The catastrophic damage already having occurred and to occur due to Deepwater Horizon is 
beyond the comprehension and imagination of all but a few. And, for far too many, this is occurring out of sight, out of mind, as we go along our daily lives, get caught up in watching world cup soccer and going to the swimming pool, struggle to keep a job and pay the bills. This catastrophe created, directly, by BP’s seemingly criminally negligent practices and, indirectly, by our oil addictions driving fossil foolish exploration and exploitation is now having visually understandable impacts …
BP Slick is one of the places to go for videos that help illuminate the growing impacts. Posted yesterday, how dolphins and whales are being basted in BP oil. The introductory comment:
This is without a doubt, the most disturbing video I have ever produced.
I saw at least 100 Dolphins dying or struggling to get out of the oil. It was many miles from any water that was not contaminated. In all likelihood, the Dolphins and Sperm Whale seen in this video are dead by now.
We saw this pod of dolphins, obviously struggling just to breath. [6:30]
This pod of dolphins … some already dead, some in their death throes. It seemed to be that they were raising their heads, looking at the fires, wondering why their world was burning down around them? Why would humans do this to them? [7:00]
John Walten’s even tone with his painfully poetic prose discussing what he has seen and recorded stands in such a contrast to the gleeful ignorance of the ‘drill, baby, drill’ crowd who simply wish us to look away from the Gulf and join them in their anti-reality world.
Some of it looks like a child had sprayed silly string all over the surface of the ocean. There is nothing silly about these strings of oil … [2:22]
In fact, the still images of the whale and the dolphins are striking — but simply within the context of the vastness of the challenges and problems and damage caused by the still gushing well.
Rainbows of death that cover the entire horizon … [3:00]
I see these images and think of the “don’t dump oil into the Bay” notices put on top of local sewer drains. The stains on the Gulf make me wonder as to the futility of those individual actions not to dump a quart of oil. How many billions of oil changes has BP dumped into the Gulf of Mexico?
All the fires on the horizon continue to spew toxins into the atmosphere. Now we have this massive fire from hell also putting toxins into the air …
Inflate your tires and improve your gas mileage. How many billions worth of tire inflations is BP burning off?
And, I look at the inferno from directly burning oil and methane drawn from the ocean’s bottom and wonder: isn’t there something better to do with those hydrocarbons? Isn’t there a path to use them rather than flaunt the wastage even more obviously?
Will the Gulf ever be the same again? [5:4o]
No …
This man-made catastrophe i