The Source of Our Despair in the Gulf

Sunday 18 July 2010

by: Dahr Jamail and Erika Blumenfeld, t r u t h o u t | Photo Essay

The Source of Our Despair in the Gulf
(Photo: Erika Blumenfeld)

For the first time in 87 days, little or no oil could be escaping into the Gulf of Mexico from BP's Macondo well. The new capping stack was deployed on July 11 from onboard the Transocean Discoverer Inspiration.

With a new containment cap atop the damaged well, many are hopeful.

But all is not well, after all.

National Incident Commander Thad Allen said Friday that the pressure within the cap is not increasing, as was expected.

Gulf oil clean-up operations. Photo by Erika Blumenfeld

The idea is that the pressure (in pounds per square inch [PSI]) within the cap should balance out between 8-9,000 PSI, which would show the well has maintained integrity. BP hoped to reach 9,000 PSI, but stated that well integrity would be maintained with 7,500+ PSI. Unfortunately for BP, if the pressure tops out below that level, as it is now at 6,720 PSI, this could be an indication of a sub-sea leak somewhere deeper inside the well casing, meaning the well has failed. One concern associated with this lower pressure is that it may indicate that the well has been breached, and that oil and gas are leaking out at other undetermined points.

Given BP's proven propensity towards lying, skeptics - who are consistently needed to keep BP's rhetoric in check - are also pointing toward other factors that could mean oil is continuing to spew into the Gulf near the well.

"With the pressure now virtually level at 6,700 [psi], it's at the lower end of the ambiguity range, so it seems there is a good chance there is leak-off," writes the Daily Hurricane. "That makes a lot of sense to me since there [are] 1,200 feet of open hole from the bottom of the 9 /7/8" liner to TD at about 18,300 feet. That's not to mention possible casing damage up hole. Think of it like a garden hose with a nozzle on the end. As long as the nozzle is open, the hose looks fine. As soon as you close the nozzle, the hose will leak through any pinholes or around the faucet as pressure builds inside. In his statement late yesterday, Admiral Allen indicated they were probably going to go back to containment, which means they'll be flowing the well to the various ships they have on station."

Like virtually every other aspect of BP's oil catastrophe in the Gulf, we'll have to wait and see how bad this really is.

On Monday, we took a flight out to what is referred to now as "the source": the former site of the Deepwater Horizon rig. It's taken me this long to be able to write about what we saw, because it was, frankly, traumatizing.

Oil sheen and sub-surface plumes of oil were visible long before we arrived at the source, located approximately 45 miles off the southeast coast of Louisiana.

In what has been a consistently maddening theme of our trip, flying out to the source found us viewing countless oil platforms, and in some cases, drilling rigs, all of which comprised the oily backdrop of BP's disaster.

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The stench of the oil began to infiltrate my nose and burn my eyes long before they arrived at the source. Black oil clouds lurked below choppy blue seas in every direction as a virtual cityscape of ships and drill rigs loomed on the horizon. They appeared to rise out of the Gulf as we approached.

We were cleared to fly at 1,500', well below the FAA mandated 3,000'. My stomach sank as we began to bank to our right, starting the first of countless clockwise circles around the war-like scene.

A giant flame - the burning off of methane and benzene - roared off the side of a rig, leaving a chemical gas floating lazily to the south as it rose.

Cory, our young pilot, flew us directly through this cloud. The plane shuddered in the turbulence. I felt sick and dizzy after one breath, and with each future pass I held my breath, all through the entirety of the southern portion of the circle, to avoid chemical exposure.

The scene felt like death - an epic example of manmade destruction, damage, and mayhem let loose upon the earth.

It is as unnatural a scene as one can imagine. That the Gulf, its marine life, ecosystems, and all the life that depend upon it are not under constant assault from this catastrophe is unthinkable.

As our small plane perpetually banked to the right, Erika shot hundreds upon hundreds of photos of this terrible scene.

While staring at the appalling scene scudding by below us, I scribbled notes like:

Death in the blue
Oil makes blue Gulf appear like cancer-ridden areas
Couldn't look more unnatural
Burning eyes
Trouble breathing
Gulf looks bruised

The thick, humid, chemical-laden air astounded me. I wondered about the health of the hundreds of people down in the ships, working around the clock to try to stop the volcano of oil.

After we'd taken as many photos as we could, our eyes sufficiently burning, we all agreed to head back towards the coast. The flight was long enough, hovering over countless wells and platforms, for me to ponder what our dependence on oil is costing the planet.

We diverted our journey to fly over the Chandeleur Islands, to see yet more chaotic booming, oil-burnt marsh, sheen and threatened birds.

Adm. Thad Allen warned of too much optimism towards the cap. "It remains likely that we will return to the containment process using this new stacking cap connected to the risers to attempt to collect up to 80,000 barrels of oil per day until the relief well is completed," he said.

I find it interesting that he, BP and President Obama have all cited this capacity to collect up to 80,000 barrels of oil per day, despite the fact that the high-end government estimate of daily flow is 60,000 barrels.

Yet the disaster continues. So far, approximately 1.82 million gallons of total chemical dispersant have been applied, 348 controlled oil burns have been conducted, and if daily flow estimates of 100,000 barrels per day, provided by independent scientists, are correct, 34 Exxon Valdezes worth of oil have already been injected into the Gulf of Mexico.

As of July 14, approximately 572 miles of Gulf Coast shoreline were oiled, a number which does not include cumulative impacts. While most of the oil remains submerged (for now), we already have vast areas of coastline oiled: 328 miles in Louisiana, 108 miles in Mississippi (nearly their entire coastline), 67 miles in Alabama and 69 miles in Florida.

I hope others are as enraged as I am by the ongoing ticker tape of BP's stock price in news reports about the disaster, like this one (hyperlink 'this one' with
http://www.theage.com.au/world/gulf-states-wait-in-hope-as-cap-stifles-disastrous-flow-20100716-10ea5.html) from Friday: "News of the development just before Wall Street's close lifted BP shares. They added $US2.74, or 7.6 per cent, to close at $US38.92, still well below the $US60.48 they fetched before the rig explosion."

Why should we give a damn about the value of BP's stock while their criminal negligence is annihilating the Gulf of Mexico?

While the cap-praising, and BP stock value glee continues, biologists recently reported the finding of at least another 300-400 oiled pelicans and hundreds of terns in the largest seabird nesting area along the Louisiana coast.

This finding underscores the fact that the official tallies of oiled wildlife significantly underestimate the broad scope of the destruction. So far, roughly 3,000 oiled birds have been collected across the Gulf, so this finding alone is a significant percent increase.

"This is not like Exxon Valdez, where you had tens of thousands of birds killed all at once," said Ken Rosenberg, director of conservation science at the Cornell laboratory. "It's more insidious because it is literally happening in waves and it's happening over and over again as the birds are moving around."

Friday, Louisiana's St. Bernard Parish government reported that there have been at least 31 oil sightings in parish waters and on shorelines in just the past 48 hours. More oil-soaked birds, both dead and alive, have been reported, and the oil continues to spread. Much of this is happening around the Chandeleur Islands, where we'd already logged the futile booming.

Already, scientists are reporting how BP's oil disaster is altering the food web in the Gulf. On July 14, the Associated Press reported, "Scientists are reporting early signs that the Gulf of Mexico oil spill is altering the marine food web by killing or tainting some creatures and spurring the growth of others more suited to a fouled environment. Near the spill site, researchers have documented a massive die-off of pyrosomes - cucumber-shaped, gelatinous organisms fed on by endangered sea turtles."

The scope and scale of this disaster are impossible to communicate. While flying in giant, arcing circles around the source, I saw nothing but oil in every direction. Jonathan Henderson works for the Gulf Restoration Network. While looking out at the literal sea of oil beneath us, he reminded us that, at the moment, 75,000 square miles of the Gulf are covered in oil.

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Comments

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As always, Dahr's reporting

Sun, 07/18/2010 - 10:58 — Peggy (not verified)

As always, Dahr's reporting is both compelling and informative.

Dahr and Erika, I just

Sun, 07/18/2010 - 11:26 — inL.A (not verified)

Dahr and Erika, I just wanted to let you know that I read your great article, but I'm speechless by what's happening in the Gulf. I just don't have the words to convey my outrage and sadness. Anything I could possibly find to say sounds so trite.

This epitomizes the

Sun, 07/18/2010 - 11:57 — Giovanna Lepore (not verified)

This epitomizes the difference between the indigenous peoples of this land as good stewards and the callous greed and materialism--a total divorce from nature, our common support system-- of the descendants of the European invaders. This is why they came here: to plunder, murder and poison.

god please forgive them...

Sun, 07/18/2010 - 15:14 — kimi (not verified)

god please forgive them... they know not what they do... and bless the innocent people and animals and your beautiful water to health... amen

Oil Well, one could say the

Sun, 07/18/2010 - 15:51 — Vic Anderson (not verified)

Oil Well, one could say the BPerps and their Obamanible pimps have their LYves back, Going FORWARD, AGAIN!

Gives new meaning to the

Sun, 07/18/2010 - 16:28 — Anonymous (not verified)

Gives new meaning to the words 'oily politicians'.

http://www.theamericansheeple.com/specialpublicationdoomsdaytheatre2.html

THis accident has nothing to

Sun, 07/18/2010 - 17:02 — Anonymous (not verified)

THis accident has nothing to do with the current administration. 8 years of the Bush/Cheney/Delay and other unmentionable crippled the regulations, monitoring and tax system that covered the oil and mineral industry giving them free hand to do pretty much what they wanted. These regulations are not passed by Congress but put into play by the agencies under the Administration's blessings, who hired considerable numbers of so called "industry players" to make sure they got what they wanted. I don't think the Obama administration recognized how deep this went until this accident after accident has occurred. Republicans have licked their lips and clapped their hands when they thought they had gotten the last bit of drilling anywhere in the Gulf they wanted. I guess Nature had the last say and now the decision is-to we want a clean natural environment for the future of our children or do we want to continue as is...we already know what that leads to and its not over.

With the oil flow up the

Sun, 07/18/2010 - 17:13 — Anonymous (not verified)

With the oil flow up the well pipe stopped, the basic laws of hydraulics apply to the whole well system which includes the source of the oil. The pressure is equalized at all points in that system. For the engineers to expect a certain pressure and to make their judgments on that expectation seems like a very narrow view. How do they know what is going on in that system of oil and rock. They did not create the pressure; they tapped into it. They may never now why they get the pressure they do read or whether it is "good or bad".

It is so important to get

Sun, 07/18/2010 - 17:32 — Katie Jacob (not verified)

It is so important to get credible, first person reporting.Your description is heart wrenching. Thank you for doing this.

I would like to see all of

Sun, 07/18/2010 - 17:57 — Anonymous (not verified)

I would like to see all of the wells halted, BP being the worse case scenario...does not alleviate the problem. CHANGE HAS TO BE ON THE HORIZON...
if not now...then when?
People will adjust! Shut the ba$tards down! Enough is enough.

Now that BP got the oil

Sun, 07/18/2010 - 17:58 — Anonymous (not verified)

Now that BP got the oil gusher capped, thanks anyway God, You are off
the hook, You can stop trying to come up with a solution. All the
prayers and bargaining and remorse felt by many people can be put aside
and we can all go back to our wasting way of life. Hey, all those
animals are dead now, right?, so the harm's already done, why should we
inconvenience ourselves further?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?

Sun, 07/18/2010 - 18:27 — Anonymous (not verified)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b2RxIQP0IBU

This is a very informative

Sun, 07/18/2010 - 18:47 — Anonymous (not verified)

This is a very informative report .... thank you ever so much

I've read with dismay many

Sun, 07/18/2010 - 19:14 — DakotaMark (not verified)

I've read with dismay many articles about the disaster in the gulf. This one is singular in that it provides little acknowledgment of the fact that the well is finally capped but, rather, focuses on the consequences should the latest attempt to stop the flow of oil proves unsuccessful. Tests are ongoing and it is clearly a time for reasonable people to wait for the results before declaring that the sky is falling and shouting, "Liar, liar. Pants on fire."

The story and photographs are intended to appeal to the emotions and little else. The brave author, photographer, and 'young' pilot flew through a 'chemical gas?' All gasses are chemical gasses. What kind of gas did they expect? All matter is made of chemicals. Are Truthout editors unaware of basic science?

The ordeal of flying over the area was so traumatic that the author could not write about it for days? Perhaps the journalist might limit his reporting to stories about petting zoos and kittens rescued from tall trees by firemen.

I think there is considerable consensus that the oil spill is a very serious problem caused by extremely lax regulation and the greed of the oil companies involved. Fluff pieces such as this one do nothing to address those issues.

Dahr Jamail's reporting, and

Sun, 07/18/2010 - 19:24 — Anonymous (not verified)

Dahr Jamail's reporting, and Erika Blumenfeld's pictures give me hope, because their work is going to hopefully have an impact in delivering the truth to the American people, let alone the rest of the world. Lying is a powerful weapon, but Dahr and Erika are breaking the sound barrier of silence. If I did not have their wonderful work to read, I would not get up in the morning. The lie is all over the place now, and it's time to rethink the way we humans live, or we will be floating dead in the water.
Mike Hastie Portland, Oregon

Revelation 9:6 "And in

Sun, 07/18/2010 - 20:25 — Anonymous (not verified)

Revelation 9:6 "And in those days shall men seek death, and shall not find it; and shall desire to die, and death shall flee from them."

The deputies at Torrance Courthouse had a game they liked to play with inmates... inmates still assumed innocent until proven guilty. They typically chained everyone together and stranded us on our bus (with motor running) in the enclosure of the underground parking. As the heat and concentration of exhaust fumes increased, eventually we wondered if someone had snapped and decision had been made to kill us all off.

I bet that's how the folks on the Gulf coast are feeling as they inhale breath after breath of foul air with suffocating heat and humidity.

Have "they" decided to kill us? If the question still remains unanswered in some peoples' minds in light of murder of over one million Iraqi's and hundreds of thousands of our soldiers sickened and killed over the years by everything from Agent Orange to Depleted Uranium, I ask- "What size piano are you waiting to fall on your head before you conclude YES...THEY ARE KILLING US!"

Indeed, "they" are toying with us like a cat with freshly captured mouse. Some people get off killing in stages, savoring the suffering of victims, dismayed that the dead feel nothing...and what pleasure is there in one's prey not suffering, eh?

Now my question is simply why none of the supposed hot shot Rambo killers in any of our armed services or government alphabet agencies has to date still failed to make impotent folks like Tony Hayward...liars and killers like George Bush and Barrack Obama, eh?

Bob Dylan Multi Million

Sun, 07/18/2010 - 20:31 — Anonymous (not verified)

Bob Dylan Multi Million Dollar Plagiarism Law Suit Censored By Mainstream Media

Few artists can lay claim to the controversy that has surrounded the career of songwriter James Damiano. Twenty-two years ago James Damiano began an odyssey that led him into a legal maelstrom with Bob Dylan that, to this day, fascinates the greatest of intellectual minds.

As the curtain rises on the stage of deceit we learn that CBS used songs and lyrics for international recording artist, Bob Dylan. Bob Dylan’s name is credited to the songs. One of those songs is nominated for a Grammy as best rock song of the year. Ironically the title of that song is Dignity.

Since auditioning for the legendary CBS Record producer John Hammond, Sr., who influenced the careers of music industry icons Billy Holiday, Bob Dylan, Pete Seger, Bruce Springsteen and Stevie Ray Vaughan, James has engaged in a multimillion dollar copyright infringement law suit with Bob Dylan.

http://jamesdamiano.yolasite.com/

All so eager to point a

Sun, 07/18/2010 - 20:40 — H H Felsted (not verified)

All so eager to point a finger at BP. Stop and think about why BP exists. Do you drive a car? I do. Those of us who do are equally responsible. We complain when gas prices rise. We resist gasoline taxes. So tell me honestly - who is responsible for this disaster?

Not being an “expert” in

Sun, 07/18/2010 - 20:50 — Chris Lugar - author, The Incredible Dream Computer (not verified)

Not being an “expert” in any of the sciences, I have no right to speak about any of the ongoing circus-like events taking place since the humanly induced eruption of an undersea oil petroleum volcano in the Gulf of Mexico in April. I do like to think I have common sense. What consistently fills me with a morbid fascination is how many so-called experts in any number of fields think they not only have such a right, but also know what they are talking about. Seismology has only been a science for a few hundred years, but earthquakes were not systematically catalogued before the early 19th century; and none of the instruments of that era worked very well. Now they do, but literally, only ex post facto. Some say Copernicus was the father of geology five hundred years ago, but modern geological radiometric dating was only discovered as a tool in the early 20th century; but it’s not good enough to date the Shroud of Turin. Although ancient mariners knew of the world’s ocean currents, and Benjamin Franklin was the first to scientifically study the Gulf Stream and name it, scientific investigations of the world’s oceans did not begin in earnest until England’s Royal Society conducted a global exploration of them in the late 1871. Still, according to some experts, less than 90% of the ocean floor is accurately mapped, and less than 3% of that information is in the public domain.

The point I am trying to drive home is that despite all our efforts and posturing to allude otherwise, we know next to nothing about everything. We certainly know least of all about how opening fissures, holes, and, cracks in the earth’s crust to tap into reservoirs of ancient stored sunlight in the form of petroleum will affect the equilibrium of geological, oceanic, and biological strata in the long-term. We already know how adversely, toxically, and dangerously the practice of extracting petroleum from the earth is affecting many overlapping earthly systems. The truth is, though, nothing we know or can model can predict or determine the outcome of our exploration of earth’s long-hidden secret lifeblood a hundred years from now, or even fifty. All of our science cannot predict earthquakes. It cannot tell us precisely how much the earth’s average temperature will rise in a month, much less a decade. It does not know how much petroleum removed from the bowels of the earth it will take to reach a tipping point of no return in our desperate race to find more, or for that matter, if doing so could somehow be upsetting a great equilibrating balance of geological lubrication upon which earth’s crust, tectonic plates, and superficial integrity might depend.

Some experts tell us that petroleum contamination will ameliorate itself with little effect on the environments it poisons. Some say those environments will never recover. Most disheartening in matters of how such catastrophic issues are handled is the seemingly protracted ignorance of common sense that governs the survival of most people daily, and without which, human error will lead to a swift elimination from the gene pool. I can never accept that globally affective industries, with supposedly the best brains, talent, and expertise – as their public relations "experts" remind us with constant barrages of propaganda – are not removed from our gene pool by way of deliberate and prudent consensus when they act so ignorantly and blatantly against our common sense. Yet we seem to allow for their unfettered conduct in dictating how they will pursue their goals to us, despite every contradiction otherwise. This leads to the conclusion that we, in our infinite ignorance of our own functioning, much less a planet’s, cannot connect the dots between the lines that tell us we stand no chance of surviving ourselves with the mistaken ideology that we can sustain the disassembly in the better part of one century what the earth took millions of years to evolve. It's own HUbris will destroy HUmankind, with little need of any outside help, and predicated upon all accounts coming in around the world with our newly found interconnectedness, without the HUmility to admit we are wrong in our approach to life and living it, much more quickly than we might even suspect.

Would that humans could

Sun, 07/18/2010 - 21:21 — Grandmother (not verified)

Would that humans could offer life in every moment of every day. To all who are not willing to acknowledge our human-caused diseased planet, I feel sorry for you. You risk not understanding what death looks like until you gasp for your last breaths or choke on filthy water. Yes, prayers are necessary! Sometimes the only way humans come to nonviolence is to have the vivid truth of the capacity of violence become a personal experience.

Traumatic experiences alter imaginations, alter energy, alter emotions, and alter productivity, alter families, among but a few results of PTSD. Would that humans could find life in each moment of every day's intention to leave our grandchildren beauty rather than filth and sadness.

My great appreciation goes to the brave journalists who dared to see for themselves, report it, photograph it, and continue to tell the truth.

Obama had nothing to do with

Sun, 07/18/2010 - 22:07 — motamanx (not verified)

Obama had nothing to do with the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. But Dick Cheney did when his secret energy policy of 2001 allowed unregulated, unsafe drilling practices (even in Iraq, where we hadn't yet gone to war).

I rarely respond to

Mon, 07/19/2010 - 05:26 — Chris Lugar - author, The Incredible Dream Computer (not verified)

I rarely respond to individual (HH Felsted at 07/19/2010 - 01:40) comments, but I have to tell you, HH, that your query’s tone is unmitigated by your implication that since everyone drives cars, then EVERYONE is responsible for the loss of lives of the workers who died on the oil rig, the death of untold numbers of wildlife, and the ecological and economic destruction of the Gulf of Mexico. That is exactly why common sense is supposed to help reasonable people determine what we all are responsible for in life. So then, if you wear shoes, you are responsible for corporations opening sweatshops in impoverished countries where their abuses of even child labor will not be detected, right? And if you drink water, eat food, and breathe air, you are the reason why companies cutting corners to save costs to make more profit hide their pollution records, lobby to have regulations protecting people and environments eased to their benefit, and even intentionally allow far more than permissible levels of toxins to be released into habitats around the world? To imply that car drivers should share responsibility for killing eleven workers on an experimental oil rig, which “integrity” and safety was already compromised by its own managerial decisions, is absurdly like suggesting that the residents of an apartment building are just as responsible for the murder of a homeless person picking through the trash in their alley as the murderer... because everyone puts trash there. So telling you honestly, yes, I think BP and its affiliates – the ones that shared in the decision-making to breech protocol, hasten oil production to favor faster profit over safety – are responsible for the catastrophe unfolding, and far from over, in the Gulf. I would suggest that IF alternative energy sources were made widely available, and the severe consequences of continued hydrocarbon fuel use were reasonably but completely explained to the general public, people would choose to drive cars using other sources. But the profit motives and business incentives of anyone making money from oil production and consumption prevent that from ever happening anytime soon. BP, and our government, hid the facts of this life-altering event from the population-at-large, and continue to do so (under threat of penalty and/or imprisonment to those who dare defy the gag orders and restrictions to report it) because they claim they don’t want to scare people. If you have been following the progress of this catastrophic event, you should have noticed that not long after it was apparent that this "well" could not be contained, the talk among media outlets shifted quickly to how it would affect BP's future business prospects. Well, you should be scared, HH. People should be scared. We are witnessing what happens when those whom we entrust to be responsibly conducting business act in the best interests of their own profit, ignoring all else. The balance of the natural world rests in the hands of the decisions they’ve made, and will continue to make in the future. Remember, we, the common people, are not often permitted to see the true scope of actions and events our corporate benefactors commit for our comfort and pleasure. That pertains to sweat shops in Asia as well as to oil rig disasters closer to home. It is the acts of courageous journalists like Dahr Jamail and Erika Blumenfeld, who risk more than their well being to bring us different perspectives of news of such events, that reveal the starker motivations and aftermaths of the entities committing them. As far as I know, it isn’t a crime to wear shoes or drive. It is, however, to violate certain moral and legal ethics and laws governing making shoes and procuring petroleum to fuel cars. The degree of our responsibility is that either we make those committing such crimes, and anyone who acts so irresponsibly in anyone’s name, accountable...or we all start learning how to walk barefoot everywhere.

Welcome to the world of the

Mon, 07/19/2010 - 07:15 — morgan 1 (not verified)

Welcome to the world of the Nigerians and the Ecuadorans! Some articles I have read place the food supply that comes out of the Gulf and the coast at one quarter of the world's food chain. This is a massive hit for the entire world. The Amazon basin in Ecuador has bene destroyed. That applies to the Nigerian land (Water and lives) where oil fields are in place. If the NWO was for massive population elimination, food shortages, well, this is it. Planned or not, the Gulf will never recover and that alone will account for hundreds of thousands losing their way of life as this oily monster sucks up all the living out of the ground and water. This is not the life in envisioned for my children.

Welcome to Louisiana..take a

Mon, 07/19/2010 - 08:53 — Rick Olivier (not verified)

Welcome to Louisiana..take a deep breath, draw a glass of tap water, hope for the best. We've been living with oil and its industry for over fifty years. I grew up in a Shell oil field back when they were safe to hunt and fish in and I'm certain the old timers who ran THAT show are all spinning in their graves over the way BP mis-managed this well and spill. Just keep in mind there is one area right here in the U.S. that's been "third worlded" for a long time now: South Louisiana.

Rick: indeed South Louisiana

Mon, 07/19/2010 - 11:26 — Anonarcmous (not verified)

Rick: indeed South Louisiana is '3rdworlded" by the USA b/c it is isnt the Hamptons or WDC, or NY or SF-- old nimb rule. & Hayward & BPco go back to Britain, or Switzerland= all locations where there is A LOT of regulation to keep everyone safe.

Thank you for your

Mon, 07/19/2010 - 12:31 — Ruth M (not verified)

Thank you for your reporting. It's important. I'd like to to change one of the words in your story, however, from oil, to fossil fuels (...for me to ponder what our dependence on oil is costing the planet).

On Friday night I watched the new documentary "Gasland" the winner of the 2010 Sundance Special Jury Prize. It's details how the natural gas industry, exempted from the Clean Water Act and Clean Air Act in the 2005 Energy Policy Act via the "Halliburton Loophole". is poisoning water and air in the US through an extraction method called fracking. It's an excellent film that I highly recommend viewing, www.gaslandthemovie.com.

I have no answers, but think it is critical to educate ourselves, then organize, lobby, protest, write letters, etc, to make positive change. Or maybe we're just doomed to extinction because we couldn't be bothered.

Thank you, motamanx, for

Tue, 07/27/2010 - 14:28 — Frances in California (not verified)

Thank you, motamanx, for invoking the nightmare visage of Cheney the Monster, with his dungeon full of Energy Task Force vampires. Too much blame heaped on President Obama; not enough accountability demanded of Cheney and his fossil-fuel-industry oligarchy.