Don't Help! You'll Only Get in the Way of the Professionals.

In light of past events and the government-corporate bureaucracy's inability to stop the oil, the above phrase should never be uttered again. It is my experience, both here and in Haiti, that determined individuals get more accomplished (pound-for-pound) than do slow-moving bureaucracies that lack action-oriented leadership.

Our governments seldom create large armies of volunteers. They act in a bubble, in a vacuum and do not consider the people-power that they can tap at any time. It is another symptom of the government being less and less "we the people" and more and more a separate parent-like figure caring for its "kids" -- us.

The lack of urgency in Venice, Louisiana, is still surprising to me. I believe BP can be blamed for underestimating the problem from the start (or flat-out lying about the true scope of the disaster) and the government can be blamed for accepting BP's estimates. The media went ahead and repeated these estimates for so long that the true scope of the Deepwater Horizon disaster was grossly underestimated by our society for more than a month. Instead of preparing for battle, we sat back and watched BP try to fix the problem.

Venice -- and all coastal towns -- should be swarming with volunteers, federal agents, state experts, local captains and tons of boats. This is just not the case, and it is because of BP's public underestimations and lack of leadership in government. There is no shortage of privately-owned boats in Louisiana, and the people have a strong sense of community and determination without which living in coastal Louisiana would be impossible. It is time for people to put their boats in the water and to stop this oil from hitting the islands, marshes and estuaries. The "professionals" seem to always have trouble thinking outside the box and can't seem to act when time is running out.

If BP would have been honest from the start, the government and the media would have told the public the true seriousness of the situation and the public and the government would be more prepared to deal with this impending tragedy.

That being said, why are the Gulf islands not filled with people cleaning them? The government has had more than a month now to prepare for the inevitable, and it still looks grossly under-prepared.

---

On Monday, I volunteered for Audubon in Venice. My job was to care for birds brought on boats and to load them onto trucks taking them to Fort Jackson, where Tri-State Bird Rescue & Research (the organization leading the bird cleanup) is stationed. No birds came in while I was there, from 10:30am to 5:00pm.

I am not sure if this is a good thing or a bad thing. Audubon says it's a good thing. But how many boats are out looking for oiled birds? Are people entering islands full of birds to save oiled birds or are they only looking for lone birds floating, unable to fly or swim? Judging by the response to the disaster so far, I have little faith that everything is being done to bring oiled birds to shore. As I sat in Venice, filling out a crossword puzzle with my phone right next to me, I felt helpless. If I had a boat I would be out with a GPS looking for oil and for oiled birds, dolphins, and other wildlife.

-----

In other news, Loyola chemistry professor Kurt Birdwhistell says the dispersant is nearly as toxic as the oil itself. In other words, BP is adding to the toxic mess with all of its dispersant use. And this dispersant is causing the toxic oil (and the toxic dispersant) to go underwater and affect fish and crabs.