Rant for Booming-- mitigating the damage from oil blowout

Why O why aren’t we really Booming? Mitigating the oil blowout in the Gulf of Mexico

I heard this as an audio and was galvanized.

There are things I know well, like Afghanistan, and disaster response (like refugee camps, post hurricane response) & on those subject I fing that watching people (us) do them poorly is an outrage, a pain, & a catastrophe. Like Katrina or the Afhgan war-- I shout at the television is despair and disbelief. The pain and frustration is unbearable. In fact, on those subjects I sound a lot like Ms. Fishgrease.




What I want to know is if it is too late to do good booming and if not what exactly is being done.

In case the suggestions or questions I have go past too fast in the video I have restated them here. Let me know if you have suggestions. I can only imagine how heartbreaking it would be to watch NOTHING happening as the oil rises on the gulf.

Based on what we hear here from this video, it sounds like there is a job we can do:
a. Get the experts to tell us what to do at this stage about booming & any other ways to mitigate the exposure to and effects of oil on the living things in the water and on shore.
b. Get boom made and delivered. If it really matters we can get the women and the equipment. Can we make more of it with sewing machines, a standard pattern, and the right “material”? If it is money-- get money and then watch it like a hawk.
c. Help in whatever way to get it in place, keep it right and use every means possible to monitor the process. Use google earth, airplanes, boats, word of mouth, radios, and real science.
d. Best I’ve found so far is called "skytruth”  Follow the oil catastrophe via Gulf Oil Tracker 
e. Maybe this is nuts and its too late. If so, tell us. But, tell us if there are other ways we can chip and do things that matter.
f. The Coast Guard is meant to guard our coasts. They should do that, we should demand that.

Our hearts go to all lives connected to the gulf of Mexico.  I've made a gallery of photos from there and add it it every day.  Hearts to the gulf

I for one would be willing to be a boom-tender.  Hopefully I would be better at it than making videos but, in both cases I am trying to improve.

Sharon

The Gulf is Your Fault -- A Story

I heard this story by Mark Fiore while listening to Best of the left podcast. It has a Grinchlike feel with humor and sharpness. I've been modifying various childrens songs with "relevant" content, so beware there may be more to come. But, Thanks to Best of the Left. This fits under "I wish I had written it" and "it only hurts when I don't laugh". We picked the Florida burrowing owl to compliment the Dr. Suess style.

I found this Entry by Kathy Gill at "the moderate voice" and thought she did a great job.  Thus, I am including it as-is with links to the original. 

At a certain point I carry the discussion towards photographs from the Gulf Coast in honor of the time we spent there, the people and all we have to lose.

This Is Not A Spill by KATHY GILL in Politics.  Jun 18th, 2010 

Words Matter.

ThisIsNotASpill.org seeks to change the framing used to talk about the BP explosion in the Gulf of Mexico on 20 April 2010. Here it is, almost two months later (18 June 2010) and media are still describing this disaster with the word “spill” in both stories and headlines.

This is not a spill.

A spill is what happens when your toddler knocks over a tumbler of milk.
A spill is what happens when you turn over that bucket of soapy water while washing your car. It’s not what happens when you leave the water hose running for days. Or weeks. Or months.
A spill is what happens when a fixed quantity of fluid accidentally escapes its container.
Connotatively, spills are small.

The BP blowout is neither small nor fixed in quantity. Nor is the oil encased in a container, unless you think of the earth as a container. And by that definition, a volcanic eruption could be considered a spill!

There is a more precise noun that describes what is going on almost a mile below the surface of the ocean, 40 miles off the coast of Louisiana: blowout.

A blowout, in the words of the OilGasGlossary, is “an uncontrolled flow of gas, oil, or other well fluids.” To substantiate my claim that we should be using “blowout” not “spill” to describe this disaster, recall that the exploratory well  blowout preventer, “a large valve that can seal off an oil or natural gas well,” failed. Blowout preventer failure = blowout.

This is not a spill.

It is a blowout.

And the sooner that the media begin using the true name to describe this disaster, instead of an innocuous euphemism, the more likely the enormity of the event — and what it means for our seemingly insatiable demand for energy — will permeate our collective conscious.

The author details things we can all do to reduce our consumption of oil in individual life-size increments and large community and national increments. Lets try them all. You can check out her suggestions at:  Ideas to reduce oil consumption

I aim to remind us also of what we are losing in wildlife, natural beauty, and culture. A memorial in photos and writing to the Gulf Coast. An apology to all who live along those shores whose lives have been brought into another screeching chaos of uncertainty.

Words are important, and so are pictures. We all own this.



This is the Atchafalaya swamp in Louisiana, the largest inland swamp and basin in the United States. They are working hard to figure out how to minimize the amount of oil into the area and to do all they can to prevent damage. As Don Shoopman the Senior News Editor at the "Daily Iberian"
said
My heart would stop if oil flowed into and past Morgan City into the heart of the Spillway.

(June 17, 2010)

To see more pictures of the gulf coast --- follow the link to the gallery.

Gallery in honor of gulf coast residents of all types

We have just started and will share updates and links.

Sharon

Share your thoughts on ways to inspire action and to reach out to those that live in the Gulf coast states and need to know we stand with them