Birds Covered in BP Oil
The Boston Globe has been running large and heartbreaking photos from the Gulf of Mexico. Here are a few that I’ve reduced to fit the format of the blog but I encourage you to visit the link (the Globe is a historic, but struggling, newspaper) to see them full size. Charlie Riedel is an excellent photographer who is capturing many of the pictures that BP doesn’t want you to see (that link seems to be down at Mother Jones but once it’s up again I will link to it).
This, for example, is what used to be called a “seagull”:
Now it looks like a floating piece of diarrhea. Thanks BP, you fucking ASSHOLES. How are those 760 safety violations treating you?
Here’s a brown pelican, still brown but not in the same way:
Poor thing is just coated in that shit: here’s a list of what the oil does to birds:
Oil that sticks to fur or feathers, usually crude and bunker fuels, can cause many problems. Some of these problems are:
* hypothermia in birds by reducing or destroying the insulation and waterproofing properties of their feathers;…
* birds become easy prey, as their feathers being matted by oil make them less able to fly away;…
* birds sink or drown because oiled feathers weigh more and their sticky feathers cannot trap enough air between them to keep them buoyant;…
* birds lose body weight as their metabolism tries to combat low body temperature;
* birds become dehydrated and can starve as they give up or reduce drinking, diving and swimming to look for food;
* damage to the insides of animals and birds bodies, for example by causing ulcers or bleeding in their stomachs if they ingest the oil by accident.
I edited out the stuff about seals, which is just as disturbing.
here’s another bird, this one probably the saddest picture of all:
I want every goddamn BP executive in prison, preferably on a death row in Texas, where they hand out trips to Ol’ Sparky like penny candy. And when they are executed, I want it to be aired on national TV during prime time. After they’re dead, the heads should be displayed on 20′ pikes in front of the New York Stock Exchange.
FUCK YOU BP, FUCK YOU TONY HAYWARD, YOU SHOULD ALL COMMIT SUICIDE FOR RUINING SO MANY HUMAN AND ANIMAL LIVES.
