Cempaka Maritime, Marine and Fisheries: Bitterness over Exxon Valdez lingers, 25 years on

"A Summary" – Apr 2, 2011 (Kryon channelled by Lee Carroll) (Subjects: Religion, Shift of Human Consciousness, 2012, Intelligent/Benevolent Design, EU, South America, 5 Currencies, Water Cycle (Heat up, Mini Ice Ace, Oceans, Fish, Earthquakes ..), Middle East, Internet, Israel, Dictators, Palestine, US, Japan (Quake/Tsunami Disasters , People, Society ...), Nuclear Power Revealed, Hydro Power, Geothermal Power, Moon, Financial Institutes (Recession, Realign integrity values ..) , China, North Korea, Global Unity,..... etc.) - (Text version)

“2011 and Beyond” - What you are seeing, and why - Jan 16, 2011 (Kryon channelled by Lee Carroll) (Text version)

"The Timing of the Great Shift" – Mar 21, 2009 (Kryon channelled by Lee Carroll) - (Text version)

“ … Here is another one. A change in what Human nature will allow for government. "Careful, Kryon, don't talk about politics. You'll get in trouble." I won't get in trouble. I'm going to tell you to watch for leadership that cares about you. "You mean politics is going to change?" It already has. It's beginning. Watch for it. You're going to see a total phase-out of old energy dictatorships eventually. The potential is that you're going to see that before 2013.

They're going to fall over, you know, because the energy of the population will not sustain an old energy leader ..."

(Live Kryon Channelings was given 7 times within the United Nations building.)

Kryon Q&A

Question: Dear Kryon: I live in Spain. I am sorry if I will ask you a question you might have already answered, but the translations of your books are very slow and I might not have gathered all information you have already given. I am quite concerned about abandoned animals. It seems that many people buy animals for their children and as soon as they grow, they set them out somewhere. Recently I had the occasion to see a small kitten in the middle of the street. I did not immediately react, since I could have stopped and taken it, without getting out of the car. So, I went on and at the first occasion I could turn, I went back to see if I could take the kitten, but it was to late, somebody had already killed it. This happened some month ago, but I still feel very sorry for that kitten. I just would like to know, what kind of entity are these animals and how does this fit in our world. Are these entities which choose this kind of life, like we do choose our kind of Human life? I see so many abandoned animals and every time I see one, my heart aches... I would like to know more about them.

Answer: Dear one, indeed the answer has been given, but let us give it again so you all understand. Animals are here on earth for three (3) reasons.

(1) The balance of biological life. . . the circle of energy that is needed for you to exist in what you call "nature."

(2) To be harvested. Yes, it's true. Many exist for your sustenance, and this is appropriate. It is a harmony between Human and animal, and always has. Remember the buffalo that willingly came into the indigenous tribes to be sacrificed when called? These are stories that you should examine again. The inappropriateness of today's culture is how these precious creatures are treated. Did you know that if there was an honoring ceremony at their death, they would nourish you better? Did you know that there is ceremony that could benefit all of humanity in this way. Perhaps it's time you saw it.

(3) To be loved and to love. For many cultures, animals serve as surrogate children, loved and taken care of. It gives Humans a chance to show compassion when they need it, and to have unconditional love when they need it. This is extremely important to many, and provides balance and centering for many.

Do animals know all this? At a basic level, they do. Not in the way you "know," but in a cellular awareness they understand that they are here in service to planet earth. If you honor them in all three instances, then balance will be the result. Your feelings about their treatment is important. Temper your reactions with the spiritual logic of their appropriateness and their service to humanity. Honor them in all three cases.

China calls for peaceful settlement of maritime disputes

Sunday, March 23, 2014

Bitterness over Exxon Valdez lingers, 25 years on

Google – AFP, Gregor Waschinski (AFP), 22 March 2014

Oil spill cleanup workers board a small boat off Naked Island on Prince

Williams Sound on April 2, 1989 (AFP/File, Chris Wilkins)

Washington — On a cold March night 25 years ago, the supertanker Exxon Valdez struck a reef off the coast of Alaska, spilling 11 million gallons of crude oil into the sea.

Images of oil-soaked birds and fouled beaches horrified the United States, leading to tighter regulation and greater environmental consciousness.

The Exxon Valdez grounding on March 24, 1989, has since been replaced by the 2010 Deepwater Horizon disaster in the Gulf of Mexico as the worst oil spill in US history.

Yet local communities in the formerly pristine Prince William Sound are suffering.

John Thomas, Betty Bang and Fred Weltz

(L-R) bag up dead oil-soaked sea otters to

be shipped via helicopter on April 3, 1989

from Green Island in Prince Williams

Sound to Valdez for autopsy (AFP/File,

Chris Wilkins)

"There is a lot of bitterness still to this day," Steve Rothchild from the Prince William Sound Regional Citizens' Advisory Council told AFP.

The council was created after the spill to oversee oil transportation and provide a voice for the communities that were struggling after the collapse of the fishing industry.

Rothchild complains that Exxon did not fulfill its promise to "make the people whole."

"When the court case was finally adjudicated, the people got pennies on the dollar they really deserved," he said, using an expression meaning they were short-changed.

Dwindling salmon population

The oil giant, which changed its name to ExxonMobil after a merger in 1999, was originally ordered to pay $5 billion to more than 32,000 Alaska Natives, landowners and commercial fishermen.

After a lengthy legal battle, the Supreme Court limited the punitive damages in June 2008 to about $500 million.

Exxon also spent more than $2 billion on the cleanup effort and reached a settlement with the US government that included $900 million in payments, a $25 million criminal fine and $100 million in restitution.

Angela Day's husband was a fisherman in the small port town of Cordova before the dwindling salmon and herring populations forced him out of business.

The oil tanker Exxon Baton Rouge (L)

continues to offload crude oil from the

crippled tanker Exxon Valdez (R) in

Prince William Sound on March 28,

1989 (AFP/File, Chris Wilkins)

"He's been fishing there for about 30 years, he grew up in the fishing industry and had two vessels at the time of the oil spill," Day said.

"It was really hard on the community," she recalled, adding that the disruption of the local economy led to "more drinking, some suicides, more divorces."

Exxon hired some fishermen to help the cleanup effort but many lost their livelihoods as the value of their boats and fishing permits plummeted.

"My husband did not even get back a quarter of what his two fishing vessels were worth at the time," said Day, author of the recently published account "Red Light to Starboard: Recalling the Exxon Valdez Disaster."

'Got people thinking'

During that fateful March night in 1989, the captain Joseph Hazelwood diverted the Exxon Valdez from the normal course to avoid icebergs before he left the bridge.

With an unlicensed and possibly overworked third mate in charge, the 986-foot (300-meter) tanker failed to return to the shipping lanes and ran aground.

Witnesses saw Hazelwood drinking vodka in a local bar before the departure and a blood test showed alcohol several hours after the accident, but a jury found him not guilty on the charge of operating a vessel while under the influence of alcohol.

The toxic crude polluted 1,300 miles (2,000 kilometers) of shoreline and took the lives of an estimated 250,000 seabirds, 2,800 sea otters, 300 harbor seals and as many as 22 killer whales. The cleanup efforts went on for four summers.

"There was a sea change in environmental consciousness," Day said.

"The disaster got people thinking about how we are getting our energy."

New legislation required that all tankers transporting oil through Prince William Sound must have double hulls and be escorted by two tugboats. Contingency planning was ramped up.

But even a quarter century later, remnants of the spill linger on the shores of southern Alaska.

A smaller vessel pulls a containment boom, lower left, as the tanker Exxon

baton Rouge continues to offload crude oil from the crippled oil tanker Exxon

Valdez, background, on March 29, 1989 (AFP/File, Chris Wilkins)

A recent study found hidden pockets of oil on remote rocky beaches.

"We have learned that certain kinds of beaches with boulder are hard to clean up," said lead researcher Gail Irvine from the US Geological Survey, stressing that the mousse-like oil can "persist for decades" once it is in sheltered positions.

'Cleanup artist'

A report by the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill Trustee Council identified in 2010 approximately 50 beach segments with lingering oil, representing a total shoreline length of about 1.5 miles.

"You can dig a hole a foot down and find liquid oil," Jeep Rice, a retired longtime researcher with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), told AFP.

"The oil that's below the surface declines very slowly. It's probably gonna be there for another 50 years."

At least most species have recovered from the environmental disaster.

"Prince William Sound is a functioning ecosystem. The water is clean," Rothchild said.

"Nature is a wonderful thing, nature is its own cleanup artist."