Impact of BP Gulf Oil Spill in Photos

For those who do not live near the coast of Louisiana and cannot witness the terrible impact that BP's Deepwater Horizon oil spill is having upon the coast of Louisiana, it may be easy to believe politicians like Haley Barbour as characterized in the NY Times: "Even the oil that gets close to Mississippi is not so bad, Mr. Barbour was insisting Wednesday... 'By the time it gets up here, it’s been out in the gulf for so long that mostly, it doesn’t look like oil,' he said. 'It’s very mixed with water. A lot of it is orange or caramel in color.' " Without being on hand, to see the damage and the necessity for long-term clean up and habitat restoration, one might even understand Texas Republican Congressman Joe Barton's insistence that convincing BP to set aside a portion of their profits to pay for cleanup efforts was a shake down and completely unjustified.

• Photos of the Impact of the BP Gulf Oil Spill

However, looking at some of the photos of the oil that is only beginning to work its way into the marshlands of Louisiana, yes even the orange, caramel colored oil remnants that don't seem to bother Mr. Barbour in neighboring Mississippi shows very clearly the magnitude of the impact of the damage from the oil spilling into the gulf from the wreckage of BP's Deepwater Horizon oil rig. While workers struggle to save as many individual birds as possible, it is the loss of breeding grounds and habitat that will be most damaging to the wildlife populations over the next decades.

All the grass and other plants of the Louisiana marshlands that come into contact with the oil will likely die, leaving the sand and soil free to erode away into the gulf, making it next to impossible to restore these marshes to their previous conditions. As the photos show, the rising and falling tides, along with winds toss the oil over the booms and even leave the booms themselves lifted up and out of the water in the marshes. There is currently no effective means for keeping the oil off the Louisiana coast. When the gulf storms of late summer start bringing the heavy weather and storm surges, all this oil is going to be pushes much further inland. Don't be surprised if there are oil soaked booms being carried miles inland by tropical storms or hurricanes this August.

There is also no method for protecting the rich shellfish beds of the Gulf of Mexico from the effects of the oil and toxic chemical dispersants being used to break up that oil. Pictures of the undersea devastation are non-existent as yet, and will only be seen over the course of years and decades. When the price of Gulf seafood like oysters starts rising because the populations have died off, consumers will be footing the bill without any recompense from BP.

Take a look at the photos in this slideshow of the impact of the BP gulf oil spill on the environment and you decide whether we should be apologizing to BP for treating them too harshly by making them forgo dividends for a few quarters to clean up the mess they have made of Louisiana. A mess, that despite all efforts to the contrary will leave an impact that last decades at a minimum.