BP

A cold northerly wind blew through the bayous of Louisiana last night, bringing near-frost like conditions and hastening the end of the worst shrimp season in memory. Only the small fry are left, and they too are on the move with their larger brethren, swimming out to sea to feed over the winter. They will wait for warmer temperatures of spring before they return to their spawning grounds of the marsh. [...Read more]

I first met JJ Creppel last summer while standing in the checkout line of the Buras Dollar Store. It’s one of the few places in this Louisiana fishing town deep down in the bayou where you can buy basic groceries and milk. Nearly all the other stores were destroyed five years ago in the monster storm that roared through here and leveled this community of 5,000 people. [...Read more]

Crossposted from NRDC Switchboard.

Yesterday, on a stormy, rain-splattered Sunday, fishermen and their families from four Gulf Coast states drove to Captain Anderson’s Marina in Panama City, FL. It was the same day the Panama City News Herald front page featured a huge photo of President Obama swimming happily with his daughter in the nearby Gulf. “Dive in, Mr. President,” the headline screamed. [...Read more]

Despite the media frenzy that Hurricane Katrina brought to the Gulf Coast, many communities in the region felt that they were either misunderstood or overlooked. That invisibility translated into a failed recovery in many communities where citizens are still without basic needs, including permanent, affordable housing. We are determined that the communities most effected by the BP disaster will be heard and that we will not repeat the mistakes of the past. [...Read more]

This Op-Ed was published in the Biloxi-Gulfport Sun Herald on July 30, 2010.

It is only fair that Gulf Coast residents should get the same chance to shape the future of oil and gas development in our region that Alaskans did following the Exxon Valdez spill. Unfortunately, citizens’ councils that have proved effective in guiding responsible development in Alaska are not part of a Gulf of Mexico drilling bill now before Congress. They should be. [...Read more]

I visited coastal Mississippi for the first time ten years ago. A friend I knew in Boston, Derrick Evans, had invited me to visit Turkey Creek, where his ancestors had settled after the Civil War. Soon he was drawn into a new life in Mississippi, and I was drawn into making a film about the struggle to protect Turkey Creek against urban sprawl, industrial contamination and disaster. [...Read more]