It was two years ago tomorrow that the Deepwater Horizon rig exploded, leading to the largest oil spill in our nation’s history. And one of the strategies that BP and the federal government used to mask the enormity of the disaster was dispersants, the chemical liquid poured into the Gulf of Mexico in massive quantities. At least 1.9 million gallons of Corexit were deposited into the sea. We were told by the relevant authorities that all this was perfectly safe. And once the traditional media mostly looked away, there was no way for us to know.

Except that pesky Al Jazeera did some actual reporting.

On April 20, 2010, the Deepwater Horizon rig off the coast of Louisiana exploded, causing an oil gusher which spewed over 205 million gallons of oil and 225,000 tons of methane into the Gulf of Mexico. In the ensuing months, a lot of time and money has been invested in selling the idea that the Gulf has been healed, and on the road to recovering its former glory. We don’t have to buy that particular product. We can instead take the lessons of folks like the Center for Biological Diversity, which used available public data to chronicle the toll on marine wildlife in the Gulf.

Fishermen’s woes, a paddle trip through the bayou, and staying true to ourselves — a journey along State Highway 46 in Louisiana through St. Bernard parish, towards the Gulf of Mexico.