The Diane Rehm Show

Stop dancing around...through our own greed we've lost the Gulf for a generation at least. Remember, the consequences we've not seen are logically likely to be more severe than those we can already detect. This is, after all a deep-water event and we've less idea of what happens there than what happens on the moon. And, for once, think about the underlying cause. Overpopulation. We are become too many, given the way we live, for this ecosystem to support.

I am glad that someone has mentioned the threat of oil to the phytoplankton. Since they are the basis of the ocean ecosystem it is of vital importance that their fate is studied.

Regarding your question of the value of trying to save individual animals and this topic in general, it would have been appropriate to have a representative from the wildlife rehabilitation community. Your panel did bring up the importance of the bigger picture of preserving habitats, but it did not appear that any had experience with rehabilitation and its impact. I am a licensed avian rehabilitator and can see the difference it makes to people to see an animal being helped. It allows them to better relate to an environmental disaster on a scale too big to comprehend, see a positive effort to help, and may motivate people in a variety of ways to contribute and make other positive changes. For a catastrophe of this magnitude, helping one animal may seem a waste of energy to some, but it may just be that first step upon which others will build to stop the damage from spreading.

So far it seems that all activity is concentrated on the shores where of course the oil is most visible to most people. I don't think enough effort is made to skim the oil while still at sea.
After Presiden Obama's speech a retired director of Shell Oil explained on the Carley Rose Show on PBS that there is technology and capacity available in other countries that far exceeds our sorry attempts to contain the spill effectively ourselves. The main problem why they can't help us seems to be the obscure Jones Act. Now, WHY CAN'T WE SUSPEND THE JONES ACT in the face of a NATIONAL DISASTER? We should try ALL AND EVERYTHING we can to contain the spill and for once disregard politics. It should be possible to temporarily suspend a law/regulation if it is in the national interest.

What we are seeing now is only the beginning ( the first two weeks) of a spill that will
last at least four months ( fourteen weeks left) if we are lucky and the relief- well actually works. If we can't prevent some of the oil to reach the coasts the entire gulf, Cuba and some of the atlantic shores will get coated in oil. I think some high-up people still have not comprehended the enormous magnitude of this desaster and threat. It's much more than fouled optics.

My thoughts exactly blythek. There are thousands of unseen wildlife that are dying and suffering in the process, very sad :>(

Sadly, information out about how long birds and other creatures live after being covered in oil and then cleaned is not good. Some studies have shown that they do not survive longer than a month or two.

Are the animals that are being rescued and cleaned up being tagged and/or biological samples taken so that if the come into human contact again we can evaluate what, if any, lasting damage has been done to them?

Although Ducks Unlimited works to preserve the privileges of hunters in the United States, this is not the main goal or mission of Ducks Unlimited. In fact, they are the leading organization in conserving and restoring wetlands and waterfowl habitat in the U.S., Canada and Mexico: over 12,000,000 acres since 1937. Ducks Unlimited is not a "killing" organization. It is actually quite the opposite. The prairie pothole region in the northern mid-west United States and South-Central Canada is vital to North America's nesting waterfowl and is considered by DU to be a top level priority and is a main focus for conservation and restoration.

You also need to understand that hunters, waterfowl hunters in particular, can be staunch conservationists. Apart from the 12 million + acres preserved by DU, The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and State Conservation departments have saved over 5 million acres using money acquired through the purchase of hunting licenses and the Federal Migratory Bird Hunting Stamp, or "Duck Stamp", which is purchased primarily by hunters.

Thanks to DR and WAMU for covering this topic and for finding such eloquent and knowledgeable experts to participate in the show. I was especially interested to hear Jeremy Jackson's comments and to listen to his youtube talk on how our society has degraded the oceans. His comment that the Norwegian government requires a relief well be in place before a well for harvesting is dug was a major piece of information that I hope will be added to the discussion of new regulations going forward in the USA.

I also hope the DR show will do a follow-up and address the question of creating some kind of sanctuary for marine mammals. Most of the discussion today and the media coverage in general has been of oiled birds and rehab facilities where they are washed off. A marine mammal expert should be invited.

For example, would the show please discuss whether anyone thinking ahead to creating some kind of protected marine area in the gulf for whales, dolphins, turtles...a kind of Noah's Ark where oil could be kept out? As oil keep gushing out in large quantities with no clear end in sight -- the relief well has been described as the only solution BP is working on and it has only modest chance of success, apparently -- now is the time to plan for a worst-case-scenario in terms of creating a safe harbor somewhere in the gulf.

If a marine sanctuary for marine mammals simply isn't doable, then that should be announced publicly to make the public aware of just how dire the situation is.