Earth Protect Blog

I’m in the Gulf now with the OPS crew shooting a horror of epic proportions unfolding here.  Reading that BP CEO Tony Hayward is off yachting while whole towns are all out of jobs is so out of control – I’m incredulous - you couldn’t make this stuff up.  We were trying to get a tour of the estuaries by an out of work fisherman today but he was forced to take a job with BP - suddenly he couldn’t talk to us.  We’re finding that getting anyone to talk is pretty difficult in the Gulf.  The oil companies, one of their own effectively destroying the only competing industry, hold all the cards in this fragile high stakes game with the environment now.   Hard working people are left with no alternative but to sign non-disclosure agreements and start working for the dark side. 

At a time when Japan is being questioned for censoring The Cove the hypocrisy of the right wing in our country (and England) forcing poor fisherman to be silenced is not lost on us.   Seeing oily pelicans, egrets and spoonbills trying to feed their young in their breeding grounds in what has becoming the biggest environmental disaster in America is heartbreaking.  We aim to give these animals and the environment a voice.  But we’re going to use this opportunity to help tell the story of what I believe is the crime of the century, how the burning of fossil fuels is destroying the oceans.  The oil spill is just the most visible manifestation of the bigger disaster that has been unfolding in the environment for quite some time.

Acidification of the oceans, which results from the burning of fossil fuels, has been destroying the oceans since the industrial age but only in the last few years has it been found to be one of the largest environmental problems we face.

The only solace I find is that we are on the side of the good fight.  It gets me up in the morning, it motivates me to do what we do at OPS against overwhelming odds. Next week The Cove comes out in Japan and that effort made the front page of the NY Times yesterday. People told us that would never happen but we have 20 theaters still holding there. After the Oscars, we used our cameras to reveal an LA restaurant that had secretly been serving sushi made from the endangered sei whale. They were shut down. We recently found restaurants in Seoul, Korea to be serving this fare as well and this morning I was told that DNA tests trace the origin to guess where?  Taiji!  Like I said, you couldn’t make this stuff up.  The restaurant owner is facing five years in jail.

This week the IWC votes to abrogate the moratorium on whaling and I’m told by colleagues there The Cove has stirred up a hornet nest –  abuzz also by the London Times creating a sting operation that exposed the Japanese vote-buying scheme.

Thank you all for your support and helping us keep shine a light on the good fight – this kind of evil can’t stand the light!

Onwards and Upwards,

Louie

Director of The Cove

http://www.thecovemovie.com/educate.htm