Gulf Future: A Unified Action Plan for a Healthy Gulf

The oil spill has passed, and with it, much of the media and public attention to the events of one year ago. Now it’s time to look forward to the future for the Gulf. That’s why I’m excited that our friends at the Gulf Restoration Network (GRN) and dozens of Gulf partners have come together to launch Gulf Future: A Unified Action Plan for a Healthy Gulf.

Here’s more from Dan Favre of GRN in his post: Gulf Future: A Unified Action Plan for a Healthy Gulf
originally posted on the Gulf Restoration Network blog on April 20, 2011

Today, thirty-six organizations unveiled a collaborative effort called Gulf Future: A Unified Action Plan for A Healthy Gulf. The diverse group is made up of fishermen, faith leaders, environmentalists, clean-up workers, and residents who live, work, and play on the Gulf Coast.  The organizations come from all five Gulf Coast states and represent culturally and racially diverse communities.

Divided into four areas of concern – marine restoration and resiliency, coastal restoration and resiliency, community recovery and resiliency, and public health – the Gulf Future action plan expresses immediate goals, including specific demands of Congress, federal agencies, and the Obama administration for a healthy and whole Gulf Coast.

Download the Gulf Future Action Plan or check out www.gulffuture.org for more.

Seder Table Talk: The BP Oil Spill Anniversary

by Eric Harris, Press Secretary, Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism
originally  posted on the RACblog

As we celebrated Passover this year, we also celebrated the 41st anniversary of Earth Day, the global day of environmental advocacy. Talk around my seder table centered on preparing for the 50th anniversary of the Religious Action Center and the upcoming Consultation on Conscience. But then things took a darker turn as we began talking about the one-year anniversary of the BP oil spill disaster.

We all agreed that there were many elements to this dialogue that were baffling and frustrating. For example, despite the devastating impact the oil spill had on our ecosystem, our economy and the residents and communities of the Gulf, our fight to end our country’s crippling addiction to oil continues to feel like a losing battle. It also angered us to learn that 11 new deep water and 49 shallow water-drilling permits were recently issued in the Gulf. (more…)

Supporting self-sufficiency along the Bayou

by Evan Ponder, wetland communities advocate and Young Adult Volunteer with Bayou Blue Presbyterian Church in Gray, LA.

This entry concludes our interfaith series of reflections and calls to action around the one year memorial of the Deepwater Horizon explosion and BP oil spill disaster. Stay tuned for more from After the Spill!

One year has passed since the oil disaster began, and we still know relatively little about what the future holds. For the rest of the country, the oil spill is over. Here in Louisiana, we will be dealing with this spill for decades, and it has already begun to change our way of life. What are the long term effects on oysters, crabs and shrimp? What caused the large number of dead dolphin and sea turtles found washed ashore on Gulf Coast beaches? How much oil is at the bottom of the gulf, and will oiled marshes survive? Will people be able to fish again next year, or the year after, or the year after?

Louisiana has long been treated as an environmental sacrifice zone; a place to extract resources for the benefit of the rest of the country, with little thought and care for those who live here. Cancer rates are high, especially for communities near oil refineries and oilfield waste sites. Offshore oil workers and fishermen face some of the highest mortality rates, and the oil spill has compounded an ongoing problem linked to oil and gas activity: the erosion and subsidence of the wetlands. (more…)

Reflections on Water

By Rowan Van Ness, Program Associate for Environmental Justice, Unitarian Universalist Ministry for Earth

Early on Saturday morning, I was rushing to pick up coffee for an event. Rain lightly drizzled, and I ran across the parking lot. A friend was with me, and I called him to stop. “Look at that puddle,” I said.

That puddle, like almost every puddle except on the cloudiest of days, reflected the trees and the shops around us. As we walked around it, we could see the reflections change. Nature. Buildings. Penny, candy wrapper, and dead leaves at the bottom of the puddle. The magic of reflection amazes me every time and noticing puddles has become a spiritual practice of mine.

How often do we stop and notice water? The puddles, the rivers, the ocean? The showers, the washing machines, the toilets, the sprinklers? In industrialized nations, we have largely forgotten just how dependent we are on water. In most places in the US, we can turn on a tap, at any time of any day, and have clean, potable water flow until we turn it off. That is amazing! (more…)

Gulf Care: interfaith work on human ecology

by Erik Schwarz, managing partner of Interfaith Works, a New Orleans-based nonprofit that is the incubator for Gulf Care, an interfaith recovery initiative formed in the wake of the oil spill

This entry is part of our interfaith series of reflections and calls to action around the one year memorial of the Deepwater Horizon explosion and BP oil spill disaster. Find resources to commemorate the memorial here.

Now that we are just on the other side of the one-year anniversary of the spill, this is a good time to survey the field and see who continues to stand with the impacted communities along the Gulf Coast. Among many responders, faith groups have distinguished themselves as the most persistent agents for recovery and restoration. After the media have left the scene and the politicians moved on to other talking points, faith groups remain. Since the early days of the spill, these groups reached out to care not only for their flocks but for the larger communities in which they are embedded.

Coastal Louisiana was hit particularly hard, but faith groups there had been prepared by their experiences with Hurricanes Katrina, Rita, Gustav and Ike to respond effectively and cooperatively. Christians, Jews, Muslims, Baha’is, Buddhists and others were already networked in a groundbreaking organization headquartered in Baton Rouge called the Louisiana Interfaith Disaster Recovery Network (LIDRN). Shortly after the spill, my organization – New Orleans-based nonprofit Interfaith Works – partnered with LIDRN to build a response initiative named Gulf Care. (more…)

The Future of the Gulf Coast

by Sr. Marge Clark, BVM, lobbyist on domestic human needs at NETWORK: A National Catholic Social Justice Lobby

This entry is part of our interfaith series of reflections and calls to action around the one year memorial of the Deepwater Horizon explosion and BP oil spill disaster. Find resources to commemorate the memorial in your own community here.

Easter Sunday, April 24, marked the one-year anniversary of the official announcement that the Deepwater Horizon oil rig was leaking oil. One year after the disaster, tourism proponents are touting pristine and sparkling beaches –– evidence that the disaster is behind us – ready for your visit.  However, not all is pristine and much is not healthy.

In recent weeks, oil which settled to coat the ocean floor has come to the surface in hardened globs. Just a month ago new oil slicks were investigated off Grand Isle and Elmer Island in Louisiana. There is continued caution on the part of coastal residents about the health of local shrimp and oysters. The health of the ecological region is still in question and will remain so for decades to come. (more…)

Don’t be crude: End our oil addiction

by Dan Misleh, executive director, Catholic Coalition on Climate Change

The following is excerpted from a piece originally posted on U.S. Catholic: A Conversation with American Catholics

This entry is part of our interfaith series of reflections and calls to action around the one year memorial of the Deepwater Horizon explosion and BP oil spill disaster. Find resources to commemorate the memorial in your own community here.

It’s time to get the petroleum monkey off our backs.

Hello, my name is Dan, and I’m addicted to oil.

I recently looked around me to catalog all the things made from oil…The plastics list is endless.

…As we near the first anniversary of the Gulf Coast oil spill, I hope we can all acknowledge our addiction and—for the sake of the planet and the unpleasant fact that we will eventually run out of fossil fuels—seek help to get clean and sober. (more…)

Methodists Celebrate Earth Sunday

by Samuel Ahn, Economic & Environmental Justice, General Board of Church and Society of the United Methodist Church
(learn more on the UMC-GBCS Earth Day Resource Page)

This entry is part of our interfaith series of reflections and calls to action around the one year memorial of the Deepwater Horizon explosion and BP oil spill disaster. Find resources to commemorate the memorial in your own community here.

April presents a unique opportunity for all who have a deep concern for God’s Creation. It is especially poignant for those in the Christian tradition. For Christians, the period of Holy Week this year brings not only the celebration of the resurrection of Christ, but also an opportunity for Christians to celebrate the Festival of God’s Creation/Earth Day Sunday. As a matter of fact, Earth Day Sunday, typically celebrated the first Sunday after Earth Day, falls on Easter Sunday, April 24.

Easter Sunday is also the first Sunday after the first anniversary of the Gulf Coast oil disaster. The long, painful drama of summer 2010 began with the explosion of the Deepwater Horizon rig, the death of 11 persons, and the subsequent sinking of the entire rig on April 22, 2010.

This juxtaposition of a celebration of resurrection against a remembrance of death and destruction presents an opportunity for congregations. It is important to recognize the importance of Easter and what it means for our Christian faith. But, we cannot ignore the implications of our actions on the lives of our brothers and sisters, as well as on God’s good Creation. (more…)

A Rabbi’s Remarks on the One Year Anniversary of the BP Disaster

by Rabbi Edward Paul Cohn, Congregation Temple Sinai, New Orleans, LA
originally posted on the RACblog

This entry is part of our interfaith series of reflections and calls to action around the one year memorial of the Deepwater Horizon explosion and BP oil spill disaster. Find resources to commemorate the memorial in your own community here.

These reflections were delivered by Rabbi Cohn at a sunrise memorial held in New Orleans on April 20.

My dear friends,

One week ago I watched as our granddaughter, Ryann Eliza was brought into this world. Among my emotions and prayerful, urgent thoughts surrounding that unforgettably sweet and wonderful scene, was the fervent prayer:

And please God, may this child inherit a world of healthy air and sea and natural abundance.

On Ryann’s eighth day of life, we have gathered in this prominent place – our backs to the river and gulf but our faces toward the Citadel of faith, of government and commerce – to this day commemorate the first anniversary of the BP spill which was America’s greatest natural disaster in its 235 year history.

People quite rightly are asking: (more…)

Remembering the 11 Lives Lost

by Rev. Dr. Cory Sparks, Chair, Commission on Stewardship of the Environment of the Louisiana Interchurch Conference.

This entry is part of our interfaith series of reflections and calls to action around the one year memorial of the Deepwater Horizon explosion and BP oil spill disaster. Find resources to commemorate the memorial in your own community here.

On April 20, the Sierra Club held an interfaith memorial service on the anniversary of the Deepwater Horizon drilling disaster. Dozens of New Orleans residents met for a sunrise service in the Washington Artillery Park, between Jackson Square and the Mississippi River. Rev. Sparks’ prepared remarks remember the 11 men killed:

Dozens die every year in the oilfield. Their deaths don’t get much coverage, maybe a paragraph or two in the back pages of the paper – stories about a helicopter crash, an explosion, or some other little noticed horror. The deaths on the Deepwater Horizon drew far more attention because of their sheer number. But they quickly became the prologue to a greater drama as the life of the Gulf and the livelihoods of thousands were thrown into question. (more…)