Friday, June 4, 2010

Visualizing the BP Oil Disaster





I lived in this area for 30 years and loved it.  I'm now in New Jersey and looking at returning the place that has my heart, the Bay Area of San Francisco.  

Why did I put the map of "my" soul home?  Because I think of what would happen if such a disaster like the Gulf Oil Kill struck.  If you click on the link below, you can see exactly how large of an area would be affected if this kind of preventable tragedy struck my "soul" home.



You can plug your area and the map will readjust to show you exactly how it would look in a place that you love.

My heart breaks for the entire eco system in the Gulf that is being impacted, from people to animals to plankton.  I feel so helpless and just cannot imagine what it is like for everyone and everything that is being so horrifically affected.

5 comments:

Karin Bartimole said...

this is just so heart breaking - I don't think i can even go to my map. when the news came on this evening, showing the brown pelicans encased in oil, I simply broke down, unable to feel any sense of helpfulness. My mother lives in the panhandle of florida and just got trained in the clean up. It was a four hour 'training' via BP, covering about 1/2 an hour of material on how to pick up tar balls in the sand - but everyone was told specifically to leave all animals alone, just report them if they are seen. No one was told how they could be or should be helped. Lots of light hearted laughter, joking and sickening behavior, according to my mother. She left with her badge and a deeper sense of sadness than when she went in, hoping she was going to be able to help her home... I just don't even know what to think. I know I don't want to visualize the BP disaster - but I don't want to bury my head either. So I send money and desperately hope those who can make a difference truly will.

rebecca said...

i feel forlorn.
dismayed.heartbroken.
i grew up in san diego and the ocean was my refuge. being in that blue green water...among the giant kelp, sea birds, swimming out to watch the dolphins. so much soul filling perfect beauty in the natural world...

i cannot bare to look at the suffering of these creatures. they have no idea how they have all been betrayed.

and i feel so responsible for their suffering because i am part of the species that is so full of greed we would not consider responsible action over monetary gain. (not part of that thinking or practice but part of the humankind) i am not sure we deserve the "kind" part of our name.

i can only pray this will lead to a REAL wake up call. please tell me the era of corporate greed will be replaced with accountability.

i fear though...we have gone too far, too long without care and responsibility.

it is friday, this disaster has no end in sight and i am sorrowful.

Delphyne said...

Karin - bless your mother for being available to help in this horrifying situation. To leave the animals alone is heartless - BP should be training people how to help or paying the animal groups that are available and trained to help these suffering creatures. But BP has shown its colors and it is heartless, cruel and removed from this disaster that they caused.

You have way too much going on now, so don't visualize the disaster. Visualize the health of the region as you are doing for yourself. Each one of us does we can do and that is good. xoxo

Rebecca - I know of your love for the Pacific. It is like mine. The Gulf needs our love now more than ever - and those suffering creatures need everything we can do to offset the betrayal that so many humans have foisted upon them.

Yet, there are those of us within the species that kills without reason that are different, that do care and at some level, that does offset the damage. It may be a small offset, but it is something. And I feel it is growing - a good growth unlike the malignancy of corporate growth.

We do what we can and that is what we can do - and it is good.

xoxo

Unknown said...

I think of "my" Puget Sound when I watch the news. We don't have off shore oil drilling - but if drill baby drill people are in charge it will be only a hop skip and a jump away in the gulf of Alaska .... and the "loop current" is just another word for that's the way the water flows. It's All So Sickening.

Delphyne said...

Thanks, Kimmie - "your" Puget Sound is a beautiful place and I hope it is never defiled. And, thank you, too, for the artwork you are creating about the life forms in the Gulf. I hope you turn these paintings into a book - I'd sure purchase several of them!

Good to "meet" you!