Gulf Oil Spill Disaster

The target keeps moving, the numbers keep changing,unprecedented" disaster, as he and other top
and none of them are going down! Every day the sizeadministration officials defended their response and
of the oil spill gets bigger, the guesstimate of thepledged a "relentless" government effort to clean up
amount of oil leaking (barrels or gallons- pick one), andthe slick. RELENTLESS is the operative word. Are you
the ecological damage increases. And, how long it willcalmed now?
take to find a solution is put further and further outI don't think the residents along the Gulf are.
there. The president visited Louisiana to survey the damage
This will be much bigger and more costly than Exxonand hear from local officials, who told him the oil is
Valdez. Bank on it.about nine miles from the state's coast. Obama
Small businesses are going out of business. Fishingwarned that the spill could "seriously damage" the local
vacations along the Gulf coast are being cancelled.economy and environment. "We're dealing with a
The estimates are that a billion pounds of seafoodmassive and potentially unprecedented environment
annually is at risk for loss from the Gulf oil catastrophe.disaster," Obama said. "It could extend for a long time.
At the very least will drive prices up; at the worst mayIt could jeopardize the livelihoods of  thousands of
lead to some doing without. The 1,000s of miles ofAmericans who call this place home."
estuary and shoreline are the "nursery" for hundredsIt's much bigger than that.
of species; some commercial some not. OverCould we see the mess get into the "gulf stream" and
1,000,000 migratory birds are at risk at the moment,travel around the Keys and move up the Eastern
with more passing through.Seaboard? Some scientists say it's not a matter of IF,
Get the picture?but only WHEN that will happen. We've not been here
Of course our politicians are promising RESULTS!before so everyone is just throwing darts at the
President Obama warned Sunday that the vast oil spillnumbers and hoping some small number sticks.
nearing the Gulf coastline is a "potentially