Hungry Planet Blues

Back in May, Jean-Michel Cousteau and members of his team went into the waters at ground zero in the Gulf of Mexico. He reported the presence of hydrocarbon plumes. He posited that the cause of the underwater plumes were from the excess use of dispersant.

Now the NSF, NOAA and BP are saying that we have plumes. The government says water tests have confirmed underwater oil plumes from the BP oil spill, but that concentrations are "very low."

Okay, what does that mean? There is a great deal of oil in the Gulf, so are we saying that the plumes are something we do not have to address now? I am so tired of what the Big Oil and Gas and Dirty Coal have done to Texas.

I guess I should thank God that the wind was blowing the other way when the oil came in. Poor Louisiana, Mississippi and Florida. This oil could wind up in the Atlantic Ocean and come ashore in some pretty high-priced areas. Only when something horrible directly affects you, will you take action.

This whole mess reminded me of a song the Byrds wrote many years ago:

The Hungry Planet

I'm a hungry planet, I had a youthful face.

They were in such a hurry to go to outer space.

They needed bombs and tungsten, ore and iron too,

So they climbed, and they dug, and they blew--divided me right in two.

I'm a hungry planet orbiting in the sky.

The things they did to hurt me pass on by and by.

Now here I am all alone, they never ever learn.

Well I had to shake and quake and make their houses burn.

I'm a hungry planet, I had the bluest seas.

All the people kept chopping down all my finest trees.

Poisoning my oxygen, diggin' in my skin.

Takin' more out of my Earth, than they'll ever put back in.

I'm a hungry planet.

The Byrds (1970)

Tags: hungry planet, oil plumes in gulf, florida oil spill, mississippi oil spill, louisiana oil spill, the byrds, 1970