The Tarball Chronicles: A Journey Beyond the Oiled Pelican and Into the Heart of the Gulf Oil Spill

by David Gessner

Overview

This bestselling account of an environmental disaster’s aftermath offers “a firsthand look at the Gulf after the news cycle ended . . . brilliant.” —Publishers Weekly (starred review)

Winner of an ASLE Book Award and a Reed Award

Named a Top Book from the South by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Traveling the shores of the Gulf from east to west with oceanographers, subsistence fishermen, seafood distributors, and other longtime Gulf residents, environmental advocate and acclaimed author of All the Wild That Remains David Gessner offers a lively, arresting account of the aftermath of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill.

With The Tarball Chronicles, Gessner tells a story that extends beyond the archetypal oil-soaked pelican, beyond politics, beyond BP, and beyond other oil-spill accounts. Instead, heart on his sleeve and beer in hand, he explores the ecosystem of the Gulf as a complicated whole and focuses on the people whose lives and livelihoods have been jeopardized by the spill. With his signature combination of intellect, passion, and humor, Gessner asks how much we are willing to sacrifice for the conveniences of modern life.

“Gessner has the heart and mind of an investigative journalist.” —Mobile Press-Register

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781571318398
Publisher:	Milkweed Editions
Publication date:	10/05/2021
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	320
File size:	712 KB

About the Author

David Gessner is the author of seven books, including My Green Manifesto (Milkweed Editions, 2011), Soaring with Fidel (Beacon Press, 2008), Sick of Nature (Dartmouth Press, 2005), The Prophet of Dry Hill (Beacon Press, 2005), and Return of the Osprey (Ballantine Books, 2002), which was chosen by the Boston Globe as one of the top ten nonfiction books of the year. The winner of a Pushcart Prize as well as the John Burroughs Award for Best Natural History Essay, his work has also appeared in many magazines and journals including the New York Times Magazine, the Boston Globe, Outside, the Georgia Review, the Harvard Review, and Orion. He has taught environmental writing at Harvard, and is currently an assistant professor at the University of North Carolina at Wilmington, where he edits the national literary journal, Ecotone.

Table of Contents

Prelude: Into the Gulf 3

I In the Thick of It

The Green Sun Rises: July 16,2010 17

Forces of Nature 31

II My Crowded Day

Up in the Air 45

The Case Against Straight Lines 57

Russian Dolls 71

Beyond Flipper 83

A Night at the Fish Camp 99

III "Firm Ground Is Not Available Ground"

Barriers 119

Stress Balls 137

The Oiled Pelican 151

Atlantis 163

IV Beyond the Oiled Pelican

Migrations 185

Déjà Vu: A Northern Interlude 203

V Return

Two Stories 221

Faith 237

Energy 257

Adaptation 271

The Testimony of Captain Ryan Lambert 281

Notes 289

Editorial Reviews

Though the 2010 Deepwater Horizon spill in the Gulf of Mexico turned America's eyes towards the potential environmental consequences of our insatiable appetite for oil, people quickly looked away when pictures no longer depicted black beaches and oil-slicked pelicans. However, the oil lingered, made invisible by dispersants, and it continues to destroy Louisiana estuaries. Award-winning environmental writer Gessner (My Green Manifesto) decided to go down to the Gulf, meet the people, see the animals and the waters for himself, and ask difficult questions. How much of the natural world are we willing to sacrifice to maintain our over-consuming lifestyles? What are the invisible environmental impacts of the spill? How could America trust the people who made the mistake to clean it up? Though he doesn't come away with easy answers, Gessner educates readers and offers compelling images and vivid descriptions of the Gulf. Readers may feel helpless and angered by the destruction taking place there, as well as overwhelmed by the fatalistic views of climate scientists and environmental experts. Anyone who wanted a first-hand look at the Gulf after the news cycle ended will find it here, but this brilliant, thoughtful book will leave them disquieted. (Sept.)

Publishers Weekly

“Anyone who wanted a first-hand look at the Gulf after the news cycle ended will find it here . . . brilliant.” —Publishers Weekly (starred review)

"If you read only one book about the Deepwater Horizon oil spill this year, it should be this one. If you plan not to read any books about it, make an exception for this blunt, funny, eye-opening quest to find the real stories behind the Gulf crisis." —Shelf Awareness

“Expressive and adventurous. A profoundly personal inquiry into the aftermath of the Deepwater Horizon catastrophe unique in its hands-on immediacy and far-ranging ruminations.” —Donna Seaman, Booklist

“Brilliant—the best and most original writing coming out of the Gulf.”—Scott Dodd, OnEarth magazine, Natural Resources Defense Council

“David Gessner is on a roll.” —Times-Picayune

“Gessner has the heart and mind of an investigative journalist. . . . Not everyone will be pleased with this Jeremiah in our midst, but the word is a fire and a hammer, and Gessner delivers it well.” —Mobile Press-Register

“An expert naturalist, he not only observes but talks with people who are in the know—forceful, insightful, blood-and-guts people who will speak their minds (like David). There is grit and heartbreak and energy in just about everything he writes.”—Clyde Edgerton, the author of Lunch at the Piccadilly and Walking Across Egypt

“Vivid, funny, opinionated, poignant, and mold breaking—Gessner takes us deep into the environmental and personal tragedies of the spill.” —Jim Campbell, the author of The Final Frontiersman

“Plenty of people are writing about the BP oil disaster, but few indeed will be able to make us feel the reality of it like David Gessner can. The likelihood that his account will also be action-filled and darkly funny is pure bonus.” —John Jeremiah Sullivan, author of Blood Horses

“In this highly readable, firsthand account of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, David Gessner considers the catastrophe in the Gulf as a symptom of even bigger economic and cultural challenges that loom in our future. This excellent book is not judgmental, but thought provoking and well worth reading.” —David Allen Sibley, author of The Sibley Guide to Birds

From the Publisher

While the news cycle has long finished with the Deepwater Horizon disaster of last summer, Gessner (Soaring with Fidel) reminds us that the outcome is still in question. He toured Gulf shorelines during and after the spill, talked with fishermen and biologists, and blogged about what he saw and heard. Growing out of those blog posts, the book is a work of personal journalism full of observations about nature in the Gulf. Gessner asks why BP, a British corporation, was allowed to direct the huge cleanup rather than the U.S. government. A critical difference from the Exxon Valdez calamity and subsequent cleanup is that BP sprayed powerful chemical dispersants to sink oil to the Gulf floor. After speculating that some important fisheries may be decimated for the long term, the author urges readers to make sacrifices in their energy consumption for the sake of future generations. VERDICT This is real-life ecology for adults, who will consider the implications of oil dependence and relentless resource extraction.—David R. Conn, formerly with Surrey Libs., B.C.

Library Journal