June 4, 2010

The day started early as we left New Orleans in the hot muggy morning light. The drive to Grand Isle takes about two hours, plenty of time to contemplate what I was about to see. It had been a week since I last in Grand Isle and I had heard things were getting worse, but nothing could prepare me for what I was about to see. Once we made it to the southern part of Louisiana, about an hour into the trip, we started to see signs advertising small shops closed due to dwindling fish supplies and others pleading with the government and BP to help them feed their children. By the time we got to Grand Isle and met the team there was a sense of frustration and anger that was palpable amongst the people milling about the marina.

We boarded the boat and headed out into Barataria Bay, the home of the most fertile oyster and shrimp and fishing grounds in the Gulf of Mexico, our destination was several small islands where birds congregate. As we pulled up to the shore we saw oily booms washed up on the beach and thick red oil covering the sand along the shoreline. A few hundred yards down was a small heron covered in reddish colored oil, thicker than molasses. As soon as I looked at the bird I knew she was waiting to die, shivering and too weak to stand. I knew this was just the beginning. Further along we saw more birds whose normally bright white feathers were stained orange and knew it wouldn’t be long for them either.

Soon a dark cloud rolled in above and we hurried back to the boat only to get caught moments later in a squall that threatened to flip the small boat that had ferried us to the island. A grueling ride back to port left us drenched in the oily water splashing over the bow of the boat. As I jumped off the boat the taste of oil was still in my mouth and we wasted no time drying off. We didn’t have much time before we had to drive back to New Orleans to fly to Florida and so we interviewed several of the fishermen at the marina and headed to the main beach on the Gulf side of the island.

As soon as we arrived I was greeted by a horrible sight, a beach covered in thick blotches of oil as far as the eye could see and barely anyone on shore attempting to clean it up. Now I know why everyone was so frustrated, the oil had reached the beach, which was bad enough, but there seemed to be little effort to clean it. Soon, two uniformed individuals asked us to leave the beach ‘for our own safety’ and ushered us away but I knew I would be back within a week. From what I saw that day, things are going to get a lot worse before they get better.

Another early morning, all the more early because we didn’t stop work till 2AM last night! Today we head off to Grand Isle about three hours away from Venice to visit with Louisiana Wildlife and Fish department. Oil has made its way into the mangroves which means some of our worst fears have been realized. These wetland habitats are some of the most fragile in the world and also some of the most important. 40% of all the wetlands in the lower 48 states exist along the coast of Louisiana and they are directly in the oil’s path. Look at the photos and you will see why once the oil gets into these tight intricate bodies of water, there is no getting it out.

By the time we arrived it was midday and the sun was hanging hot in the sky. Horse flies surrounded us as we made our way to the Wildlife and Fisheries boat and headed out into the bay. The despair was visible in the eyes of the scientists and researchers who accompanied us. There was frustration too and it wasn’t long before they told me why. “BP has been sitting around for almost a month without preparing this area for the oil. The local authorities had to commandeer their equipment just a few days ago when it was clear they were doing nothing,” I was told. “Now the oil has made it into the marshes and mangroves and we have no idea what the long-term impacts will be but we are concerned that this will be worse than Katrina.”

They went on to explain that as the oil penetrates the vegetation it kills it and leaves bare soil to be washed away, which will decimate this once vital and productive eco-system. “We are seeing birds covered in oil during the height of nesting season and tar is washing up on the beaches,” they explained. There was real concern in their voices, people who have grown up here and who are now watching the entire ecosystem and economic bases of the community fall apart before their eyes.
As I dipped my fingers into a puddle of oil, one of many strewn across the sand, I was angry, too. This is the price of our arrogance, I thought; this black poison is choking the life out of one of the most incredible places on earth. As I drove back to New Orleans last night, the images I saw helped to reinforce the urgency of this issue…we have a clear choice: continue to pollute our planet or fight for a cleaner world. This is not an economic vs. environment issue as Ted Danson reinforced yesterday on Larry King Live. A true champion for the environment, he reminded us that clean energy creates more jobs than oil and gas and that this illusion that our economy can’t afford to go green is just that—an illusion. The truth is…we can’t afford not to.

For photos and video from Philippe’s trip to the Gulf, visit www.treehugger.com.

Watch Philippe’s dive in the BP oil spill with Good Morning America: http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/video/diving-gulfs-toxic-soup-10735329?tab=9482931&section=4765066

The morning started early…5:30AM and didn’t stop all day. While I am not much of a fan of early mornings I don’t mind it so much when the reason is an adventure like the one we are headed towards today. It all started three weeks ago when we called the producers at ABC’s Good Morning America and said…I don’t think anyone has ever filmed a dive in an oil spill…we should do it. Three weeks of logistical planning, risk assessment and even postponement due to weather and we got a window to head out to dive in the oil. Our goal was to find the thickest oil/chemical dispersant mixture we could and get in the water.

We had full hazmat outfits which included full dry suits, Kirby Morgan hard helmets and air hoses and in water communications. All of the gear was designed to protect us from chemical exposure and it ended up being one of the most grueling days I have ever had diving. We did two dives, one in clear water to test the gear and the next on in the thickest nastiest oil we could find. The helmet weighed 30 pounds by itself and it was 90 degrees out. Wearing a dry suit it was sweltering and all of us were exhausted and dehydrated within minutes. By the time we got in the water we quickly forgot about the discomfort as the gravity of the situation hit us. All around us was a thick soup of orange particles floating in the water column to a depth of about 15 feet. On the surface a sheen of oil covered the water. The dive lasted about 30 minutes and after wave after wave of oil/chemical dispersant mix washed over us it was time to head back to the surface. This was one of the most terrible experiences of my life seeing first had what this oil spill looks like under the water and knowing that this contamination is spreading over hundreds of miles. Even if they do manage to cut off the oil tomorrow the oil that has escaped will spread, following currents as far as the Arctic Circle via the Gulf Stream, wreaking havoc along the way.

We made it back to the harbor around midnight, exhausted and ready for a few hours of sleep before we start a round of press tomorrow. I know that my father and grandfather would have been doing this if they were alive and that they would have been just as horrified by what they saw as I was. I can only hope that we learn from this and start to truly take the kind of drastic action necessary to begin the decades long road to recovery, for history will not only judge us by our mistakes, but by what we do to fix them and so far…I fear history will judge us harshly.

For videos and pictures from Philippe’s visit to the Gulf, visit: http://www.treehugger.com/files/2010/05/behind-the-scenes-with-first-divers-gulf-oil-spill.php?campaign=TH_rotator

The Big Easy…always nice to be back, I arrived this morning in New Orleans from Charleston, South Carolina, where I had been the night before at a gala event for the South Carolina Aquarium. They honored my sister Alexandra and me with the Legacy Award last year and then invited me back this year to present the award to Al Gore. It was an honor and a perfect pre-cursor to my trip to fight the oil spill in the Gulf. This is my second trip, to read about my first trip two weeks ago click here… Now I am down here again to cover the spill from a new angle…can’t talk about that…it’s top secret but stay tuned as you will learn more in the next day or so. This is the greatest environmental disaster of our lifetimes and it has only just begun.

For photos and video from Philippe’s trip, go to the following link:http://www.treehugger.com/files/2010/05/dispatch-gulf-oil-spill-philippe-cousteau.php

The following is an excerpt from Philippe Cousteau’s blog for Larry King Live, to read the whole blog, click here.

The sun was blazing down as I walked up to the door of the little shop we had come to visit on Dauphin Island, just south of Mobile, Alabama.

This was my last day visiting the Gulf region after the devastating oil spill of only a few weeks earlier. The trip had started out earlier in the week with a briefing by scientists and field staff of the Ocean Conservancy, one of the leading ocean conservation organizations in the United States, who have been on the ground since day one of the disaster. That briefing had also included a helicopter trip to survey the damage from above to get an overall picture of the scale of the disaster.

Joined by members of the Ocean Conservancy, my team and I had driven three hours from New Orleans along the coast. This trip was not only to survey the environmental damage, but also to spend time with the individuals who live along the coast and whose lives are being forever changed by this catastrophe.

Read more: http://larrykinglive.blogs.cnn.com/2010/05/17/the-tragic-face-of-%e2%80%98drill-baby-drill%e2%80%99/#more-20598

On this 40th anniversary of Earth Day…there are millions of individuals in this country with a bit of free time and an overwhelming desire to take action to make their communities and their planet better; an army of willing individuals who are quietly changing the world but who need more help if they are to reach their full potential. Who are these agents of change? Look around you, I have no doubt you encounter them everyday…you may even have them in your home. That’s right…youth. The power they have is amazing.

A year ago I had the opportunity to work with a group of three middle school boys who, as part of a service project in their community, did some research and found that lead wheel weights through improper disposal cause a considerable amount of lead pollution in the environment. These young men took matters into their own hands and worked tirelessly to pass a law in the state of Iowa to phase out lead wheel weights on state vehicles. Then the EPA cited the program as one of the reasons they are re-assessing their position on lead wheel weights, a development that will affect 300 million Americans across the country. I have seen other projects as well, from Title 1 elementary school students in South Florida growing a garden and selling the produce into the local community,to a high school in Seattle reducing their greenhouse gas emissions by several tons each year . I have been all over the country and have seen countless programs such as these.

And now EarthEcho International has launched a campaign to bring much-needed resources and tools to build a community of best practice that will help to revolutionize this growing movement. In partnership with the leading youth service organizations and national education groups in the nation, we are launching a preview of the Water Planet Challenge (www.waterplanetchallenge.org) this week.This preview site includes a service-learning guide sponsored by Participant Media, and is being launched in tandem with the Disneynature film Oceans that premiers on Earth Day. This is only the beginning, however—we continue to develop the program and will constantly add more resources over the summer in preparation time for a full launch in the fall of 2010.

As the Greek philosopher Plato once wrote, “Youth are not vessels to be filled but flames to be lit.” The Water Planet Challenge will light the flames of a whole new generation, giving them the tools and knowledge to build the kind of sustainable future we all dream of.

My grandfather, Jacques Cousteau, was an eternal optimist and believed in the ability of humanity to find solutions to the world’s problems.

Now more than a decade after his death and on the eve of his 100th birthday, I am concerned that we are still struggling with the same challenges that he faced throughout his lifetime. Daily onslaughts against the environment such as the new proclamation to open up offshore drilling, while not as bad as it could have been, are still a worrisome sign.

We are a society that still too often treats the environment as somewhat of a nuisance…to be cared for only when it suits our needs…surprisingly, I believe that the solution might just come from an unexpected place…video games…
(read the rest of the post here: http://larrykinglive.blogs.cnn.com/2010/04/08/lkl-web-exclusive-philippe-cousteau-on-finding-a-solution-to-an-old-problem/)

What do the Arctic, a Thermostat and COP15 Have in Common?
By Philippe Cousteau, Jr.

The year was 1972 and my father Philippe Cousteau Sr. was filming another episode of the famed series The Undersea World of Jacques Cousteau. This particular installment, A Smile of the Walrus, chronicled the story of a changing Arctic ecosystem and the struggle of the various creatures such as the walrus to adapt. But 37 years ago, the changes being investigated by my father and grandfather were of a very different sort than those we struggle with today. At that time, the Inuit people were trading their dogsleds for snowmobiles, and their spears for rifles. The questions being asked were about the sustainability of a species in the face of man’s technological advancements. Today, those advancements have given way to a whole new arsenal of problems that threaten not only the Arctic and its indigenous species, but the entire planet and humanity as we know it.

The Arctic is among the least understood places on the planet; however, we do know that its landscape is changing and evolving as quickly as cell phones and the Internet. You have probably heard or said at some point, “I could not live without my cell phone.” Well, the world cannot live without the Arctic; it affects every living thing on Earth and acts as a virtual thermostat, reflecting sunlight and cooling the planet.

Now imagine, for a moment, if you lost control of the thermostat in your home or office; you would be pretty uncomfortable, right? Thankfully, most of us are fortunate enough to resolve this with a phone call or two (or three, depending on your maintenance guy). The Arctic isn’t so lucky. It’s warming twice as fast as the rest of the planet, causing seasonal ice to melt at an astounding rate. According to NASA, since 1979, the average decline of sea ice per decade is almost 10 percent.

You’re probably asking, “what does this have to do with me?” Well, if we continue pumping carbon pollution into the atmosphere, which is causing the sea ice to melt at the current rate, here are just some of the consequences (in the Arctic and in your backyard):

•Further decline of public health. According to the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology; from 1980-1994, the prevalence of asthma increased 75% in the US population, amongst children under the age of five it increased more than 160%. Contributing factors include poor air quality and pollution. In fact, the fastest growing school clubs in Atlanta are asthma clubs. I have met mothers who struggle to keep their jobs because of their children’s constant visits to the hospital, many of whom are uninsured; we all know how costly this is to our healthcare system. In my opinion, this is unacceptable and unnecessary collateral damage of our environmental neglect;

•Droughts and dwindling water supply. As the ice melts, the resulting salinity and temperature changes in the ocean will continue to cause shifting ocean currents and thus more severe and frequent climate disruptions from storms to drought, the kinds of droughts that are causing people to fight over dwindling water supplies from Darfur to the Middle East;

•Loss of jobs and food sources. The carbon output that melts the ice in the Arctic also causes ocean acidification, which results from the ocean absorbing excess carbon dioxide from the atmosphere (the same carbon dioxide that is the primary cause of global warming, hence the nickname ‘the other carbon problem’). Often referred to as osteoporosis of the ocean, higher acidity prevents shell building creatures such as lobster, oyster, crab, shrimp, and coral from extracting the calcium carbonate from the water that they need to build their shells and are thus unable to survive. This will cause ocean eco-systems to collapse with disastrous consequences for not only the multi trillion dollar fisheries business, but also depriving the more than one billion people who rely on seafood as their only source of protein.

The Arctic is one of many issues that elected officials and policymakers are currently discussing in Copenhagen, Denmark, as part of the United Nations’ (UN’s) climate change summit. From December 7-18, representatives from countries around the world are debating ways to build a cleaner and more livable world than the one we live in today.

Whether you’re on the ground in Copenhagen or not, you can affect the outcome by signing the UN Climate Petition and becoming a citizen of Hopenhagen (http://www.hopenhagen.org/home/showform). Hopenhagen is a movement, a moment and a chance at a new beginning. The hope that we can build a better future for our planet and a more sustainable way of life. It is the hope that we can create a global community that will lead our leaders into making the right decisions and fulfill the promise that by solving our environmental crisis, we can solve our economic crisis at the same time.

It’s time that we stop debating the science as Earth grows sicker and our welfare is put into jeopardy. I’m all for debate and discussion, but we can do this and implement solutions simultaneously. Hopenhagen is a quick and easy first step, but we must also individually and collectively consider the consequences of our behavior; from driving gas-guzzling SUV’s that emit more CO? than any car should, to demanding that our elected officials institute the radical legislation that we need to combat this crisis.

My grandfather opened the first chapter of his story, A Smile of the Walrus, with an old nursery rhyme, “Did you ever see a walrus smile all these many years? Why yes I’ve seen a walrus smile, but it was hidden by his tears.” As we open this new chapter in the battle against climate change, I fear that if we do not take action, then the smiles of our children, like the walrus, will be hidden by the tears they shed as they pay the consequences of our inaction, our apathy and our greed.

Philippe Cousteau will be interview by CBC at 10:30 E.T. December 12, 2009. Tune in!

By all accounts, a week that starts with a speech from President Obama and ends with a speech by President Clinton and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton; is filled in between by three and a half days of meetings with world leaders, and inspiring people who are fighting to defeat all the most serious social and environmental problems facing our planet is a good week. Add to that launching a program whose press release headline reads… Co-Founder & CEO Philippe Cousteau Joined by President Bill Clinton and Grammy Award Winner Usher Raymond IV to Announce Unprecedented Service Learning Program Reaching Millions of U.S. Middle and High School Student (full press release here http://is.gd/3JtEc) and you have all the makings of a week that will go down a one of the most impactful of my life. It is over now, but will define the course of EarthEcho and thus my life, for the foreseeable future.

The Clinton Global Initiative is in its fifth year and was founded by President Clinton to get things done. Unlike other conferences where all you get is talk talk talk, the purpose of CGI is to bring organizations that work to tackle all the major issues from climate, hunger, health and poverty reduction together with the foundations and organizations who are ready and able to provide the resources to make it happen. Politics aside, President Clinton has achieved more in his post White House life than any other president in the last 50 years…and any intelligent human has to appreciate that.

As for our project The Water Planet Challenge, we are very excited about launching a program that will revolutionize the environmental youth service movement and mobilize an army of young people to solve these problems. When Vice President Al Gore accepted the academy award for An Inconvenient Truth, he said (and I paraphrase) we know what the solutions are we just lack the will to implement them. I believe that there are millions of youth in this world that have the will to implement them; they just lack the tools and knowledge to do it. By focusing our distribution through a network like Discovery Education that immediately puts us into over 60% of the middle and high schools in this country coupled with partnerships with all the best youth service orgs as well as promotion through Planet Green, we are going to give those millions of youth access to the tools and knowledge they need and take a great leap forward towards making this world a better place. My grandfather believed that youth could solve the problems facing our world and so do I; EarthEcho’s Water Planet Challenge will give them the power to do it.