China Oil Spill threatens Coastal Ecosystem.
Our dependancy with oil continues to cost the lives of many. The most vulnerable are always the least likely escape victimes. Amongst them was Zhang Liang, a 25-year-old who was with the Dalian Fire Department when he got trapped fixing a pipe. The situation is worsening each day, despite buffering media efforts. "An estimated 11,000 barrels (1,500 tons) of crude oil swept into the ocean, creating an oil slick that has expanded over some 100 square kilometers. A fire raged for 15 hours before it was mostly extinguished. The clean up process is taking place with booms, skimmers, and dispersants, which themselves are hazardous chemicals whose harmful effects have not yet been fully studied", reports Greenpeace. "When will we cease this unsustainable reliance with oil? How many more victims will have to suffer before we demand that our government hold those responsible accountable"?, says Regenesis president Claudia Rodriguez-Larrain.
Mexico far from clean.
The oil spill in the gulf of Mexico is not an isolated event that we can all walk away from. Local media stations have retracted into "business as usual" by reporting petty crime in our city with a mayoral race that is looking more and more like a fringe festival than something electors should be taking seriously.
Approximately 637 miles of Gulf Coast shoreline is currently oiled: 96 miles in Florida, 362 miles in Louisiana, 109 miles in Mississippi and 70 miles in Alabama.
About 1.84 million gallons of total dispersant have been applied: 1.07 million on the surface and 771,000 subsea. More than 34.8 million gallons of an oil-water mix have been recovered.
The threatened area encompasses the coasts of four states: Louisiana, Alabama, Mississippi and Florida, which contain significant areas of fragile swampland. Any potential damage is likely to be exacerbated by the timing of the event, which has occurred during the spawning season for fish and the nesting season for birds ( CBS, "10 Animals Most at Risk From Oil Spill", Julia Kumari Drapkin, Cbsnews.com).
Marine mammals are vulnerable because they need to surface to breathe and may ingest the toxic oil; many have specific breeding grounds within the Gulf of Mexico. Freshwater alligators inhabit the low-lying coastal wetlands, different species of sea turtles migrate or spend the summer in the gulf, and those sharks which spawn in the gulf are particularly at risk (CBS).
Similarly, the oil can damage the feathers of seabirds, which then cease to be waterproof. The birds may also feed on shellfish which have been poisoned. The Global Post environmental website, reported on CBS (link as above) identified species at risk as including both wading and migratory bird such as warblers, buntings, swallows and terns. The brown pelican, Louisiana’s state bird, nests on the low-lying islands and, having been removed from the endangered list last year, is now under threat from oil.
Shellfish are particularly vulnerable to damage from the hydrocarbons which make up oil. Further, the endangered bluefin tuna are currently beginning their spawning season in the Gulf. In total, hundreds of marine species may be at risk of some kind of damage – and the damage will extend beyond the environment to the tourism and fishing industries (Reuters, "Possible Environmental Impact of Gulf Oil Spill" alertnet.org).
G20: Was it necessary?
This picture answers part of the question 2.3 million Torontonians asked themselves that day. Was it necessary? Was wasting $930 million of tax payers money on a theatrical tralier of George Orwell's dystopian novel 1984 in its depiction of a police state, really necessary? Were we its unbeknowest puppets? Muskoka would have sufficed in size and necessary isolation from our city. We did not invite these "world leaders" with thier fancy entourages into our peaceful city, and peaceful it was. Toronto has and will continue to harness a history of grassroots peaceful activism.
The silver lining in all of this was that Torontonians for the most part, banded together against the falsities and misrepresentation of local media stations and thier "slanting" efforts.
In a sense, this great city with all its diversity, joined as one unified thread against the opression that faced our beautiful city on that cold and dewy Saturday afternoon.
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