The rough, white texture of the bark was still bright in the fading glow of sunset. I turned my head and gazed out over the valley to enjoy the last few moments of it bathed in golden light. Some of the greatest feats of humankind had been achieved since this wood had been stacked together…electricity, the automobile, telephones, antibiotics, the internet and landing on the moon to name a few. I closed my eyes and imagined this place as it must have been back when a Crow Indian warrior used it as a scouting point. At least that is what this teepee-like structure of large wooden branches and logs is thought to have been, a scouting post for Crow warriors watching over the valley for any enemy war parties. What anthropologists do know is it pre-dates 1872, a very special year. That year, President Ulysses S Grant, in a document roughly 26 lines long, founded the country’s first National Park…Yellowstone, or as it was originally called The National Park of the Headwaters of the Yellowstone River.

The structure I was standing on was one of several dozen scattered throughout the park that are off the beaten path and rarely seen by tourists. I had come here for….

Finish reading my blog on Huffington Post by clicking here!

Hugg this | Digg this

In the past week I had the pleasure of meeting Jamie Hinton, Chief of the Magnolia Springs Fire Department. Jamie is one of the many examples of people who translate their awareness into action. Awareness is only the first step in committing to making changes that will help protect our planet.

Click here to read the my blog about Jamie and the Gulf Oil Spill on TreeHugger

Hugg this | Digg this

Another long week. The oil spill in the Gulf has kept me and my team busier than ever. As I prepared for my 5th trip to Grand Isle, I wrote a blog for CNN that chronicles my experiences in the gulf and demonstrates why we must start being not only aware but active about making changes to protect the environment around us for both nature and our own sakes.

Click here to read my CNN blog on the Gulf Oil Spill

Hugg this | Digg this

We made it into Tampa late last night and took the one hour drive to the beach near St. Petersburg. It was going to be another long day and we were prepared to get up early and get to the beach for the cleanup. I had come here in partnership with the Ocean Conservancy, one of the leading ocean conservation organizations in the country. The whole idea was to organize a beach cleanup as a way to channel the collective sense of frustration and demonstrate that people can take action to help the oceans…with or without oil.

Ocean Conservancy runs the International Coastal Cleanup in September, the largest ocean cleanup in the world, and has started expanding it to events throughout the year. They invited me to come to the event in Tampa to help show people that we all have power. Even before oil reaches Tampa, and I hope it doesn’t, it is important to clean up as much of the coast as possible. Once oil arrives any debris along the shore becomes a bio-hazard and is very difficult to clean up because is requires special training. The day was sweltering but the effort was worthwhile as we cleaned up over a ton of trash.

I have talked about it at length: We only have to look in the mirror to find someone to blame for this oil catastrophe because it is a symptom of a wider problem. However, in the same way we make the choices that cause us to be addicted to oil—a substance that poisons our air, our water and our future—we also have the equal power to change the world in which we live. To eat less meat, use public transportation, aspire to healthy and functional houses, vote in politicians that care about our world, and more…

As Gandhi one wrote, “we must become the change we seek in the world.” There is always hope, we have the power to build the sustainable and just world our children deserve and if the spill reminds us of anything…it is that…

Hugg this | Digg this

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.

Hugg this | Digg this

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.

Hugg this | Digg this

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

Hugg this | Digg this

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

Hugg this | Digg this

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

Hugg this | Digg this

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

Hugg this | Digg this