Filed under: News, President Obama, Race and Civil Rights
Give director Spike Lee a microphone and he's likely to say something controversial. Just ask fellow filmmaker Tyler Perry. But Spike's latest comments may be in line with what a lot of people are actually thinking right now.
Lee, speaking about the BP oil spill on the Gulf Coast, said it was a "lie" that 50 or 75 percent of the oil had disappeared. He said that it was unlikely that "abracadabra, presto chango" the large amount of oil seeping in to the waters had vanished.
Lee made his comments Saturday as he was promoting "If God Is Willing And Da Creek Don't Rise," the follow-up to his award-winning documentary about Hurricane Katrina "When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts." Lee had finished shooting the four-hour documentary, when the BP well exploded and he went back down to chronicle the latest disaster.
He said BP has an "eye opening" amount of power and that journalists have a responsibility to investigate claims that the oil has suddenly disappeared:
"I don't care how many scientists BP buys, that oil is still there. [BP] has been lying from the get-go. You're telling me we've had the biggest oil disaster in the world and it's all gone now? Where did it go? No damage done to the wetlands? I don't believe it. As journalists, you need to ask questions and not accept the lies being told," Lee said.
Spike isn't the only who feels that way about the claims coming from the federal government.
Fifty percent of the oil has been broken down into tiny particles, with 26 percent still remaining as sheen or tarballs that is incredibly toxic to the environment.
"At least 50 percent of the oil that was released is now completely gone from the system, and most of the remainder is degrading rapidly or is being removed from the beaches," Jane Lubchenco, administrator of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, told a White House briefing.
But scientists and area residents and business owners are still skeptical.
"It's troubling that reports are lumping dispersed oil still lurking under the water's surface with oil that's been captured, contributing to the sense that the oil that's been swept under the rug is no longer a problem," Dr. Bruce Stein of the National Wildlife Federation said in a statement. "But scientific evidence shows this oil is far from gone," he said, citing signs of oil-and-dispersant mix under shells of blue crab larvae at the base of the Gulf food chain.
And even the government is saying that there could be long-term environmental effects from the oil spill that we aren't even aware of yet. No one knows how many animals or their habitats will be affected. Who knows when the public will feel comfortable enough to eat seafood from the Gulf of Mexico?
"It's not gone," George Barisich of the United Commercial Fisherman's Alliance, told the New York Times. "Mother Nature didn't suck it up and spit it out."