The Gulf Oil spill and what it means

There has never been a human related disaster to equal the Deep Water Horizon and not a lot of natural ones of the magnitude of the Gulf spill, so to say what the short tern or long term environmental impact will be is speculation. As usual, there are those that say the Gulf will die and others saying it will make no difference. The truth in the end will be between these two opposites. Only time will tell the full story. One thing however, that is certain is that if our visitors stop coming the economic impact will create a disaster perhaps greater than the spill itself. The Alabama Beaches from Dauphin Is., Gulf Shores, and Orange Beach represent one of the largest sources of tax revenues for the state and if that is lost there will be no revenue to repair the damage caused by the spill. It will also cause the loss of thousands of jobs that will further destroy Alabama’s weak economy. There are some figures being circulated that show over 10% of the country’s GDP come from the Gulf States and an interruption of that will directly affect those living in Portland, Mane or Portland, Oregon.

I have spoken to many people over the last few weeks from as far away as New Mexico and Michigan, to those from surrounding states and almost all tell me the beaches do not look nearly as bad as they had been led to believe. It boils down to----the media is killing us by showing nothing but negative pictures, at times reporting from one beach but showing pictures from another state. We do not need to be told that we have oil on our beaches but that changes from day to day, depending on where you go to the beach and how the wind is blowing. You hear “toxic oil” over and over and I wonder how many people associate toxic with radio active material, cyanide, or rat poison. The fact is crude oil is made up of over 90% carbon and hydrogen; anyone that has ever changed oil in the engine room of a boat has been covered with oil. Certainly with oil in the water a swimming advisory will be issued and probably best to keep out of the water, but getting oil on you should be no reason for panic. Another thing I hear over and over is, “My kids would rather play in the pool” or “I don’t like to swim in the Gulf because of Jaws” and besides the beach (which is fine to walk and sunbathe on) is only a part of the many things to do here.

There was a big announcement yesterday that Buffett and the Zack Brown Band will be doing a free concert July 1 and that next week some very big name entertainers will be announced coming to the beach. So, if you really want to help us please just come and spend a day, a night, a week or a month and enjoy this great area and be part of the solution. One post on Facebook I read was from someone that said they had lived here for 25 years and how bad this disaster was and the Gulf was dead. To that person let me simply say, I have been on this beach for over 60 years and in the 40’s there was oil washing up from sunken Liberty ships, along with German U boats. We have survived hurricanes, red tides, bad economies and we will survive this.