Over a year after the BP oil disaster, many Gulf Coast residents have been reporting serious health problems.

In the wake of BP’s oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico, countless Gulf Coast residents have been made sick by what they believe to be chemicals from BP’s oil and toxic dispersants.

Their situation is made worse by BP not paying out health-related claims, despite the oil giant’s promises to “make things right” and “make people whole”.

To read more about their situation, click here.

Click here to see this photo gallery on Al Jazeera English…

As oil, sickness and contamination persist, Gulf residents and lawyers file thousands of lawsuits against the oil giant.

“If you got caught humping another woman – [if] you’re both naked and caught in the act – you’d want BP to explain to your wife how it didn’t happen.”
This colorful analogy was proposed by Dean Blanchard, a seafood distributor on Grand Isle, Louisiana, to explain oil giant BP’s continuing machinations to evade liability in the aftermath of the April 2010 disaster.

During a recent discussion in his office, Blanchard told Al Jazeera that the fishing waters off Louisiana are only producing one per cent of the shrimp they formerly produced. “Half of the local fishermen have shut down,” he stated. “They are dying. And [as] for the fishing, every day they are hauling dead porpoises in front of my place. I have a claim filed with BP, but none of us in the seafood business are being paid.”

Click here to read the rest of this article on Al Jazeera English…

Two Louisiana beaches were closed to the public after Tropical Storm Lee uncovered huge tar and oil mats

In April 2010, BP’s Macondo well explosion leaked oil into the Gulf of Mexico, causing one of the worst environmental disasters in US history.

Now, over a year later, problems continue. On September 13, 2011, Al Jazeera investigated an announcement that two public beaches, Fourchon Beach and Grand Terre Island Beach, in Port Fourchon, Louisiana, were closed to the public by BP for undisclosed reasons. Al Jazeera was escorted to the Edward Wisner Land Donation, a land trust where most of the oil was found, along 16km of beach.

Upon examining Fourchon Beach, Al Jazeera found that the recent Tropical Storm Lee had eroded the top sand away, leaving evidence of massive tar and oil mats that have been buried under these beaches since the summer of 2010.

Click here to see the photo gallery on Al Jazeera English…

Many people living near the site of the BP oil spill have reported a long list of similar health problems.

Just weeks after BP’s oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico began on April 20, 2010, Fritzi Presley knew something was very wrong with her health.

The 57-year-old singer/songwriter from Long Beach, Mississippi began to feel sick, and went to her doctor.

“I began getting treatments for bronchitis, was put on several antibiotics and rescue inhalers, and even a breathing machine,” she told Al Jazeera. The smell of chemicals on the Mississippi coastline is present on many days when wind blows in from the Gulf.

Presley’s list of symptoms mirrors what many people living in the areas affected by BP’s oil spill have told Al Jazeera.

“I was having them then, and still have killer headaches. I’m experiencing memory loss, and when I had my blood tested for chemicals, they found m,p-Xylene, hexane, and ethylbenzene in my body.”

The 4.9 million barrels of oil spilled into the Gulf last year was the largest accidental marine oil spill in history, affecting people living near the coasts of Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and Florida.

Compounding the problem, BP has admitted to using at least 1.9 million gallons of toxic dispersants, which are banned by many countries, including the UK. According to many scientists, these dispersants create an even more toxic substance when mixed with crude oil.

Dr Wilma Subra, a chemist in New Iberia, Louisiana, has tested the blood of BP cleanup workers and residents.

“Ethylbenzene, m,p-Xylene and hexane are volatile organic chemicals that are present in the BP crude oil,” Subra explained to Al Jazeera. “The acute impacts of these chemicals include nose and throat irritation, coughing, wheezing, lung irritation, dizziness, light-headedness, nausea and vomiting.”

Subra explained that exposure has been long enough to create long-term effects, such as “liver damage, kidney damage, and damage to the nervous system. So the presence of these chemicals in the blood indicates exposure”.

Click here to read the rest of the article on Al Jazeera English…

Al Jazeera spots a swath of silvery oil sheen near BP’s crippled Macondo well in the Gulf of Mexico.

Over one year after a BP oil well in the Gulf of Mexico leaked, causing one of the worst environmental disasters in US history, oil continues to surface on the water near the damaged well.

On September 11 Al Jazeera reported and photographed a silvery oil sheen, about 7 km long and 10 to 50 metres wide, roughly 19 km northeast of the well.

Click here to see the photo gallery on Al Jazeera English…

Fresh oil seepages raise questions about further problems with BP’s damaged oil well.

Fifteen months after BP’s crippled Macondo Well in the Gulf of Mexico caused one of the worst environmental disasters in US history, oil and oil sheen covering several square kilometers of water are surfacing not far from BP’s well.

Al Jazeera flew to the area on Sunday, September 11, and spotted a swath of silvery oil sheen, approximately 7 km long and 10 to 50 meters wide, at a location roughly 19 km northeast of the now-capped Macondo 252 well.

According to oil trackers with the organisation On Wings of Care, who have been monitoring the new oil since early August, rainbow-tinted slicks and thicker globs of oil have been consistently visible in the area.

“BP and NOAA [National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration] have had all these ships out there doing grid searches looking at things, so hopefully now they’ll take a look at this,” Bonny Schumaker, president and pilot of On Wings of Care, told Al Jazeera while flying over the oil.

Schumaker has logged approximately 500 hours of flight time monitoring the area around the Macondo well for oil, and has flown scientists from NASA, USGS, and oil chemistry scientists to observe conditions resulting from BP’s oil disaster that began in April 2010.

Edward Overton, a professor emeritus at Louisiana State University’s environmental sciences department, examined data from recent samples taken of the new oil.

Overton, who is also a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) contractor, told Al Jazeera, “After examining the data, I think it’s a dead ringer for the MC252 [Macondo Well] oil, as good a match as I’ve seen”.

Click here to read the rest of the article on Al Jazeera English…

The day arrived in tones of deep grey, the sun barely able to penetrate the thick low hanging sky. The air, moist and briny, showed no hint of the approaching northeast winds, which would reach the island by nightfall. The sea glistened slick metallic silver, mirroring the hues above, and seemed almost impatient for the rough swells that were advancing toward us across the Northern Atlantic.

My sleep was restless and undulated with the sea as our ship tossed about through the night, moored at the edge of North Rona. Fixed on the 59th latitude this small remote island sits 44 miles north of the Butt of Lewis, flanked only by Sula Sgeir, a smaller islet 11 miles to the southwest. An array of lush vibrant green and deep golden grasses cloak the top of the sheer dark cliffs, and brilliant yellow lichen illuminates nearly every rock surface, vivifying the stark grey with animate softness.

After a breakfast of honeyed porridge and milky black tea, I gathered my gear for a day of hiking the island. As the Zodiac carried the first of us to the craggy shoreline one began to sense an echo of solitude and timelessness, a feeling that persisted throughout the day.

The bones of Rona are made of gneiss rock. A mixture of quartz, mica, and feldspar this metamorphic rock formed 2.5 billion years ago. I found myself wishing it were possible to unravel the verbose scroll within the strata, and read the long story of this old chain of islands that have been weathered by the strong northerly winds and the fierce touch of the North Atlantic for millennia. The rock, twisted and dense, fragments into almost uniform geometric shapes as it breaks away and cascades into the oceans edge. Meeting there, the island and the sea bond in an ageless and seemingly unending dance of elements.

Stepping onto the dark rocks, I began to explore the island. Walking about the perimeter, across the landscape, and crawling through the tall grasses, I sketched the flora and fauna with my camera like a naturalist. At the edge of one cliff, I discovered a vibrant colony of Atlantic Puffins. With an expression of innocence and curiosity, these wondrous creatures have the most unexpectedly comical flight. Legs splayed wide, bright orange feet spread flat and used as if parachutes, they move through the air as if for the first time, and stumble onto the ground as they land. Although clumsy on land and in flight, they are supremely proficient swimmers, and will dive to extraordinary depths to hunt. With eyes that are surprisingly gentle, if a bit worried, the Puffin catches its prey, small sand eels, and neatly lines them all up in its beak with heads on one side and tails on the other.

Though teaming with insects, birds, seals, and marine life, North Rona is no longer inhabited by humans, and is a designated National Nature Reserve. Known as the remotest island in the British Isles to ever be inhabited, the last resident was apparently removed in 1844, although the years between 1680 and then saw very few people. Hamish Haswell-Smith’s book, The Scottish Islands recounts that beginning in the 8th century there lived a Norse/Celtic community that endured on the island for about 700 years. An entirely sustainable community, the islanders were especially conscientious of their population, not wanting to drain the island of its natural balance, or threaten precious life sustaining resources. Though the centuries have worn them back to the ground, the island is covered with their ancient stone circles and long meandering stonewalls, which are flanked by the fallen skeletons of their small stone structures.

Catching my breath on a verdant summit, having traversed the steep southerly hillside, I looked out toward the sea to the north. Far below me lay the island’s largest stone circle, clearly visible by the yellow lichen that traced its perimeter. Feeling drawn to the mysterious sacredness of it, I climbed down the steep northerly slope and walked across to the headland’s edge where it lay. Something subtle stopped me just at the edge of it, and I rested there, still and silent, not wanting to disturb what lay within it. The thought occurred to me, should I be here?

The people from the time of this stone circle, some 1300 years ago, were mindful of the need for balancing their growth in order to sustain their environment, a balancing act our current world could benefit from. Our world population is set to exceed 7 billion in October of this year, according to the UN, and we are devouring resources and altering ecosystems beyond what our wisdom knows is healthy. Yet is my own participation in this that which kept me from entering the ancient stone circle? I have flown a third of the way across the world to see this place, leaving a carbon footprint behind me that makes my stomach turn. Unsettled by the complexity of wanting to document these lands that are in clear peril from climate disruption to raise awareness about them, and the stark reality that each time I do I contribute to the problem, I walk around the circle, tracing the footsteps of shadows.

As the day waned we all gathered back to the boat for dinner and storytelling. The summer light at this northerly latitude persevered across the horizon, not yielding to blackness until almost midnight. By then, we were well out of sight of land, sailing a rough sea in 30-knot winds in a stormy moonless night. The boat jostled about, as did my thoughts on my first shift of watch during our night passage, and I wondered at the fate of North Rona as sea levels rise and as storms and wind become more intensified. The ancient peoples of North Rona perished within a year after the arrival of the foreign black rat, which landed on the island after a shipwreck and quickly devastated the balance of their habitat. Reflecting on this, I placed the headphones attached to the undersea microphones on my head and listened to the sound of sperm whales echoing to each other from across the vast fluid distance. Their song seemed to tell of the ocean’s own shifting balance, and I continued to ponder this long into the blustery night.

It’s time we secure a future without coal in New Mexico, across America, and around the world. It won’t be easy. Along the way, we will need a lot of help, creativity and inspiration.

While we draw strength from each other, our movement to end coal and save our planet from climate change also honors the millions of people viciously poisoned and ruthlessly exploited by the relentless, destructive impact of coal. From infants and children to adults and our beloved elders, the litany of coal’s negative effects is brutal and it’s growing.

Coal mining, coal transportation and coal-fired electricity generation are widely recognized to increase rates of asthma, emphysema, lung cancer, heart disease, stroke, neurological damage in children and infant mortality. The more we learn, the worse it gets. Everyday, tons upon tons of CO2, ozone, nitrous oxides, sulfur dioxides, particulate matter and mercury—all from coal, exact a staggering price in blood and sorrow.

Of course, these terrible health threats from toxic pollution are not the whole sad story. Coal is also a primary driver of human–made climate change—the defining global environmental challenge of our age. The production cycle of coal is a cycle of death. Coal threatens our loved ones, our friends and our planet—all of us.

Despite the grave threat climate change poses to the planet and the future of human civilization, 2010 saw the highest recorded emissions of greenhouse gases in history—thirty billion tons of energy–related carbon pollution. By the way, thirty billion tons equals sixty trillion pounds. Half of this pollution came from coal.

Obviously, global climate change is an enormous and complex problem. Scientists are still just beginning to understand the impacts on health, biodiversity, economies and food supply. We’ve been trying to address climate change for at least thirty years, yet carbon pollution continues to increase. No doubt, it’s easy to get discouraged and be confused about what to do.

Remember, change starts with one person, one act. Our struggle to end coal is built one person at a time, but the power of one becomes the power of many. Creating a future based on democratic and equitable principles is within our reach.

While we have to keep our eyes on global solutions to this planetary challenge, we also have to find ways to take action locally and find solutions everyday, right here and right now.

PNM’s Sooty New Mexico Story

In my home state of New Mexico, the poison and devastation of coal has a name and that name is PNM (pronounced pee-en-em). New Mexico’s largest utility is addicted to coal. Remember a moment ago I mentioned that half of the world’s carbon pollution comes from coal. Well, half of New Mexico’s carbon pollution comes from PNM.

PNM’s pollution habit is having a dreadful impact on our air, land and water; our economies; and our survival. PNM has racked up more than sixty thousand air quality violations—sixty thousand pollution violations at our expense!

The pollution levels coming from PNM’s coal plants are among the highest in America. Just one of these plants, the San Juan Generating Station produced more than 8.5 million tons of carbon air pollution and consumed more than 9.3 billion gallons of clean water in 2010. PNM must be held accountable for causing more than half of all of New Mexico’s carbon pollution and devastating toxic emission for local communities. According to the Environmental Protection Agency the San Juan Generating Station is the 18th highest NOx emitter (nitric oxide and nitrogen dioxide) out of the 496 US coal plants.

The nexus of coal, water management, climate change and drought is especially important in America’s southwest. New Mexico, as well as parts of Arizona and Texas, is currently in the midst of a catastrophic drought. In recent weeks, the skies outside my home have been thick with smoke from wildfires raging out of control in all directions: from fifteen miles away near the Santa Fe Ski Basin—the Pacheco Fire; to thirty five miles away just outside Los Alamos National Laboratory—the devastating Las Conchas Fire, the largest fire in New Mexico history; to two hundred miles away, the largest wildfire in Arizona state history—the Wallow Fire.

PNM’s outdated coal–fired power plants waste billions of gallons of clean water each year. Coal is the single greatest contributor to climate change that pushes New Mexico deeper into long–term drought. Drought destroys the economic value of New Mexico’s crucial agriculture and ranching sectors and wildfires destroy the economic value of New Mexico’s significant tourism industry. PNM’s coal plants are also increasingly reckless, short–sighted and volatile investments. Thus, PNM’s coal addiction pushes New Mexico’s families and businesses into an economic hole that just gets deeper and more desperate.

New Mexico is seeing the disastrous consequences of climate change sooner and more clearly than many other US states. PNM is sacrificing the health and livelihood of New Mexicans, right now and far into the future, at the throne of coal.

PNM tells us that we must have coal to have electricity in New Mexico. That is a lie. PNM is addicted to coal because they think it makes them more money today, and they don’t need to care about tomorrow. Money means more to PNM than a child with asthma, a sky full of smog, or a legacy of drought, wildfires and economic failure.

Here are some questions that all have the same answer:

Why New Mexico, the state with the second highest solar energy potential in America, has almost no solar power generation?
Why are the working lives of New Mexico’s dilapidated, antiquated coal plants being extended for another thirty years while dozens of similar, old coal plants are being closed across America?
Which company paid its top twelve executives huge, ninety–three percent bonuses from 2008 to 2009, right in the middle of the worst economy New Mexico has seen in sixty years?
The answer to all these questions is PNM. Despite all the scientific and economic facts, coal is a habit that PNM simply cannot break on its own.

Of course, the pain and destruction coal brings to people and the planet is not a natural disaster. There are men and women who are doing this to us and they have to be held accountable. The leaders of PNM have earned our scorn for years of reckless business practices that prey on public health, destroy the environment and stifle innovation.

PNM could not maintain its course of malfeasance and greed without the enthusiastic help of so–called public officials who sell the public trust for campaign contributions—officials like New Mexico Governor Susana Martinez. The Martinez administration has become the mouthpiece for PNM in their shared drive to overturn and undermine every environmental safeguard they can get their pollution–stained hands on.

Here’s the deal. PNM took thousands of dollars of the money it gets from ratepayers—families and businesses in New Mexico. They took this money from us and they gave it to Susana Martinez as a campaign contribution to help her become the governor of New Mexico. Now, Governor Martinez is doing whatever PNM asks her to do, so they can make even more money from New Mexico ratepayers. The Governor’s newly appointed Environmental Improvement Board has just rubber stamped PNM’s plan to keep polluting.

This is payback for political contributions masquerading as public service and it is an outrage!

There is a wave of coal plant closings in the US and tragically PNM is moving in the opposite direction: In its current rate case before the Public Regulation Commission (PRC), PNM is raising rates by 18% and extending the life of its coal plants, despite public opposition. This means that while other utilities are retiring their coal plants and investing in renewable energy resources, PNM is reinvesting in dirty coal, with our money. The company presents its supply of coal–fired energy as “low–cost” to the PRC and that is the end of its shortsighted analysis.

New Energy Economy’s Fight Against Coal

Together we can end coal in New Mexico. Together we can create a just and equitable energy system, stop the poisoning of our environment, and do our part to save our planet from disastrous climate change. That is our mission at New Energy Economy (NEE). We take a more holistic long–term view—we want to have competitively priced energy that is also safe, reliable, and responsive to public concern. That means instituting aggressive energy efficiency and installing renewable power systems. This will create jobs and reduce pollution.

New Energy Economy led a two–year effort to create New Mexico’s landmark carbon pollution reduction law. This law, adopted in 2010 requires facilities discharging more than 25,000 tons of greenhouse gas pollution to reduce emissions by 3% per year with a goal to reduce this pollution 25% below 1990 levels by 2020. The Petition before the Environmental Improvement Board went in strong with stellar expert testimonies that addressed the urgency of climate change and its impact on New Mexico; the feasibility of implementing the 5–page regulation; and the economic, health and social benefits of acting now to curb carbon pollution. Further, there was a significant effort to coordinate with diverse constituencies and partner organizations to produce compelling public testimonies.

Hundreds of people state–wide testified vigorously and passionately: Mark Starr, a Veteran, spoke of climate change as a national security concern; Miguel Santistevan, a Taos farmer, Mayordomo, and PhD candidate, relayed stories from the ground: of seeds not sprouting and birds not coming to pollinate as a result of the changing seasons and temperature; and Tina Garnanes, a Navajo student, described the effects of pollution in the Farmington area—living in the toxic shadow of the coal plants. There were solar power employers, a strident and fervent team of youth change makers, people of faith, a Republican for the Environment, green business owners from Silver City, Albuquerque and Las Cruces, doctors, a local radio celebrity and many more. The fabric was multi–colored and multi–layered and convincing. Lisa Donahue, an assistant art teacher at Santa Fe Art Institute, delivered her spoken word and brought three lawyers to tears. Here are a few of her lines:

We have no choice but to look inside and retrieve our own powers
We must think in solar
We must think in wind
We must think in circles
For if we do, there is no end.

Winona LaDuke, an environmental activist, Harvard-trained economist, and educator aptly forecasted, “You could either be in the back seat of the bus and let everybody drive the choices, or you could make the choices ahead of time and ensure that you have a strong economy.” Rick Sprott, Director of Air Quality under Republican governor Huntsman (Utah) said, “The rule is among the most effective and efficient strategies I have seen to address global warming and climate change—the most complex yet compelling environmental problem of our generation. The results required for New Mexico under the proposed rule is what the science demands and could serve to drive national policy makers to act on the larger stage for global results.”

This carbon reduction law enables effective and procedurally efficient carbon pollution reduction that is legally durable and lays a crucial policy foundation for clean energy job creation and related economic growth. We have engaged and defeated major polluters and their lobbyists in the state Supreme Court and Legislature to maintain New Mexico’s hard–won carbon pollution reduction law and prevent the rollback of other vital environmental protections.

New Energy Economy actively engages, educates and activates thousands of New Mexicans to effectively advocate for pollution reduction, renewable energy and job creation. We need to swell this interdependent movement. Together we will defend our right to clean air, water and land. Please visit our web site www.newenergyeconomy.org to see how you can get involved in our different initiatives.

We are back in the New Mexico Supreme Court, again, because PNM and Governor Martinez’s new Environmental Improvement Board seek to overturn our carbon pollution reduction law. We succeeded in getting this law passed last year, now we must use the same creative chutzpah to push for its implementation, against PNM and Governor Martinez who seek only short term profit at the expense of our life and health.

Notes on Photographs: An album of 6 photographs of coal–fired power plants, coal’s health impact, and solar energy in New Mexico can be seen here. Three of the photographs are by artist and Guggenheim Fellow Erika Blumenfeld. She made the photographs specifically to support New Energy Economy’s campaign to end coal and we thank her for sharing these photos with us. This album was specifically prepared to accompany this piece.

Doctors in the Gulf attribute deaths and illnesses to harmful dispersants used in the clean-up effort.

Many of the chemicals present in BP oil and dispersants are known to cause headaches, nausea, vomiting, kidney damage, altered renal function, and irritation of the digestive tract.

Dispersants were used after BP’s oil disaster that began on April 20, 2010, when an explosion killed 11 workers, spilling at least 4.9 million barrels of oil into the Gulf of Mexico, and causing the largest environmental disaster in US history

Further health problems linked to dispersants include stomach discomfort, liver and kidney damage, unconsciousness, tiredness/lethargy, irritation of the upper respiratory tract, hematological disorders, and death. Many of the chemicals are mutagenic, terratogenic, and carcinogenic.

Pathways of exposure to the chemicals are inhalation, ingestion, skin, and eye contact.

Al Jazeera has talked with dozens of sick people across the Gulf Coast who attribute their illnesses to chemicals from BP’s oil disaster.

Mike Robicheux, a doctor in Louisiana who has been treating scores of people he says are being made sick from BP’s toxic chemicals, told Al Jazeera: “This is the biggest public health crisis from a chemical poisoning in the history of this country. We are going to have thousands of people who are extremely sick, and if they aren’t treated, a large number of them are going to die.”

Click here to view the photo gallery on Al Jazeera English…

Residents, fishermen and scientists believe that living on the coast is hazardous to their health.

Many locals argue that living in close proximity to – and eating seafood from – the Gulf is risky and disagree with federal agencies’ claims that the Gulf is now safe.

In response to their oil disaster last summer that released at least 4.9 million barrels of oil into the Gulf of Mexico, BP admitted to using at least 1.9 million gallons of widely banned toxic Corexit dispersants (which have been banned in 19 countries) to sink the oil.

The dispersants contain chemicals that many scientists and toxicologists have warned are dangerous to humans, marine life, and wildlife.

Oil, and what many Gulf residents believe is a residue generated by the effect the dispersants have on BP’s oil, continue to wash ashore.

Chemist Bob Naman with the Analytical Chemical Testing Lab in Mobile, Alabama has been testing seafood samples for chemicals from BP’s oil and dispersants, and told Al Jazeera he has not tested a sample yet that was not contaminated.

“I’m scared of what I’m finding,” Naman added, “This is an unprecedented environmental catastrophe.”

Click here to view the photo gallery on Al Jazeera English…