Monday, April 22, 2013

BP SLICK IN NEW ZEALAND!

IT'S OFFICIAL FOLKS

Your Hurricane Creekkeeper in New Zealand??!!


Hurricane Creekkeeper on Hurricane Creek, Photo by Ken Robinson
As your Hurricane Creekkeeper I've had the privilege of being the advocate for one of the most beautiful places on Earth, Hurricane Creek. Kenneth Robinson will be standing in as Your Hurricane Creekkeeper while I am away. Let Ken know if you see anything that needs attention... kennethrobinson1@netzero.com (205-310-0995)
Through my involvement in groups like the Citizens Coal Council and Waterkeeper Alliance I have become associated with some of the worlds most passionate water advocates.
Waterkeeper Alliance in Baja
Part of being your Hurricane Creekkeeper is the ability to capture evidence and present it in a way that is both passionate and not sensationalized. What I see is sensational enough without making it bigger than it is. That process has taken me to some of the largest man-made disasters in history. I took my cameras to Kingston Tenn. to document the coal ash pond disaster there with my sister Waterkeeper, Donna Lisenby.
Donna Lisenby, Upper Watauga Riverkeeper  documents dead fish
We were given the bums rush out of the river by TVA goons with trucks, boats, and helicopters! You would have thought we had committed some heinous crime instead of collecting evidence in what was at that time the largest spill of any toxic material into a river in American History.
We were actually given citations for paddling a canoe and a kayak in a Waterway of The US.

Officer John B. Neal issues citation to Upper Watauga Riverkeeper
John L. Wathen, Sandra Diaz, and Donna Lisenby proudly display our citations
Little did I know then that the Kingston coal ash disaster would follow me home to Alabama in a subtle and devious manner of it's own.

Enter Perry County

The ash was not cleaned up but only transferred to Perry County, Alabama in a whirlwind of toxic issues of it's own.

Then in April, 2010, America suffered another huge man-made disaster in the Gulf of Mexico.

Gulf of Mexico, 05/07/2010
Again, I had a front row seat for the largest man-made disaster in our history! This one was the most dramatic spectacle of callous greed and deceit I had ever encountered. Media was intimidated to a point where they were afraid to report anything. BP had goons all over the place trying to keep the story down using any methods available to stop the truth. I went over their heads, so to speak by using a flight service named SouthWings.
John Wathen, SouthWings pilot, Tom Hutchings, and Industrial Scars photographer, Henry Fair

It has now come to me to put these disasters to good use.

I have been asked to come to New Zealand for a month to work with Green Peace New Zealand.

It will be my honor to meet and greet with environmental groups and tribal elders of the Maori People  to share what I have seen and experienced in both the coal and oil industries in my journeys across America's oil and coal fields.

Follow me on this new and fabulous adventure where I will attempt to put all of this horror story of American Extraction technology to good use informing the people of New Zealand of what can be expected if they allow deep water drilling in their sacred tribal waters.

The wells in New Zealand will be almost twice as deep as BP's Deepwater Horizon, with bigger pipes, and only 3 (THREE) oil response vessels that can't even leave the harbors because they are so small the waves will capsize them. Imagine what will happen if (when) the have a disaster like ours! We had hundreds of boats, planes, people on the ground and "supposedly" well trained responders.

 It is my sincere hope that what happened in the Gulf of Mexico will be a warning to the Maori of what is more likely to happen to their pristine waters than not. I will also be working to start up a Waterkeeper New Zealand program to further support world wide clean water that is Fishable, Drinkable, Swimmable, any where in the world.

You can keep up with my trip and it's success by adding BP Slick to your reading list.

Here's an example of what I have been told to expect...
(turn on the closed captions for English translation)

Monday, April 8, 2013

Babs "Roaming Buffalo" Bagwell, Voice from the Gulf

Babs "Roaming Buffalo" Bagwell, Voice from the Gulf

Babs is from the Isle de Jean Charles Band of Biloxi-Chitimacha, Choctaw people in, Louisiana.

Babs like so many has become an activist out of necessity. Listen to her account of living with big oil before and after the BP, Deep Water Horizon disaster. For more information about the Isle de Jean Charles visit...  www.isledejeancharles.com
 

Sunday, April 7, 2013

Dr. Wilma Subra, Voices From The Gulf

Dr. Wilma Subra, Voices From The Gulf


Dr. Wilma Subra
WILMA SUBRA
PRESIDENT, SUBRA COMPANY
P. O. BOX 9813
NEW IBERIA, LA 70562
SUBRACOM@AOL.COM
Committed to protecting the environment and the health and safety of citizens, Wilma Subra
started Subra Company in 1981. Subra Company is a chemistry lab and environmental
consulting firm in New Iberia, LA. Mrs. Subra provides technical assistance to citizens, across the United States and some foreign countries, concerned with their environment by combining technical research and evaluation. 
This information is then presented to community members so that strategies may be developed to address their local struggles.
 Utilizing the information gained from community involvement, the needs identified are
translated into policy changes at the State and Federal level through service on multi-stake holder committees. She has just completed a seven year term as Vice-Chair of the Environmental Protection Agency National Advisory Council for Environmental Policy and Technology (NACEPT), a five year term on the National Advisory Committee of the U. S. Representative to the Commission for Environmental Cooperation and a six year term on the EPA National Environmental Justice Advisory Council (NEJAC) where she served as a member of the Cumulative Risk and Impacts Working Group of the NEJAC Council, and chaired the NEJAC Gulf Coast Hurricanes Work Group.
Mrs. Subra holds degrees in Microbiology/Chemistry from the University of Southwestern Louisiana. She received the MacArthur Fellowship, Genius Award from the MacArthur Foundation for helping ordinary citizens understand, cope with and combat environmental issues in their communities and was one of three finalist in the Environmental Category of the 2004 Volvo for Life Award. 
I wish to thank Dr. Subra for taking time to make this message available.