What About the Children?

The Gulf oil spill has gotten a lot of deserved coverage on TCD, mostly from a "30,000 foot point of view" - what does the spill look like? Where is it moving? How did it happen? All great questions with pretty disturbing answers.

But what of the economic effects and the ramifications for people who rely on the resources produced by the Gulf and in the estuaries that buffer the coast of Louisiana from the sea? Jim Tripp, Client 9's former boss, has spent the last 36 years working to restore the wetlands of coastal Louisiana. To put wetland loss in that part of the world in context, one football field worth is lost every 38 minutes. Whoa. Last week, Tripp appeared on Charlie Rose to discuss the effects of the Gulf oil spill on coastal Louisiana's ecosystems and the communities that rely on resources - shrimp, crabs, fish - produced by those wetlands.

Here's a quick three minute clip from Tripp's appearance on Charlie Rose...



The full episode is below. As usual, Chucky's show was representative of a diverse set of views. If you have the time, I suggest checking this out.



And finally, for more videos, images of coastal Louisiana and insight into the type of restoration work going on in Louisiana before, during and after this latest calamity, click here.

Hurricane Oil

What are you looking at? Top left is the bird's foot delta of the Mississippi River. The hurricane-esque "cloud" in the center is the oil slick that has developed as a result of the tens of thousands of gallons of Gulf Crude that is erupting daily from the continental shelf into the Gulf's rich waters off the Louisiana coast after last week's catastrophic oil-rig fire and subsequent collapse. It's eerie how much this image of the slick resembles similar satellite images of the last disaster to dominate southeastern Louisiana.