Early results from post-spill studies show lasting damage

(Editor’s Note: this is the second part of a look at the aftermath of the last year’s Gulf oil spill and a Spokane filmmaker’s effort to continue giving attention to the widespread destruction. Read part 1 here.) The Gulf Coast oil disaster is approaching its one-year anniversary, Earth Day Numero 41. The science being conducted on the Gulf Coast, from sociologists and psychologists looking at spousal and child abuse, PTSD and depression, to planners and economic analysts looking at potential long-term effects of this and possibly future oil incidents, is as robust as it can be in an economic schizoid country. The biological-geochemical-microbial science is ongoing, albeit not as spicy or sexy. However, studies are being conducted 5,000 feet down by scientists, including Dr. Samantha Joye, a microbial geochemist from the University of Georgia. She was interviewed Feb. 21 on Science Now, part of the AAAS’s Science Magazine. She went on three dives with the research submarine, ALVIN, in December. She noticed there was no infauna in areas close to and far away from the Macondo oil “reserve” wellhead where hydrocarbons were spilled last summer. With no worms around, where there should have been a profusion every square meter, her team also noticed dead brittle stars and again, no holothurians, sea cucumbers. From unhealthy looking crabs to dead corals, she was not happy with the effects of oil carpeting literally several thousand square miles. “Overall, a very depressing sight but one that made me realize that we have to do a lot more mapping and visit the seafloor around the wellhead with submersibles and ROVs to truly understand which species have been impacts and to determine the area impact,” she said. Having Marc Gauthier appear in town and in the Pacific Northwest, with his documentary, “Gulf Coast Blues: Oil in Our Veins,” as part of a one-two-three punch of film, talk and Q/A might keep young people interested in this topic, one that will never go away since we are addicted to oil and a lifestyle that requires so much hydrocarbon greasing to keep it going. Maybe young people will go into environmental planning, sustainability and science as a result of this Deepwater Horizon polluting event. How about journalism and filmmaking? That’s Marc’s goal when he talks with K12 students and appears at screenings. To put fire in young people’s bellies and fire under the butts of climate change deniers and anti-science/ anti-education lawmakers and voters. Marc’s not hopeful about the amount of oil and energy the world is demanding. Here’s a 2007 daily barrels per country consumption of oil – 1 United States: 20,680,000 bbl/day 3 China: 7,578,000 bbl/day # 4 Japan: 5,007,000 bbl/day # 5 Russia: 2,858,000 bbl/day # 6 India: 2,722,000 bbl/day # 7 Germany: 2,456,000 bbl/day # 8 Brazil: 2,372,000 bbl/day # 9 Canada: 2,371,000 bbl/day # 10 Saudi Arabia: 2,311,000 bbl/day # 11 Korea, South: 2,214,000 bbl/day # 12 Mexico: 2,119,000 bbl/day # 13 France:1,950,000 bbl/day # 14 United Kingdom: 1,763,000 bbl/day # 15 Italy: 1,702,000 bbl/day The world uses more than 32 billion barrels of oil a year, and that figure grows annually, causing governments and energy companies to push deeper into ecosystems and into the lives and harmony of cultures and communities. That’s 1.3 trillion gallons worldwide each year. Whitworth hosts a free screening and Q and A session of Marc’s film March 10, and he and those attending will wrap their arms around the immediate impact of the spill and efforts to clean it up and deal with the fouling of sea’s surface and entire water column; the ocean floor; and marshes and beaches. Plus the fears of residents who already were feeling the miasma of illness and spill mismanagement saturating their lives. It’s going to take years before the studies are completed to understand the full impact of this disaster on the ecosystem. Marc’s film is a peek into the Gulf coastal communities during the implosion of oil, BP mishandling and local and federal government bungling – a day that began with 11 oil workers losing their lives. Earth Day 2010, the 40th anniversary of that global event, is when the oil began to bleed into one of the richest marine ecologies in the world. Perhaps the most important work we have in the environmental/social justice communities is to press President Obama and Secretary Salazar to halt new offshore drilling and create a hands-off policy against BP, Shell and other oil companies from moving forward to drill in the Arctic. This film is the tip of the iceberg, the spark of the unfolding story of the Gulf Coast’s blues. Thanks to the persistence of news groups like ProPublica, the Nation and other news organs, and the work of scientists like Joye, some of us who don’t like the crude-soaked wool pulled over our eyes can still fight any further Deepwater Horizon event occurring in the future, as well as hold oil companies, subsidiaries and unethical government agencies and legislators accountable. As Joye pointed out recently, this is not just an oil spill: “The BP Blowout was a hydrocarbon discharge. The discharge contained 40 percent gaseous hydrocarbons like methane. We converted this gaseous discharge to “barrel of oil equivalent” units and found that the gas component accounted for an additional 1.5 to 3 million barrels of oil equivalents discharged. This increases the size of the discharge by a significant margin, by 30 to 50 percent.” We need to let filmmakers go wild and continue exposing the truths, and we need to fund more science, not less, on this incredible pollution event. We really do not know what damage we’ve done to the bionets and human communities as oil courses through our veins.