The oil is still there (under the sand)

A colleague in the US writes:

I was recently at a presentation of the damage that BP has done to the Gulf of Mexico. BP has spent $100 million on PR and is saying that the beaches are clean, that the oil has evaporated, been digested or otherwise dispersed.

However, finding the pollution is as simple as digging a couple of inches into the sand on the barrier islands, where you'll find about a foot of coagulated oil. [see photo] We're very concerned that BP is about to declare victory and avoid doing a full cleanup.

Well, I don't know exactly what to make of this - it certainly seems as though there's a lot of oil still out there. But in general I don't think bashing BP over the oil spill has helped a great deal - they drill for oil in the gulf because we buy it off them afterwards, so the problem of getting off fossil fuels (and away from the risks of drilling) is one that we all share responsibility for solving. 

Even so, the photos are striking. They are by Shawn Carey, a photographer who works for the Massachusetts Audubon Society, and who is campaigning to extend the clean-up.