CategoryWildlife

Climate change is attacking the Great Barrier Reef

C

One of the more fantastic experiences that I’ve enjoyed in my lifetime was an opportunity, several years ago, to scuba dive along Australia’s Great Barrier Reef. This is truly one of the world’s great natural splendors; it is the largest living thing on Planet Earth, stretching some 900 miles, and it is also much larger than anything that humans have ever constructed. Chock full...

“From the air, you would have thought you were in the Deepwater Horizon spill”

&

Outside of the Gulf region, there hasn’t been a ton of publicity about Shell’s pipeline leak and oil spill off the coast of Louisiana that was revealed late last week. Maybe that’s the Deepwater Horizon Effect, since just six years after more than 4 million barrels of crude spewed into the Gulf, 88,000 gallons may sound like the proverbial drop in the bucket. The reality is very...

Dolphin study shows BP spill will affect Gulf for generations

D

Over the last five years, a series of scientific studies have clearly documented the enormous consequences of the 2010 BP oil spill on fish and wildlife in the Gulf of Mexico. From the majestic and endangered Kemp’s ridley turtle to the sensitive shrimp and oyster beds, exposure to the more than 4 million barrels that flowed from the worst oil spill in American history, or to the toxic...

A cruel summer for oil spills

A

There hasn’t been as much talk lately about the Keystone XL project, the massive proposed pipeline that would take some of the dirtiest fuel known to mankind — extracted from the tar sands of western Canada — and ship it across the American heartland to the Gulf Coast, where most it will be shipped to overseas markets. My hunch is that the Obama administration — which...

Case closed: BP killed a lot of dolphins with its oil

C

The relentless spin doctors at BP headquarters apparently don’t agree with me, but I think it’s time to close the book on the supposed debate over whether the massive 2010 BP oil spill was lethal to large numbers of dolphins. The evidence — first merely anecdotal, later more scientific — that dolphins in the Gulf of Mexico were getting sick and dying prematurely because of...

The curious case of the disappearing Gulf seafood

T

The 5th anniversary of the BP oil spill is causing a lot of journalists to revisit issues that have not received the attention that they deserve in the last couple of years. Take the seafood catch from the Gulf of Mexico — not only a vital source of regional pride but a key driver of jobs in Louisiana and its neighboring states. In the weeks following the Deepwater Horizon disaster...

Even a loon knows the Gulf is still a mess after 5 years

E

Thank God for the National Wildlife Federation. Few non-governmental agencies have worked as hard at staying on the case of the 2010 BP oil spill, and documenting that severe harm that has been done to the various creatures of the Gulf of Mexico. With the 5th anniversary of the Deepwater Horizon accident less than a month away, the researchers at the NWF continue to perform yeoman’s work in...

Five years after BP, science tells a devastating tale about sea life

F

Coming up on five years after the BP oil spill, science has told us only a fraction of what we need to know about the catastrophe and its pernicious impact on the marine life of the Gulf of Mexico. For one thing, some key studies are just getting underway now, as research institutions are finally getting a tiny slice of the billions of dollars that have been promised for the Gulf by the British...

More heartbreak: BP spill crushed comeback of rare turtle

M

Even now, some four-and-a-half years after the BP spill, hardly a day goes by when a new piece of information — often a significant new scientific study — doesn’t cross my desk to remind me of the horrors that BP unleashed upon the Gulf through its wanton negligence back in 2010. It’s heartbreaking, because typically these studies serve mainly to show that the initial dire...

Yes, BP did ruin the Gulf — ask the seabirds

Y

If you want more evidence that the so-called “debate” — kicked off and ginned up by a BP public relations executive and aided and abetted by a compliant news media — over whether or not the oil giant’s 5-million-barrel 2010 spill destroyed the Gulf is a ridiculous argument, just check out the latest casualty figures. This weekend, there was an alarming new scientific...

Stuart H. Smith is an attorney based in New Orleans fighting major oil companies and other polluters.
Cooper Law Firm

Follow Us

© Stuart H Smith, LLC