BP PLC was leasing the Deepwater Horizon rig when it exploded April 20, killing 11 workers and triggering the massive oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico.  As the Associated Press reports: “thick, sticky oil crept deeper into delicate marshes of the Mississippi Delta, an arrival dreaded for a month since the crude started spewing into the Gulf, as anger and frustration mounted over efforts to plug the gusher from a blown-out well and contain the spill.”

According to the report: “Everything in that marsh is dead as we speak,” Plaquemines Parish President Billy Nungesser said after touring the clogged marshes. “Had you fallen off that boat yesterday and come up breathing that stuff, you probably wouldn’t be here, either.”

Home to rare birds and mammals, Louisiana’s wetlands are presently ground zero for this growing black tide.

What follows is a brief chronology and links to stories leading to the still-active and increasing environmental disaster:  

• Difficult pictures of seabirds caught in the BP oil spill: http://bit.ly/9Xg4MA (via the Associated Press June 4)
• BP Removed from Dow Jones Sustainability Indexes http://bit.ly/aqGfBC (via The Inspired Economist  June 3)
• Louisiana and Mississippi Coastal Property Values – Impacts of our Black Tide: http://wp.me/pF7Va-hA (via NuWire Investor June 1)
• Vintage video of Teddy Roosevelt in Louisiana – now a National Wildlife Refuge http://ow.ly/1Rqc9 and USFWS Pacific employees deployed to Louisiana to help. http://ow.ly/1Rqbi (Via US Fish & Wildlife Service Pacific Region May 28)
• Sign Up for Deepwater Horizon Response Text Message Alerts http://bit.ly/aAC00D (Via USEPA May 21)
• Oil leak threatens Louisiana’s marshes http://bit.ly/9dA59W (Via PressTV May 20)
• Update – Giant Oil Plumes Found Under the Gulf  http://bit.ly/9Dsiun (Via Gather May 16)
• Underwater Video Shows Oil and Gas Streaming from the Damaged Riser http://ow.ly/1KyV2 (Via The New York Times May 13)
• If Exxon Valdez is an example, Louisiana is in for a long cleanup http://ow.ly/1Hysw (Via CBC News May 11)
• Congress grills execs on ‘cascade of failures’ behind Gulf oil spill http://bit.ly/9tihoo (Via The Associated Press May 11)
• What You Wish You Didn’t Know About Oil Spills http://bit.ly/daeo8q (Via NWF Senior Scientist Doug Inkley May 9)
• Video of flight over BP oil slick shows disaster’s enormity http://bit.ly/aCRV8T  (Via the Institute for Southern Studies May 5)
• Louisiana fishing boat captain reels in spilled oil off Venice http://ow.ly/1GXyE (Via National Wildlife Federation May 4)
• BP Fights Oil Spill with welding torches, cash http://ow.ly/1GXsz (Via Environmental News Network May 4)
• 1O Things You Can Do to Help Oil Spill Recovery http://ow.ly/1Gv16 (Via US News & World Report May 3)
• Gulf Coast Towns Brace as Huge Oil Slick Nears Marshes http://ow.ly/1FXrp (Via The New York Times May 1)
• Hundreds line up for oil spill cleanup jobs in Florida http://bit.ly/abpdBA (Via USAToday)
• Oil spill reaches Louisiana shore http://bit.ly/bwQTZX (Via the Shreveport Times April 30)
• BP’s Containment Problem Unprecedented http://tinyurl.com/2877trg (Via the Los Angeles Times April 29)