the oil spill and animals, kyrie eleison
While we're going to continue our series on baby animals this week, it's impossible to overlook the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico which is growing more catastrophic by the day, including 11 precious lives lost and an incalculable impact on ecosystems and all forms of sea life.
While it was intially thought the spill would be contained fairly quickly, anywhere from 5,000 to 25,000 barrels of oil are still gushing from the BP Deepwater Horizon rig off the coast of Louisiana every day. In fact, the oil slick is "already the size of Puerto Rico," and is quickly swelling into the worst in American history, even larger than the Alaskan Exxon Valdez tanker disaster of 1989 (Stephanie Feldstein's "Oil Spill Could Be Worst Case Scenario for Wildlife" on Change.org, and aslo AlterNet's "Oil Disaster 5X Worse than Estimated, 'Churning Slick' Now the Size of Puerto Rico").
Stephanie goes on to write about the extensive, and mounting, danger for animals at Change.org,
It's bad enough when the oil stays out at sea. It ends up getting ingested by some marine mammals and fish, but many of the animals can still swim away and stay out of danger. But with the slick on its way to shore, things are about to get really ugly. The marshes along the coastline will soak the oil up with sponge-like efficiency, which will affect the very base of the food chain, starting with plankton. Birds become coated and unable to fly; mammals get oil in their lungs when they come up for air. It will also contaminate beaches and wetlands where it's nesting season for birds and turtles.
In a follow-up post, she mentions the first oil-soaked bird to be rescued this past Friday, a brown northern gannet. All types of humane and wildlife organizations are "gearing up for a massive rescue effort," but even their best collective efforts will likely only be a drop in the bucket when it comes to animals needing assistance. 400 species altogether reside along Louisiana's coast, and the oil is heading straight for them if it hasn't reached them already (with the help of currents, it may even end up snaking around Florida and up along the East Coast, affecting even more sea life). Endangered species are already among them, and more may be at risk ("Rescuers Prepare to Save Animals from the Oil Spill").
It's easy to focus blame on corporate BP and opportunistic goverment for this offshore drilling catastrophe. But our friends Ed Brown of Care of Creation and Rusty Pritchard of Flourish both have posted excellent perspectives ("How Do You Pray About an Oil Spill?" and "Spill, Baby, Spill") on the culpability all of us share in the disaster because of our collective demand for ever more abundant and cheap energy, similar to the West Virginia mining tragedy of a month ago.
As Rusty suggests, we need to change our consumption habits, individually and communally:
Choices we make at the margin, to conserve or to consume, are incredibly important. Each increment of energy we demand drives workers into riskier situations in ever more sensitive ecological areas. In contrast, each increment of energy we save or replace with renewable alternatives reduces the need for workers and creation to undergo these high risks.
But what in the world else can we do with the spill seemingly swelling out of control? Ed calls us to our knees in repentance and to seek God's mercy and grace. Scott Williams of Creation Hope calls us to urgent and desperate prayer as well, and here's part of a very meaningful one he shares himself ("A Prayer for the Gulf Coast Oil Spill"):
We praise You for your wonderful creation,
But now plead with You for your intervention.
In the face of great tragedy we turn to You,
We ask that You step in with works of restoration. ...
What a shame that Your creatures should suffer!
Lord, please protect and heal them.
What a shame that Your creation should be damaged!
Lord, please protect and restore it. ...
We pray all this in the name of our LORD,
the Creator, Sustainer, and Redeemer of all things.
Amen, and kýrie eléison ... Lord, have mercy.
(photo courtesy NASA's Goddard/MODIS Rapid Response Team, taken 05/01/10)
May 3, 2010
Reader Comments (3)
Thank you for this beautiful reflection. My heart is so broken for these precious animals.....Joining with you in prayer. Peace for your Path, Robin
What an excellent and beautiful prayer! I pray that more Christians would be like minded - that they would come to see this not only as an ecological disaster (and a huge blow to some people's stock portfolios), but as a tragedy grieving God. We need to keep being outspoken about God's care for creation so that Christians can come to right thinking and right worship of God about matters like energy, consumption and the environment. I'm so grateful for posts like this.
Robin, thanks so much for your note, and for sharing Scott's prayer as you did. And Lauren, I really appreciate the encouragement and identification with the concern which you expressed - Ben