Bag it, new documentary about plastification of our world

New interesting must see documentary ‘Bag it’ about plastification of the world! I still believe good documentaries can change our perception of how we threat our earth, here we have a documentary that falls in that category. Go to the website and request a screening @ your school, local community or independent cinema!

BAG IT

information from press kit

“Documentary is a Powerful Look at the Impacts of Plastics on Society”Americans use 60,000 plastic bags every five minutes, disposable bags that they throw away without muchthought. But where is “away?” Where do the bags and other plastics end up, and at what cost to the environment, marine life and human health?

Bag It follows “everyman” Jeb Berrier as he navigates our plastic world. Jeb is not a radical environmentalist, but an average American who decides to take a closer look at our cultural love affair with plastics. Jeb’s journey in this documentary film starts with simple questions: Are plastic bags really necessary? What are plastic bags made from? What happens to plastic bags after they are discarded? What he learns quickly grows far beyond plastic bags.

http://www.bagitmovie.com

Bio-Remediation or Bio-Hazard? Dispersants, Bacteria and Illness in the Gulf

Upsetting News!

Ocean Springs, MS — A grandmother made me rethink all the bio-remediation hype. The “naturally-occurring oil-eating bacteria” have been newsworthy of late as they are supposedly going to come to the rescue of President Obama and BP and make good on their very premature statement that “the oil is gone.”

We were talking about subsurface oil in the Gulf when she said matter-of-factly, “The bacteria are running amok with the dispersants.” What? “Those oil-eating bacteria — I think they’re running amok and causing skin rashes.” My mind reeled. Could we all have missed something so simple?

The idea was crazy but, in the context of the Gulf situation — an outbreak of mysterious persistent rashes from southern Louisiana across to just north of Tampa, Florida, coincident with BP’s oil and chemical release, it seemed suddenly worthy of investigating.

I first heard about the rash from Sheri Allen in Mobile, Alabama. Allen wrote of red welts and blisters on her legs after “splashing and wading on the shoreline” of Mobile Bay with her two dogs on May 8. She reported that “hundreds of dead fish” washed up on the same beach over the following two days. This was much too early for the summer sun to have warmed the water to the point of oxygen depletion, but not too early for dispersants and dispersed oil to be mixed into the Gulf’s water mass. By early July, Allen’s rash had healed, leaving black bruises and scarring.

read whole article on Huffington post

Five months after BP oil rig disaster, US government declares well ‘dead’

So finally the moment is there after 5 horrible months the oil well is finally closed! This doesn’t mean the problem is over like BP and U.S officials would like to let you believe. The effects of this massive disaster will still have to come out, the coming 10 years the Gulf needs to stay high priority and under major surveillance by the world community.

article by Guardian.co.uk

The clean-up operation on the coast of Louisiana at the height of the spill Photograph: Gerald Herbert/AP

The US government has declared the blown-out BP well in the Gulf of Mexico, which caused the biggest oil spill in American history, “effectively dead” after a final plug of cement was pumped in.

Five months after the explosion that killed 11 workers on the Deepwater Horizon rig and let loose millions of barrels of crude oil, the well passed a pressure test yesterday that confirmed it was sealed about 5,000 metres below the sea bed.

“We can finally announce that the Macondo 252 well is effectively dead,” said Thad Allen, the former coast guard admiral heading the government response to the spill. Allen declared that the well “poses no continuing threat to the Gulf of Mexico”.

The spill was brought to a halt in July with a temporary cap while a relief well was completed. That well finally reached the main shaft on Thursday, permitting the cement plug to be pumped in.

Barack Obama hailed the news as an “important milestone” and praised those who “worked around the clock to respond to this crisis and ultimately complete this challenging but critical step to ensure that the well has stopped leaking for ever”.

read whole article @ guardian.co.uk