Gulf States & Tennessee Valley

Next Alexandra and the Expedition Blue Planet crew journey to the Gulf states, where she and the expedition team investigate our impact on water - a critical facet of every water story - as seen through the lens of a carbon culture.

Here the crew will see firsthand the water impacts and public risk of our current energy extraction practices, whether it's devastation from failures during offshore oil production, coal ash slurry spills along Tennessee rivers, or the impacts of climate change on marine life in the Florida Keys. Alexandra will talk to those who have the most to lose, if they haven't lost it already: Americans who have lost their culture, livelihoods and loved ones in the Deepwater Horizon oil spill; Alabamians whose white sand beaches are gummed up with tar balls to the detriment of the tourism upon which they depend; residents of the Tennessee Valley who are still reeling from the TVA Kingston coal-ash spill of 2008.

The team will also revisit the community of La Fourche in Louisiana, where the fishing industry was threatened by a growing dead zone in the sea, to find that oil slicks have wreaked further havoc on this already weakened ecosystem. Alexandra will celebrate in the unsung freshwater biodiversity of Alabama and spell out how it is endangered by our current energy practices. Next, she and the crew visit Florida, where the coral reefs are threatened by ocean acidification and fluctuating ocean temperatures due to climate change.

Along the way, Alexandra will engage people in conversations about the public risks inherent in our energy extraction practices and the intergenerational costs that we suffer when things go wrong. In order to produce energy we take on enormous risks that can incur huge costs to our freshwater, costs that flow in the veins of our watersheds and waterways for generations to come. The Gulf is a visceral reminder that we must address these issues and start these dialogues now.