Oil Disaster: Foundation Responds
Brown pelicans, a symbol of Louisiana, had just been marked off the endangered species list. But the oil came and coated the birds, making them vulnerable again to the mercies of nature. Along the coast, sea turtles return to a small patch of land, where they rely on the rich waters to make their young grow. Oil has polluted these spawning grounds. Beneath the Gulf, oil plumes and chemical dispersants cause damage that scientists don’t yet understand.
Along the coast, oystermen, shrimpers and fishermen are at a standstill, their boats harbored, maybe for a decade or more. Look among them and you will see Creoles, Cajuns, African Americans, Native Americans, many working a trade taught to them by their fathers and mothers – and on down through the ages. Newer to the fishing businesses are the Vietnamese. Losing their own country, they traveled to America, worked and became our neighbors, only to have the oil take their livelihoods.
BP has committed $20 billion to cover the costs of this disaster, the worst in U.S. history. At the Baton Rouge Area Foundation, experience has taught us that the amount won’t be enough. Given time, BP will exit and the government will turn its attention elsewhere, leaving much more to do.
In response, we have established charitable funds to do whatever is necessary to save the birds, the fish, the turtles – and to make sure the people of the coast get another chance to make a respectable living.
