“What solutions are being studied here?” You mean solutions to root problems, or bandaids? Most of the journalism we see is about proximate causes and bandaid solutions.
The general trend of environmental health will continue downward until people and polities determine to stabilize their ecological footprint. And that won’t happen as long as the overriding concern is economic growth. It's the increasingly stupid pursuit of growth that shuts down climate change talks, opens the off-shore for drilling, resurrects the nuclear industry, etc. And we can’t expect any of this to change when even a “scientific,” “ecological” society calls oxymoronically for “sustainable economic growth,” with all the political guts of an oil-soaked shrimp. How about writing about that? Meantime, you might find Brent Blackwelder’s piece, “British Petroleum Vs. a Sustainable Planet: Time to Ban BP from Doing Business in the United States,” useful. It’s at the Daly News: http://steadystate.org/learn/blog/ Cheers, Brian Czech Center for the Advancement of the Steady State Economy ________________________________________ From: Ecological Society of America: grants, jobs, news [[email protected]] On Behalf Of Wendee Holtcamp [[email protected]] Sent: Saturday, May 15, 2010 6:37 PM To: [email protected] Subject: [ECOLOG-L] Gulf spill again - solutions? I'm working on a 2nd piece about the spill and gathering research for a magazine feature due in a few months. Reading all the news, the never-ending geyser of oil, the hundreds of thousands of gallons of chemical dispersants being unceremoniously spewed into the ocean to "help" feels a bit overwhelming. Likewise, the cleanup response and attempts to cap the wells seem underwhelming in comparison, despite the fact that I'm sure hundreds (or thousands) are working hard around the clock at times to study, document, clean, and try to cap the well. What positive news is there? What solutions are being studied here or have been studied in past oil spills to minimize long-term ecological impacts to marine ecosystems? Did anyone here study the Valdez spill? What worked, versus what didn't, and though this is a totally different ecosystem, what can be learned? I have contacted a dozen scientists I've found on Google, from abstracts etc but getting few replies. I'm sure everyone doing anything related to oil is probably tapped out. But in the chance that someone here has any info - please share any stories - whether you're doing clean up, or have done research on how to help fish and fisheries resources or marine mammals recover in a particular region after a spill. I'm looking for something to give hope. I kind of like the hair being collected idea, Who came up with that? But I want other ideas too. Wendee ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Wendee Holtcamp, M.S. Wildlife Ecology ~ @bohemianone Freelance Writer * Photographer * Bohemian http://www.wendeeholtcamp.com <http://www.wendeeholtcamp.com/> http://bohemianadventures.blogspot.com <http://bohemianadventures.blogspot.com/> ~~ 6-wk Online Writing Course Starts May 15 or Jun 19 ~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ I'm Animal Planet's news blogger - http://blogs.discovery.com/animal_news
