42,000 Gallons A Day

So much for the "not in my backyard" outrage that echos throughout many states. Nope, not in Louisiana. Our backyard has been filled with oil wells, and refineries, and chemical plants for longer than I've been alive. The wetlands in our backyard are shriveling up and dying, due in large part to the canals dredged by Big Oil, and now provide less protection from hurricane storm surges; stronger hurricanes due to global warming caused primarily by the burning of fossil fuels; and now we have an exploded oil rig leaking an estimated 42,000 gallons A DAY into the Gulf of Mexico, not to mention the eleven men who are lost and presumed dead. Where's the outrage? Does money put everyone to sleep? Are those right-wing talk radio DJ's making gold out of hate and misinformation going to lead the clean up efforts or rebuild our wetlands? I'm sick of this.

Read the New York Times account of the oil spill here.