* Tweet of the day from @TheOilDrum: “As we said weeks ago, BP should run this like Mission Control @NASA – not like an exclusive country club function.”
* Now following WDSU reporter Scott Walker’s blog. He verifies (with video proof) that media presence is deterred at clean-up sites by “security” despite orders to the contrary from above:
Today we visited Grand Isle beach to check on things there and one thing stuck out. Too many chefs in the kitchen. Just yesterday, BP CEO Doug Suttles said cleanup workers were free to talk to the media. He basically said all the instances of reporters being hassled was a misunderstanding. Today I asked the private security guard at the beach if I could talk to the workers. He said no and those were his orders, given to him by his boss.
* Keep at it with the oiled-bird cleanup and support for it, despite those who promote their own ethics through junk science. (Not to mention the poster and commenters who argue for bird euthanasia because clean birds make BP look good and help sell Dawn detergent. F**ked up.) Read the International Bird Rescue Research Center’s report on the post-release survival of oil-affected seabirds. “Birds can be successfully rehabilitated and returned to the wild, where many survive for years and breed.” And AND even if a small percentage of the gene pool is all that ends up making it, the cleanup efforts are worth it. We have to have tried.
One of D’s colleagues spends her Mondays as a bird cleanup volunteer down in Plaquemines Parish. There is nothing more in the world I would like to be doing right now, but all I can do from far away is cough up the dough to help keep them going and encourage you to volunteer and donate as well.
