Written by a Greenpeace activist, the letters BP—referring to the company that leased the damaged
    Deepwater Horizon oil rig—stand out against a pool of oil on a beach at the mouth of the Mississippi
    River on Monday.
    Last week response workers placed an insertion tube inside the destroyed pipe connected to the
    5,000-foot-deep (about 1,500-meter-deep) wellhead. About a thousand barrels a day of gas and oil
    from the leaking wellhead are now being brought to the surface via the tube and burned, according to
    the joint federal-industry task force charged with managing the spill.
    Published May 19, 2010- National Geographic

    Dripping Oil
    Photograph by Hans Deryk, Reuters
    Oil drips from the rubber gloves of Greenpeace marine biologist Paul Horsman, who surveyed oil-
    coated shorelines near the mouth of the Mississippi River in Louisiana this week.
    When oil gets trapped underground in coastal sediments, it can stay there for decades, according to
    Gregory Stone, director of Louisiana State University's Coastal Studies Unit. (See: "Gulf Oil Spill a
    'Dead Zone in the Making'?")
    For instance, on the Mississippi coast—where smaller oil spills have washed ashore in the past—
    researchers have found oil lingering as deep as 20 feet (about 6 meters), Stone said in early May.
    Published May 19, 2010 - National Geographic

    Oil-clogged Marshes
    Photograph by Hans Deryk, Reuters
    Marine biologist Paul Horsman of Greenpeace tramps through oil-clogged marshes on the east bank
    of the Mississippi River in Louisiana on Monday.
    After weeks of staying mostly at sea, the Gulf oil spill is now washing up on the state's coasts—likely a
    devastating development, scientists say. (See pictures of ten animals at risk due to the Gulf oil spill.)
    As the nurseries for much of the sea life in the Gulf of Mexico, coastal marshes are vital to the
    ecosystem and the U.S. seafood industry, according to Texas Tech University ecotoxicologist Ron
    Kendall.
    It's much harder to remove the oil from coastal marshes, since some management techniques—such
    as controlled burns—are more challenging in those environments, Kendall said on May 12.
    "Once it gets in there," he said, "we're not getting it out."
    —Christine Dell'Amore   Published May 19, 2010- National Geographic
Photograph by John Moore, Getty Images
GREEN NEWS 2010
Oil Spill...?? How could we let this Happen?
On April 20, BP's Deepwater Horizon oil rig exploded in the Gulf of Mexico, killing 11 workers and commencing months of
oil leaking unrestrained into the ocean. Efforts to manage the spill with controlled burning, dispersants and plugging the
leak were unsuccessful until BP capped the well in mid-July, temporarily halting the flow of oil into the Gulf. The well was
then successfully plugged and declared "effectively dead" on September 19.

This oil spill has obtained the dubious distinction of being the worst oil spill in US history, surpassing the damage done by
the Exxon Valdez tanker that spilled 11 million gallons of oil into the ecologically sensitive Prince William Sound in 1989. It
is estimated that over 205 million gallons of oil were released into the Gulf.