Adventures of the Blue-eyed Bear

At the writing of this post the oily ooze is coming ashore near the mouth of the Mississippi River. Of the BP spill, David Kennedy an official at NOAA said “I’m frightened. Its very very big and the efforts that are going to be required to do anything about it are just mind boggling”. They say it may be a worse spill then the Exxon Valdez. The BE Bear thinks it will be the Valdez and Katrina/Rita rolled into one and it will make the Gulf Coast a dead zone for years to come. Especially if the well can’t be shut off for months.

The response by BP and the Government was of course inadequate. And it will always be so, until  humans get it in their heads that they and all life are connected and that what happens 20 or 30 or 100 miles off-shore is as if it is in their own backyard. The Ocean can no longer be considered “other” and used as receptacle for human waste.  The Blue-eyed Bear demands that all world governments work together to clean the oceans. They can start by removing the trash rafts in the Atlantic and Pacific and then work to diminish dead zones. The Government (the people)  need to be on the spot when things go amiss and demand the strictest safety procedures and most stringent clean up measures.

But for now, at this moment, as birds and fish and shrimp and oysters and turtles and sea mammals begin to die a great cry goes up in recognition of enormous suffering! Lord their burning the Ocean! What must they do next to stave off their destruction?!

As of today the 27th of April the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico has been reported as covering 18,000 square miles and growing. Seen from space, it is expected to hit the coast of Louisiana and West Florida this Thursday of Friday. What a tragedy!! The Blue-eyed Bear is not in Gulf waters, but she can imagine what its like for all the fish, and porpoises, and whales, and sea turtles, and squid, and any creature who lives in the deep ocean to be covered with oil. Once again Americans/humans make their choices and  seem little concerned until the mess they make hits them where they live and give birth.

The BE Bear sees this tragedy as a precursor of what could happen in her birth place, that is the coastal plain of  ANWR the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, if oil drilling is allowed on that section of the north slope. Oil Companies drone on about how safe is their drilling technology. But all it takes is one drunken sailor (Exxon Valdez) or one ship to sink (Great Barrier Reef ) and an environment is ruined for decades, if it is not sullied forever. Modernity is coming at to high a price and it has nothing to do with health care. Maybe Americans need to rethink their coastal drilling policies. Nay, they won’t give up their SUVs and supersize trucks and computers. The BE Bear can only cry! What will happen to all the birds when this oil reaches the shore. What of the lives of the Spoonbill and the Ibis and the Anhinga.