Oil Spill

Even before the Deepwater Horizon oil platform exploded on April 20, 2010, killing eleven workers and letting millions of gallons of oil spill into the Gulf of Mexico, the fragile ecosystem of coastal Louisiana was severely compromised due to decades of systematic manipulation and neglect.

The cruel irony of the situation is that if the wetlands weren’t already in such a deteriorated state, they might have been more resilient to the effects of the oil spill. But because most of the barrier islands have gone, leaving the porous and vulnerable marshland exposed to the ocean waves, the important habitats they support are put in direct contact with the dangerous oil.

As a culture of people who have traditionally lived off the land by fishing and farming, the uncertainty of the effects of the oil spill disaster weighs heavily on their minds. The people of coastal Louisiana are a hardy people, toughened by hurricanes that rip through the region on a yearly basis. But this disaster is different, as nobody really knows the long-term consequences of such a large oil spill.