Marta Williams Blog

for advice on how to go on with normal life in the face of the Gulf of Mexico oil volcano, the worst environmental disaster in our lifetimes. My response was, you can’t go on with normal life now. This event has changed everything. It is not clear just yet whether all of the Gulf will die, nor how far this nightmare will spread. What is obvious is that it is not even marginally being addressed and there is a complete media blackout: people are just not being told the truth.

Note – I will be posting an update to this blog this coming Friday with the latest on the Gulf.  So check back Friday August 13th to read the lastest.

Here is a video taken by an environmentalist, of the true situation.

Here is a link to a blog by Dahr Jamial, and excellent independent journalist, who is in the Gulf now telling the truth about the situation:    http://dahrjamailiraq.com/toxic-dispersants-near-gulf-harm-humans-and-wildlife

And here is a clip of a 5th generation shrimper talking about the BP coverup and the early massive fish die off that was scrubbed out of the press and off the internet.

 

What to Say

This blog took me forever to write. I had to think a lot about what to say and how to say it. I know it is hard to realize how messed up the US government is. Hard to stay connected to this unbelievable nightmare. Hard to comprehend the massive implications. Hard to feel so useless.  Hard to handle the grief. But we really have no choice. It is not going to go away. And if we don’t do something it will only keep getting worse and worse and worse. I also wasn’t sure how much to put in here, as some of the information is a hard to believe, maybe not the best sources… but in the end I put most of what I believe critical that I have found. You can sort it out for yourselves.

The Scope of the Problem 

First you have to recognize that the US federal government and BP are conducting not only a massive coverup but are consistently acting or failing to act, in ways that make clean up and containment of this disaster impossible.  For example, both EPA and BP knew from the start that Corexit was a deadly poison that would kill marine lfe and break up and sink oil, making it impossible to collect and clean up, yet BP is still pouring Corexit into the Gulf unimpeded by EPA. Here is more information on Corexit:

http://www.propublica.org/blog/item/In-Gulf-Spill-BP-Using-Dispersants-Banned-in-UK

http://campaign.constantcontact.com/render?v=001xE0bk2lrgCrNuo8x6wjlcb7VRPzwaGLpowWjK_-37zoqkRit7omqWDVwyLiaOnwfk9YI_JV4PaYOEeIuPlw3QbZoc4bCECOE0eIhztbjAjI%3D

http://activerain.com/blogsview/1691154/worldwide-protests-corexit-congressional-hearings-crisis-scandal-day-54-of-the-oil-spill-debaclehttp://www.examiner.com/x-33986-Political-Spin-Examiner~y2010m6d30-Whistle-blower-to-testify-on-oil-spill-worst-fearBP-deliberately-sinks-oil-with-Corexit-as-cover-up

http://theintelhub.com/2010/07/04/deputys-traffic-stop-for-bp-raises-questions/

BP and the Feds also knew from the start that there was a way to contain this oil using supertankers and they flat out refused to do it. They have refused help from 17 countries and made absolutely no move in 78 days(as of the date of this blog)  to get even one supertanker to the Gulf. This oil never had to go beyond the site of the drill collapse.

See these articles on a similar event in Saudi Arabia that was contained:http://www.aolnews.com/nation/article/could-cleanup-fix-for-gulf-oil-spill-lie-in-secret-saudi-disaster/19476863Now BP is burning the oil, adding massive amounts of carbon and toxins to the atmosphere, polluting the air and the migratory flyways, and ensuring that Corexit and oil will rain down on land… who knows how far and wide. This will kill aquatic life on land and contaminate water systems. Hurricanes will drive this mess inland. The rivers of sunken oil are on their way to Florida in the Gulf Stream and will go around the world killing as they go. Millions of migratory birds will die when they come to the Gulf in the Fall. And now peole are now getting sick from the volatile vapors from the oil, from the Corexitand from the gases coming up with the oil, including benzyene, methane and hydrogen sulfide. There is talk of having to evacuateThe government just issued a rule that people, including journalists, can’t photograph or get near areas where there is oil or dead and dying animals. If they do they will be charged with a felony and fined 40,000 dollars.See this report from CNN

and another report from a journalisthttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/georgianne-nienaber/facing-the-future-as-a-me_b_634661.htmlSo on top of everything else they have suspended our constitutional right to know the truth about what is happening.

 They Are Not Acting Normally

This is not just bumbling BP idiots and ineffective, indecisive government.  Everything BP and the Feds have done has made the disaster spiral into a catastrophe that is now threatening the Earth  –  and they knew it would.  See the following stories about how this has been purposely mismanaged.See Mother Jones areticles about the scam shore clean up. BP is hiring excons (800+) because they are the ony ones willing to sign a nondisclosure and agree not to wear protective equipment.http://motherjones.com/rights-stuff/2010/06/grande-terre-dolphin-towels-bp-cleanuphttp://motherjones.com/rights-stuff/2010/06/BP-cleanup-mole-more

Seventeen countries offered aid, tankers, expertise… and the Feds, Obama refused them.

Watch investigator Greg Palast talk about how BP was responsible for the Exxon Valdez spill

If the Feds and BP  had gotten supertankers to suck up the oil from day one it would never have gone beyond the drill site.  If they had not used the Corexitthe animals of the Gulf would not all be dying. Now we need hundreds of supertankers to deal with it. But this was ALL preventable.


The Really Weird Stuff

Following the stocks and the money leads to some interesting turns, (unfortunately this is a sort of weird source but facts are facts).

http://clareswinney.wordpress.com/2010/06/10/vatican-official-tied-to-bp-goldman-sachs-and-media-censorship-in-the-oil-fiasco-increasing-evidence-of-foul-play%E2%80%8F/

Info on who is involved in BP  and behind the scene players  and events (again a sort of weird source but facts are facts)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u6TEtRpQ4zU

There is a lot about the rig failure and the unusual events surrounding that, such as that Halliburton( whom I wouldn’t trust with a bag of garbage) “worked ” on the rig the day before it blew.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/energy/oilandgas/7844854/BP-informed-of-leak-by-worker-weeks-before-oil-spill.html

http://www.abovetopsecret.com/forum/thread576565/pg1

So if this were actually done on purpose and not just due to bumbling, cost-cutting idiots,  then the question becomes, Why?  What is the motivation? There are a number  of contenders. One idea I have heard is that the oil companies  dont want to permenantly close any well as that would limit further access to drilling and having wells. Also with a dead gulf it becomes moot whether to drill or not… as in what the hell its dead anyway. It’s also clear from BPs past that they do not spend money on cleanups and will do anything to avoid spending money on clean up. I just found out that Corexit destroys the fingerprint of oil so putting it in the oil as it came out of the well meant that no one could chemically track the oil back to that well… All this just death- of a whole piece of the world – just to avoid any criminal liability….. In addition to money made by various players selling stock before hand, NOLA, the company that makes Corexit (and also does water purification services, how convenient) is making billions. Halliburton, with Boots and Coots,  is raking in the dough. I’m sure Goldman Sachs has found some way make more money off this.  Other theories – just reporting them not subscribing – include a scheme to use the dead Gulf to grow algae biofuel and make billions. And  the idea of buying real estate in the Gulf really cheap and then making a fortune in 10 years or so when the oil settles or is bioremediated or whatever… I have also heard the idea that this is about population control.   I really don’t know about any of these hidden agendas. I only know there has to be one or more hidden agendas. Normal people act normally. BP and the Feds are not acting normally. They have some kind of agenda. They are not moving to stop or significantly diminish this earth-threatening situation. This is not normal.

Is This Our Fault?

I keep on seeing people comment in the blogs, guilt tripping others about using their SUV or flying to the Gulf to help and using up fuel, etc. I just read a blog by Lynne MacTaggart where she talks about this tragedy being necessary to our evolution, and admonishes us to live differently and evolve a society that doesn’t depend on oil. 

Wait just a minute there… People don’t want oil. We want the Earth to be green and safe and healthy, but every attempt made by environmentalists to get to renewable energy has been killed by the oil, coal and nuclear industries.  We thought we had a champion in Obama but he has proven to be a liar and a total sellout - one of the most discouraging events American progressives have had to face in our lifetimes. We almost had alternative energy it in the 70s with Carter who was poised upon his reelection to take the country solar. Instead the oil companies staged the Iran Hostage Crisis, killed Carter’s chance at reelection, got Reagan in and 45 minutes after the inauguration, the crisis evaporated. Reagan took all the solar panels off the White House, Big Oil had their king, and they have never looked back.

But is  there a lesson, some mirror in this for us to see and understand? Yes I think so, but its not the knee jerk one that everyone is touting. The lesson is that we have become passive and compliant. BP and the Feds can do what they want with us and our precious Earth and we just let them do it. We have abandoned action  and gone into denial. Partly its because the internet keeps us isolated physically so we don’t meet up an do joint action. Also we have becomescared of fighting, scared of the consequences, and and we hide this fear with rationalizations about how we should only be in support of things never against them ( I would personally like to shoot every copy of The Secret out there!). How do you think women got the vote, slaves were freed, child labor was stopped,  fair labor practices were won? People fought long and hard to make these things happen; some people died in the process.

Make no mistake this is about revolution not evolution. We won’t be able to evolve a society that does not depend on oil,  we will have to wrest one out of the hands of the monopoly corporations and their lackeys in the world governments. That is not to say that manifesting and energy healing cant help. Say Dr Emoto’s prayer by all means. Heal and manifest away, I’m doing it too. But we will have to actually do something to oppose this to turn it around, and we will have to be smart about it. And please don’t buy the New Age drek being circulated about the animals in the Gulf being happy to give their lives for us so we could see how bad oil is and how we have to change. How self-serving! As far as I can see that is just another form of denial, a way to justify this disaster and put up a wall against feeling the grief.

Feel the grief. Cry for two weeks straight night and day like I did for every dolphin, turtle, whale, spoonbill, pelican, plover, and laughing gull that has died a tortuous death. Then pick yourself up and figure out what you personally are going to do. I can only give you ideas. I have lots of them.

Is This Fate?

Well, there is that angle …. it’s in the Bible and the Hopi prophecies, about the sea turning black and many dying. But if you say to yourself, “Oh its just fate”, then where are you? Stuck in a nightmare and doing nothing to shift it. If you believe even a tiny bit that you can shape reality then you have to get off your duff and do something to shape this one because it will arrive at your doorstep soon if it’s not there already.

Well Then What Can We Do?

I’m  going to tell you what I have done so far……I asked for help from -  the Universe, Spirit, every dead relative and dead animal who might be out there in Spiritland and willing  to help –  to come help me find the ways to turn this around, to help the Earth. Then I just went with every idea as it came to me. I set up a group site on Facebook called Gulf Oil Disaster Support Circles where you can go to get updates, share info, and learn how to form a support group. The idea of the support group is to find a few other people and meet by conference call or skype or in person weekly to share info, brainstorm, do energy healing and manifesting, and support each other in taking action for the Gulf. Go on Facebook, join the group and tell all your friends to do the same.  I researched day and night to figure out what the problem was and why nothing was getting done. I then tried to figure out how to do an end run on BP and the Feds since they are actively obstructing clean up. Doing an end run would mean actually effecting some kind of remediation or clean up in spite of them, which might embarrass them into doing something and or could just be a peoples’ movement that supplants the Feds and BP. I thought it would be great if local governments and residents just start doing bioremdiation on the coastlines without waiting for permission… just DO IT. I have been working to connect with some groups locally to get a bioremediation project going, so people can see how it works.  One of the big problems  in doing bioremediation with fungi and microbes is the lack of oxygen. Bioremediators are going to have to find a way to oxygenate because Corexit and methane eat up oxygen. This is important: Bioremediation can detoxify Corexit. It will be the only way to get rid of that poison from our Earth. I also connected to an activist group  who are spearheading a Gulf  activist group, http://www.gulfemergencysummit.org/and encouraged them to make ending Corexit one of their top demands, which they have done. I am waiting to hear from EccoBella. They had a blog entry about how the guy who helped clean up the Saudi Gulf is now helping local shrimpers learn how to go suck up oil and they are working on somehow getting some big ships in… this would be a great end run too. I am working to connect with scientists and maybe get a coalition to come out against the Feds, demanding action.  I continue to write letters to the editor and call Congress. And I’m doing this blog for you to send out to as many people as you can.

You can take the same first step I did… commit to finding what you can do personally to help stop this nightmare. Ask for help from Spirit and then start following the hits and hunches that come to you. Share them with all of us on the Facebook site or make comments to this blog.

A lot of these actions are for people in the US but some can be done even if out of the US. For example, getting the truth out there. There is a press blackout in other countries too so get the truth out there. Send this on , write letters to the editor. Demand that your government do something… the oil will be headed to Europe soon…..

Sign True Majority, Moveon.org et al”s pledge to reform our government – we have to get big money and big monopolies out of our government. 

http://www.standfordemocracy.com/ratify/?=TM

Know anyone in the Gulf area? There is grant money to pay farmers to flood fields for the migratory birds coming to gulf in Sept. If you know anyone in the area contact them and get them to contact farmers to tell them to do this. Also send them this blog.

http://articles.latimes.com/2010/jun/29/nation/la-na-migratory-birds-20100629

Boycott

I’m not sure  boycotting BP makes sense. But I think boycotting as a tactic can be highly successful. Rainforest Action did it to get companies to buy only sustainable hardwood products and succeeded in just a year. Here’s a project for someone…. do the research to find out what we could boycott that would hurt NALCO or hurt Goldman Sachs, or somehow find a tender spot that we could use to leverage for real cleanup to commence.  Anyone up for doing some research? A boycott can be a worldwide action too.

Write letters to editor of major newspapers about any and all of these issues (again do in other countries too):

Possible Topics:  call for end to corexit, demand the US  let the 17 nations who have offered help out. demand the US  bring in 100s of tankers, start bioremediating, take BP out of control, restore rights to citizens to go see the damage and  freedom of press to document it, prosecute BP and seize their assets. Demand that this clean up be run by the best minds, best experienced people (which is not the coast guard and BP) we want professors, engineers, inventors people who have innovative, cant hurt might help ideas on how to stop the flow, and collect and remediate the oil.

Call your Congress people weekly and demand the above. Be incensed, get mad. Get a few friends to go withyou and make an appointment to go to your congress persons  local office and meet with them or an aide about this. If in another country go to your government officials and demand that they do something … this is headed your way eventually. Make demands.

Keep informed and share your info. I will be updating the Facebook site with the best stuff I can find and you can share your info on the Facebook site. If you don’t have Facebook, pick some of the above sites you liked to check regularly and also try http://www.huffingtonpost.com/  and http://bpoilslick.blogspot.com/

And now a word about protests…We need them, and big ones, and lots of ones, and all over the world and over and over, until we get our Earth  and our lives and our democracy back. Whence came the notion that protests are bad or passe or somehow not evolved? Gobshite.That is what we need now more than anything else. Anger on behalf of the earth and lots of it. That sperm whales cant get mad that they are being poisoned and burned to extinction. The pelicans cant sue to get their marsh back and their babies. We have to act for them. 

Feel free to email me and also pass this along far and wide if you find it helpful. Thanks for all you do for the Earth and the animals.

Tags

action for animals, animal rescue, BP Haliburton Obama Gulf Oil Catastrophe, Practice, your questions

Tags: BP