homepage for Dead Pelicans, BP, and You

Dead Pelicans, B.P., and You:
Environmental, Economic, and Political Issues
of the Gulf Coast Oil Spill

Announcements

I've updated the "resources" section (near the bottom of this page) with additional items that may be useful for your group projects or letters to officials.
On-campus instruction resumes Monday at 1pm in our usual classroom, CC 108. Be prepared to discuss the recent reading assignments.
Journals will be due in class Monday January 24. If your journal is not extremely legible, please type it up and print it out. We need to be able to read it in order to assign a grade. Thanks!

Syllabus

Click here for the syllabus, which contains information about course objectives, course requirements, and travel rules and regulations for our trip.

Assignments and readings

Instructions for the fact-finding assignment, week 1 (this is the pink handout distributed on the first day of J-term)

Here's a compilation of your summaries. We will give each of you a printed copy, as well.

Guidelines for the group project
National Geographic article on the BP oil spill (copies on yellow paper were distributed on the first day of J-term) - for the excellent photos and graphics that accompany this article, see the National Geographic website here.
Professor Mast's reading assignment for Wednesday January 5: Salzman and Thompson
Klein, "How much does a gallon of gas cost?" (copies were distributed in class Friday 1/7)
Klare, "The Oil Catastrophe" <-- print this and bring it unless you'll be bringing your laptop
Samuelson, "Overconfident and underregulated" <-- print this and bring it unless you'll be bringing your laptop
Here's a pair of articles from the new issue of the Economist (a weekly news magazine like Time or Newsweek, but its target audience is more educated). The articles discuss findings in a newly released government report about the causes of the well blowout and oil spill.

Here's a good CNN article (and short video clip): "Louisiana officials: Parts of coastline still heavily oiled"

Instructors' contact information

Schedule of on-campus meetings

Trip details

Your insurance card and government-issued photo ID (such as drivers license or passport)
Essential items to pack:
Rain gear, comfortable walking shoes, a notebook or pad for your required daily journaling, chargers for your gadgets (phone, ipod, etc), a camera (don't forget to charge the battery before you leave, or bring fresh batteries with you)
A daypack-type backpack or messenger bag, etc, for carrying stuff around (use this as one of your carryons)
Spending money
Readings: If you're not bringing a laptop, print the readings that we've distributed electronically, either via email or at this website. Also, bring the readings that we've passed out in class. If you are bringing a laptop, download the readings to your computer so you can access them even when you're away from a wifi hotspot.

Airline: Airtran Airways
Outbound: Flight 0618, Monday January 10, depart Milwaukee 12:30pm, arrive New Orleans 2:49pm
Return: Flight 0619, Thursday January 20, depart New Orleans 3:25pm, arrive Milwaukee 5:40pm
Students are responsible for checked baggage fees, currently $20 for the first checked bag and $25 for the second. There's a weight limit of 50 pounds per checked bag. We strongly advise that each student check only one suitcase.
Carry-ons: Passengers may bring one carry-on and one personal item (purse, briefcase, laptop case) on board. (So, basically TWO carry-on items.) Full-size suitcases are not permitted as carry-on items and will need to be checked. We encourage you to make one of your carry-ons a day-pack that you can use while travelling around and outside of New Orleans.

We'll be staying at the Avenue Garden Hotel in New Orleans, 1509 St. Charles Avenue, New Orleans, LA 70130. Phone: 1.800.379.5322 or 504.521.8000. Our hotel is centrally located, with convenient access to many points of interest via the St. Charles streetcar and other public trans. Additionally, we will have vans for ground transportation around the area.

On Wednesday January 12, we will drive to Venice, near where the Mississippi River opens up into the Gulf of Mexico. We will stay overnight at the Saltgrass Lodge (phone 228-806-8306). On Thursday, we will take a guided boat tour of the wetlands and marshes in the Mississippi River Delta. Thursday evening, we will return to New Orleans and our rooms at the Avenue Garden Hotel.

Change in plans: instead of spending the night in Grand Isle on Sunday as previously announced, we are driving to Grand Isle Wednesday morning and returning Wednesday night, so we will be staying in the Avenue Garden Hotel every night for the rest of the trip.

Resources

Results of the LSU survey of Gulf Coast residents about the BP oil spill and related issues, June 22, 2010
The President's Oil Spill Commission has released its final report.

Professor Eric Smith, who spoke to us at Tulane University, has published a few short articles about the oil spill in recent issues of Forbes magazine.

Here's the PBS Frontline video we watched in class on Tuesday January 4. This site also has links with more information about some of the topics covered in this video.
Here's the Milton Friedman pencil video shown in class Thursday January 6.
Here are some OPTIONAL books recommended by your instructors that you may enjoy during or after this course. Please DO NOT FEEL OBLIGATED to purchase and read these books during the course.

The Prize: The Epic Quest for Oil, Money, and Power, by Daniel Yergin. An excellent history of the oil industry, won the Pulitzer Prize when it came out in 1992. There's a video documentary based on the book which you can view here.

Oil: Money, Politics, and Power in the 21st Century, by Tom Bower. Brings Yergin's excellent history up to the present.