These photos are doing my head in. I wonder if they put this bird down after photographing it or if they left it to die a horrible oily death? Or if it was taken to a rehabilitation centre and cleaned up?
I have been trying not to think about the birds in these photos.
All I have heard reported in the media is the failed attempts to plug the leak and stories about police not allowing access to the heavily polluted beaches. Admittedly I don’t watch much television and a lot of my information about the oil disaster is coming from twitter.
So I will ask you my American friends what is happening on the ground in Louisiana? According to reports on twitter the oil has reached Florida.
I clicked over to this site www.ifitwasmyhome.com which was able to give me an idea of the scale of the oil disaster.
I have zillions of words swirling around inside my head but none of them will behave for long enough to come together in a straight line. So I will finish up with a photo of the Wedgetail Eagle that was in my backyard the other day. These birds are critically endangered here in Tasmania and I wonder how long it will be before they are just a memory.
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I don’t know what’s happening on the ground because I am still avoiding the details. It’s doing my head in too, and my heart. xo
I was reading “Panda Bear, Panda Bear, What do you see?” last night with Princess who is not quite 4. All the animals pictured are endangered species, and I wondered how I could explain that to her so she would understand what it meant. And I wondered what I should say if she asked why.
And how many animals aren’t in the book that we should be thinking about? Are there more now?
God, those photos are doing my head and heart in, too.
Many of the birds will die as they are poisoned trying to clean themselves. And I think with those that are rescued and cleaned, the success rate is not wonderful. Horrible.
Kim… I thought the pic in my reader was a rough “blob” attempt of yours in abstract clay… only when I clicked over did I realize it was a real living creature.
I saw these birds on TV last night and they’re in my newspaper today. I wanted to write something too, but words fail me. This is such a crime.
I wrote a huge comment and it didn’t post! Argh.
Anyhow – we are two miles from the Gulf and a block from the intercoastal waterway that runs between the Gulf and our little strip of land. We have yet to see any oil – but I know it is coming despite reports saying there is some underwater continental shelf that should shield us. Add hurricane season into the mix and I have my doubts on how ‘safe’ we are.
We are seeing the same video of the pictures you posted and it is heart.wrenching. Supposedly BP and the local communities are helping the wildlife and cleaning things up as they wash ashore as they are 8 hours north of us in Pensacola.
As for me, my views have drastically changed. Before I was all for off-shore drilling. Anything to save me a buck at the pump. I know. I suck as a human being. But with all this going on – I have reversed course in my mind set and am dead set against it. For me it wasn’t the possible loss of tourism or folks losing their water based livelihoods. For me it was those videos of those birds unable to even move, coated in that oily goo.
So maybe there is hope for me afterall to become more concerned about the world around me. And maybe that will also be everyone elses view too. At some point we have to stop thinking of ourselves and look at the impact we are having on this beautiful planet.
It makes me cry. What makes me cry more is that the people around me don’t understand why I’m crying and that is why this sort of thing will keep on happening over and over and over again. It’s sickening.
That first photo just makes me cry.
Your images of the birds in oil are the first I have seen and they are beyond words.
This is very sad.
Thank you for posting the beautiful Eagle photos.
How lucky are you to have them close.
best wishes
Robyn in Perth
I live on the east coast of Florida .. you know, where there “isn’t” any oil.
How does all this make me feel?
Anger doesn’t even begin to cut it. The oil I step in, though not anything near as horrible as the disaster over in the Gulf .. I’m told can’t POSSIBLY be from the spill. Because BP assures us of this, because our government won’t step in and say otherwise.
How much is spilling into the gulf daily? Ask BP, because it’s only by their word, and no other outside source, that we are allowed to glean information “officially”.
I will say this for the record, and ANYONE is allowed to dispute it, but chose your words carefully, and think about what your saying before you speak; logic people. Logic. Not politics, not corporate B.S.. The damage has already been done. Not for years, for decades. Lifetimes. The gulf is the cradle of life for a LARGE part of this countries sea borne food supply. It is the nursery for not only fish and shellfish but the most basic organisms in the food chain. The birds, dolphins .. those we see. The environment extends so far beyond the surface it’s beyond words.
The oil you see at the surface is nothing compared to what is actually there. The dispersants BP is spraying; not only is it highly toxic, but it’s very nature is to “disperse”. To blend it with the water, regardless of depth.
If the oil doesn’t kill the sea life the dispersant will render them highly toxic.
And that bird. The reality of it … there are so many people .. these costal regions were hit hard the last several years by hurricanes, now the oil has been the second proverbial bullet in the head of an already weak economy. There are few people available to volunteer .. and where does our government funnel money for this disaster? Into the hands of B.P., and not into the communities or rescue efforts.
Most of these birds are photographed because there is money in heartbreak headlines. Ones such as the one pictured above are going to die. That’s the reality of it. With limited resources the ones with a higher chance of survival are going to have first priority, if they are rescued at all.
That’s not to say the attempt isn’t made; but the area is so vast, the numbers so high, the oil so thick (think; waist deep in many places along the coastline) that the birds and wildlife you see are nothing compared to the numbers that are dying alone and unseen in the marshes.
Until an outside source steps in and honestly asses the situation we will never know the half of it.
B.P. tells me there is no oil on my beach. I see otherwise. And right now the baby sea turtles are all still in their eggs under the sand on the beach.
I will not see a recovery in my lifetime. And another thing that needs considering is; with so much unregulated outflow of oil from the seafloor, one should consider the possibility of collapse.
Our house that was 20 miles inland (before we lost it to foreclosure) was only 3 feet above sea level, as is much of south Florida. You do the math.
Sure, it’s worse case scenario.
However; since tourism was Florida’s #1 source of income, and now that’s shot to hell too; my husband was laid off last week. I’m unemployed as well. I’ll be leaving in July, and driving right through this oil soaked part of the world on my way to a new life.
I’m heartbroken. I’ll be taking some time to volunteer with the birds; sadly they don’t have the options I do. I can’t ignore the situation. I’m furious we as people felt entitled to their habitat, and then royally fouled it up; and now we turn a blind eye because we can’t stomach the results. I may have lost a lot, but I still have options, I still have my life.
I’ll let you know how they are.
I’m not in Louisiana or Florida… so I can’t tell you first hand. And I’m trying to avoid the animal oil pictures because I can’t handle it, emotionally.
But it’s flucking terrible. I’m beside myself and it doesn’t seem like most people give a dlamn.
Am at a loss for words. Horrific.
Our class has been watching this video as well as the news every day. We are sad that the birds are covered with oil and they are stuck on the beach. What can we do to help? PLEASE WRITE US BACK…LOVE, ROOM 110
Sometimes it seems humankind is hellbent on snuffing out every last little spark of miraculous life on this beautiful beleaguered planet. Being a part of humankind, therefore I must bear some guilt. It’s truly horrible and rightfully painful to witness.
Could I use one of the pictures of the oil covered birds? Do you own them?
I want to add it to a video I make for repeace.com
Thank you
I am also on FB
repeace
Hi Drey, your email was broken. I got the pictures of the oil covered birds from here.
http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2010/06/caught_in_the_oil.html
cheers Kim