Your HELP Is Needed

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After much thought I decided to post this article because, as the article says, it matters that people see the images of the reality this catastrophe is having on the Gulf wildlife. I have been avoiding seeing these photos, and I have been reluctant to post them. They break my heart to think what these animals may have gone through just before they died -- I cry for them, and I didn't want to expose you, the viewers of this blog, to these pictures; but this article is important and everybody needs to be aware of the devastating effect this oil spill is having on the living creatures in the area.

As horrible as these images are, here they are to remind everybody that this is a catastrophe a lot bigger than it seems. BP, Tony Hayward, President Obama, Anderson Cooper, all the TV and press organizations and us! need to work harder to stop this disaster at any cost as soon as possible. 46 days is a long time to have this calamity going on, enough of it. WE need to do something to stop it -- not just talk and report about it.

Please, I ask you, who is reading these lines, sit for a moment and think what you can do to help: an e-mail, a call, a blog post, a talk to your friends and family, anything will be useful to help put an end to this horrible man-created aberration.

Please HELP! any way you can. Thank You.

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Why the latest Gulf wildlife photos matter so much

Fri Jun 4, 4:24 pm ET

Over the past 46 days, the media have captured hundreds of images from the oil spill, from grainy, underwater video of oil gushing into the Gulf to President Obama arriving in the region.

But as the oil begins washing ashore, photos will capture the more wrenching, and dramatic, impact of the spill on wildlife in the Gulf Coast region. Some of these images have already been published, but it wasn't until Thursday, when an Associated Press photographer snapped disturbing pictures of pelicans and other birds completely submerged in oil, that the spill's devastating effect on wildlife truly reverberated across media platforms, from Twitter to blogs, cable news to the daily paper.

Santiago Lyon, the AP's director of photography, told Yahoo! News that when he first saw photographer Charlie Riedel's shots Thursday afternoon, he "immediately recognized these were extraordinary and unique images."

"These are the first images we've seen that show, in a dramatic way, these birds completely saturated in thick oil," Lyon said. "I think that's why they're getting such prominent usage in various media outlets. Until now, we haven't seen images with this amount of oil on wildlife."

Judging by the public response, Riedel's images stand out from what's been shot so far, recalling the images of oil-soaked wildlife forever linked to the Exxon Valdez spill. On Thursday, there was immediately buzz on Twitter and cable news, with the Boston Globe publishing eight of the oil photos on its popular blog "The Big Picture." By Friday morning, newspaper readers across the country awoke to the same AP images on their doorsteps.

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If you'd like to see 27 of these horrible images you can click, at your own risk, here:
Strong Stomach

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In the nation's capital, lawmakers could have seen them on the cover of the Washington Post, which ran two photos above the fold Friday morning, or the Washington Times, which placed one at the bottom of the front page. The AP photos ran on front pages far outside the Beltway, too, including Georgia's Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Florida's Palm Beach Post, Virginia's Danville Register & Bee, Wyoming's Boomerang, and Alaska's Anchorage Daily News. (Politico's Patrick Gavin highlights many more).

Lyon said there are two reasons why photojournalists are able to get such shots now. For one, the bulk of the oil had been at sea, but is now approaching land. And second, Lyon stressed that journalists have had limited access to the spill, with BP enlisting local and federal government officials to restrict reporting from the area. Riedel was able to get these photos because he traveled with Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal to the state's East Grand Terre Island.

The AP wasn't the only news organization to get such images Thursday. Anderson Cooper, who made his name covering Hurricane Katrina, and spent more time than almost any cable news journalist in Haiti after the earthquake, is down in the Gulf region covering this latest disaster.

Cooper also visited the island Thursday, with his crew capturing the "sickening sight" on video.

"I've never really seen birds that close who were so ridden with oil, so literally drenched in oil, sort of gasping for breath," Cooper reported.

Despite the ability to watch a live stream of oil flowing underwater, photos of birds soaked in oil and unable to move freely can produce a much more immediate emotional impression on news audiences. Lyon said that the "impact of a still image is quite remarkable in a digital world."

— Michael Calderone is the media writer for Yahoo! News.