Thougts on the BP Oil Disaster

The BP oil spill is now the worst environmental disaster in U.S. History,  worse than the Exxon Valdez spill.  And spill doesn’t seem like the right word to use either.  It’s more than a spill, more like a deluge, a flood, an inundation of oil and it’s still not capped despite the “top kill” effort.  It will take months to drill two relief wells to cut the flow off at the source.

Though most of the effort has been to stop the gushing fountains of oil, there has not been much going on by way of cleanup of the oil that has begun to wash up on the gulf shores.  The federal government should mobilize all the resources at its disposal for a massive cleanup effort.  Divert those border troops to the shorelines.  This oil disaster is considerably more urgent than stepping up border patrol.  Arm the troops with gas masks and shovels.  Put prisoners to work.  Enlist the support of environmental groups, concerned citizens, the “drill baby drill” crowd and the Red Cross.

I saw a clip on the news this morning of a team of workers bathing oil soaked birds in soap.  Once clean, though, I wonder what they do with the birds?  It would seem like a bad idea to just release them back into the oil polluted gulf area.  I hope they are relocated to cleaner areas, if any can be found, so the birds have a shot at survival.