Palast takes us on a fast paced, kick ass narrative that globe trots from the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil blowout in the Gulf of Mexico, to the coast of Alaska, to New Orleans, to Liberia, to Azerbaijan, to Fukushima, Japan. It’s the real-deal investigative reporting of corporate irresponsibility. As Greg Palast said himself in an interview,” This book is a story of the 1%. It’s why we occupy.”

You can’t miss the whiff as you drive along the 10 freeway heading to or from Arizona, a strange and horrifying stench, the Salton Sea. Chris Metzler–who visited us last year with “Everyday Sunshine: The Story of Fishbone”–co-directed “Plagues and Pleasures on the Salton Sea, an occasionally whimsical and deeply sad look at a man-made lake; the hopes, dreams and disasters that sprung from it; and the people who try to stay afloat on its shores.

I went to the home of Raleigh and Kay Leseigne, 60-something residents of Grand Isle who have both lived here their whole lives. Raleigh and Kay made a memorial to their last oysters, putting them up on a shelf in their home. Kay wrote on the memorial: “We love you, going to miss you.”

Louisianans are rightly pissed. Many are frustrated to the point they have to stop talking about the oil and its long-term effects. Fishermen are distraught. Folks from the Lower Ninth Ward, where I’m staying, down to Venice are taking out their anger with handwritten signs. “Damn BP, God Bless America” said one. Another urged people to call “David ‘Oil’ Vitter” and “Mary ‘Oil’ Landrieu.” One van was spraypainted with “Drill Baby Drill: This is War.”

Today, BP claims it must keep hiding dispersing its oil catastrophe in the Gulf of Mexico with its subsidiary’s product, Corexit, because the alternative dispersants could be endocrine disruptors. One nasty form of endocrine disruptor is called PAH. In the real world, we’ve known since 2004 that the very same Corexit that BP has been [...]

As the oil hits the reefs, offshore bars and beaches of the Gulf of Mexico, are we faced with another Exxon Valdez catastrophe? Yes. Can we learn from that disaster in how this ongoing tragedy is documented by artists? Absolutely. Here is some of how we can do it. You may add your suggestions too.