newspaper. They have special ships that could make a big difference in cleaning this up. But they were told by the State Department that they can’t because that act, Jones of 1920 prohibits ships that aren’t made in the U.S. to do such things in U.S. waters.” And Dean and Berube suggest the law should be done away with altogether. “The Jones Act needs to be waived now in light of this catastrophe and permit those whom we have helped and cooperated with in the past to assist us in our need,” they wrote. “After waiving the Jones Act for the Gulf clean up effort, Congress and the administration should repealing it all together.”

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Antiquated Law Preventing Foreign Naval Aid for Gulf Oil Spill Says CNBC’s Santelli, Heritage Foundation

30 Shocking Quotes About The Gulf Of Mexico Oil Spill That Reveal The Soul-Crushing Horror This Disaster Is Causing

It is incredibly hard to put into words the absolute horror that is happening in the Gulf of Mexico right now. The millions of gallons of oil that have gushed into the Gulf of Mexico and BP's efforts to fight the massive leak are turning the Gulf into a lifeless toxic stew of oil and chemicals. The damage caused to wildlife in the Gulf by this spill will be incalculable. Entire species are at risk of being wiped out. Scientists are telling us that the primary dispersant being used by BP ruptures red blood cells and causes fish to bleed. This is by far the greatest environmental disaster in U.S. history, and there is no end in sight. It is a worse environmental and economic disaster than all of the hurricanes of the past ten years combined. The great wetlands and beaches along the Gulf of Mexico will never be the same in our lifetimes. The seafood and tourism industries in the Gulf are being completely destroyed. The thousands of jobs and businesses being wiped out by this disaster could potentially throw the entire Gulf coast region into a depression. The damage already caused by this oil spill is beyond measure and yet the government tells us that up to 19,000 barrels (798,000 gallons) of oil a day continue to flow into the Gulf of Mexico. added by: Revelation1217

Baby Gorillas Rescued from War Zone: Raw Video

United Nations peacekeepers in Congo have used helicopters to airlift endangered baby gorillas to a sanctuary after they were rescued in a conflict zone where they faced being captured or eaten. The animals ferried to safety are eastern lowland gorillas, a species that only lives in Democratic Republic of Congo and is classified as “endangered” on the International Union for the Conservation of Nature's (IUCN) red list. The four gorillas, which had been rescued from traffickers in various parts of Congo's rebel-infested east, were flown by helicopter on Tuesday (April 27) from Goma to the Kasugho Sanctuary in North Kivu province. “If you use vehicles, there is a great risk of losing the animals because they are traumatised. We used aircraft because we really wanted to reduce their stress level,” Benoit Kisuki, Conservation International's country director, told Reuters. Kisuki said the air transfer was part of a wider project to combat the illegal trade in baby gorillas, which has intensified in recent years with the proliferation of armed groups and constant insecurity in eastern Congo. “The objective is to reintroduce them in their natural environment,” he added. The gorillas are often caught, trafficked and sold for thousands of dollars on the world market as exotic pets. Others are killed and sold locally as “bush meat”. The research centre in Kasugho has developed a two-hectare (4.9 acre) area where scientists can monitor young gorillas as they prepare to be released into the wild. Six other individuals, currently under protection in Rwanda, are due to be flown in on June 10 to “socialise” with the first group and “form a family of 10”, Kisuki said. The gorillas could be a valuable asset for the future economic development of east Congo, after the animals became a major tourist attraction in Uganda and Rwanda, raising several million dollars in revenues. There is no accurate data for eastern lowland gorilla populations. But Congo's gorillas have weathered years of warfare in the east and more than 150 rangers have been killed trying to protect the area's five national parks from poachers. A U.N.-backed report last month said gorillas may become near-extinct in Africa's Greater Congo Basin by the mid-2020s unless action is taken to stop poaching and protect their habitat. added by: ctv

Disaster: Oil Washes Ashore in Louisiana

An oil spill that threatened to eclipse even the Exxon Valdez disaster spread out of control with a faint sheen washing ashore along the Gulf Coast Thursday night as fishermen rushed to scoop up shrimp and crews spread floating barriers around marshes. The spill was bigger than imagined – five times more than first estimated – and closer. Faint fingers of oily sheen were reaching the Mississippi River delta, lapping the Louisiana shoreline in long, thin lines. “It is of grave concern,” David Kennedy of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, told The Associated Press. “I am frightened. This is a very, very big thing. And the efforts that are going to be required to do anything about it, especially if it continues on, are just mind-boggling.” The oil slick could become the nation's worst environmental disaster in decades, threatening hundreds of species of fish, birds and other wildlife along the Gulf Coast, one of the world's richest seafood grounds, teeming with shrimp, oysters and other marine life. Thicker oil was in waters south and east of the Mississippi delta about five miles offshore. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/04/29/louisiana-oil-spill-gets_n_556444.html added by: jeffissleeping