Friday, October 15, 2010

News from the Gulf

So I recently heard from my friend's deckhand in the gulf and he provided me with an update on what is going on. He told me that most of the surface oil has been cleaned up and that now the challenge is waiting for all the dispersant affected oil to rise to the top. "The oil is at the bottom of the ocean floor (due to the dispersant). Wait until it starts floating again. I say ten years it will take (for all the dispersant affected oil to rise to the top). It's ten times worse than the Exon Valdez"
He also informed me on the mass amounts of people getting sick due to having to handle the oil with the dispersant in it. He said there have been tons of people sick with everything "from breathing problems to staff infections." The news is not good. I asked him why they used dispersant in the first place and he just told me that all the oil field workers had told BP not to use them, but they just would not listen.
I was wondering if maybe it had something to do with avoiding the physical sight of oil (to keep morale up), because when dispersant is used, it is within the water and you can not see it on the top, therefor it makes the whole process look like it is moving faster and being cleaned up faster than it really is?
On a lighter note, I just heard the other day that the marshes of Louisiana are doing alright! And that they have released the Mississippi river to allow fresh water to wash out the bayous. This is definately good news.
So I live in Grand Rapids Michigan and beginning last year we have had ArtPrize, which is a city-wide event where artwork is submitted and hung publically around the city and voted on. This year we had an awesome piece dedicated to the gulf oil spill.

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