After the Spill

October 26, 2016

Ten years ago Hurricane Katrina devastated the coast of Louisiana. Five years later the Deepwater Horizon exploded and spilled more than 200 million gallons of oil into the Gulf of Mexico. Amazingly, those aren’t the worst things facing Louisiana’s coastline today. It is that the state is fast disappearing through coastal erosion caused largely by oil and gas industry activity. AFTER THE SPILL introduces us to some of the spill’s most aggrieved victims as well as those who are desperately trying to save its coastline: Writer and historian John Barry who launched a suit against 97 oil and gas companies attempting to get them to pay their fair share for reparations caused by their explorations. Consultant and native son James Carville who manages to find some hope in new technologies that may save the coast. And Lt. Gen. Russell Honore, the man who saved New Orleans post-Katrina, whose new passion is for a Green Army he has recruited. Fishermen, scientists, politicians, environmentalists, and oil-rig workers document how the coast of Louisiana has changed. What really happened to all that oil? What about the dispersant used to push it beneath the surface? How has the spill impacted local economies as well as human health and the health of both marine life and the Gulf itself? How much resilience is left in the people and coastline?


Tags: oil spills, Pollution

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