BP Clean-Up Scaleback

BP incoming CEO Robert Dudley announced Friday, August 6, that it was time to “scale back” the oil spill efforts. This announcement comes in response to claims that most of the oil on the water’s surface has been skimmed. Still, it remains unknown how much oil is under the water. The Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) held a roundtable discussion regarding BP’s announcement, and experts from the Land, Water, and Wildlife and International Climate Programs, and the EDF, stated their concerns. Steve Hamburg, of the EDF, said, “Most of these smaller molecules are still somewhere in the Gulf’s waters, and as they decompose, they will consume oxygen, which will threaten the Gulf ecosystem.” The latest numbers from the International Bird Rescue Research Center reports that 5,771 birds affected by the oil spill that have been collected, more than 3,900 of which have died, and of the 1,020 sea turtles affected and collected, 517 have died.