'Witness: Katrina'

The crisis in the Gulf of Mexico and Gulf coast states is very underreported here, so I'll make use of this page on Hurricane Katrina to post some links. There really should be considerably more attention being paid to this crisis than what I've been seeing.

The following is an important and excellent interview of roughly 9 minutes with primarily Dahr Jamail, who's now spent around a month doing investigative reporting on the crisis in the Gulf, and a few words from an American scientist. According to another DN! interview about this crisis and which includes an interview with the same scientist, he's Ian MacDonald, an oceanographer from Flordia State University, and he's been measuring oil spills, or this one in the Gulf anyway.

"Fishing Industry in Gulf Still Worried About Levels of Toxins in the Water and the Impact on Marine Life"

http://www.democracynow.org/2010/8/23/fishing_industry_in_gulf_still_wor...

The Obama administration announced last week that it is safe to eat fish and shrimp caught in the 78 percent of federal waters in the Gulf that are now reopened to fishing. But many are still concerned about the levels of toxins in the water and the impact on marine life. Independent journalist Dahr Jamail has been reporting from the Gulf Coast for over a month now. Last week he spoke to some commercial fishermen in Mississippi who are refusing to trawl because of the oil and dispersants that are still in the water.

They're not only concerned; they simply can't shrimp and fish. The waters are extremely contaminated and Dahr Jamail says that the situation now is worse than he's seen so far during his month on the coast. He says four states are badly affected and I guess these are Miss., La, Alabama and Fla.

The next video, around 20 minutes long, is with Ian MacDonald and actually precedes the above one.

"Scientist Accuses Obama Administration and BP of Underestimating Amount of Oil Left in Gulf of Mexico"

http://www.democracynow.org/2010/8/23/scientist_accuses_obama_administra...

New evidence has badly shaken the Obama administration’s rosy narrative about the alleged disappearance of most of the oil that gushed into the Gulf of Mexico from BP’s blown-out well. Early this month a report by government scientists declared that three-quarters of the oil had vanished, either collected or dispersed. But numerous reports contradict the administration’s sanguine picture of the cleanup effort. We speak to Ian MacDonald, an oceanographer and expert on measuring oil spills from Florida State University. He testified at a congressional hearing last week and said the actual amount of oil removed from the Gulf is only around ten percent and predicted the spill will likely remain harmful for decades.

Also see the following websites. They provide daily or nearly daily updates.

http://theintelhub.com/category/gulfoilspill

http://blog.alexanderhiggins.com/tags/gulf-oil-spill