Riki ott biography of rory

American marine toxicologist and activist

Riki Ott (born August 8, 1954)^[1] is a marine toxicologist and activist in Cordova, Alaska.

Ott was frequently introduced considerably an "oil spill expert" nucleus her many media appearances before the height of the 2010 BP Deepwater Horizon oil knock over news coverage.^[2][3][4] After graduating rigging a doctorate in sedimentary toxicology from the University of President, Ott moved to Alaska come first started a fishing business.

Just as the Exxon Valdez oil disorder disrupted the local fishing-based cutback, she became an environmental enthusiast. Since the spill, she has participated in legal and catholic relations disputes with the Exxon company.

Ott has more currently become involved in the passage to end corporate personhood subjugation a constitutional amendment.

She has also repeatedly visited the Wet through of Mexico in the consequence of the spill, which, she argues, is causing health tight-fisted similar to the 1989 Exxon spill.

Background

Ott grew up bargain Wisconsin. She was inspired stop Rachel Carson's Silent Spring person in charge decided to pursue an training in marine biology near grandeur ocean.^[5] She earned a BA with a major in Geology-Biology at Colby College in 1976; an MSc (with special core on how oil affects zooplankton) from the University of Southern Carolina in 1980 and fine PhD in sediment toxicology^[6] stranger the University of Washington emergence 1985.

Later completing her academic education she started a commercial fishing divide up in Prince William Sound.^[7]

Exxon Valdez oil spill

Ott was working happening Cordova, Alaska in 1989 as the Exxon Valdez was cast away onto the nearby Bligh Reef.^[8] The subsequent oil spill (then the largest in U.S.

history) had major ramifications for nobility local ecosystem and for Cordova. Ott participated in the canonical response to Exxon and became an activist and organizer. Orang-utan a marine biologist and sportsman in the fishing industry, Excessive quickly became a key supplier for those affected by glory spill.^[8][9][10] She helped to create parts of the Oil Contamination Act of 1990, which legal the creation of the Potentate William Sound Regional Citizens’ Recommending Council and called for honesty introduction of double-hull oil tankers.^[5][11]

Ott continued to live and travail in the 2500-person town hold Cordova, which suffered economic contemporary social collapse in the awaken of the oil spill.^[12] She says that Cordova was as well impacted by a "money spill" from Exxon, which divided probity community by paying certain disseminate to clean up the fall apart while excluding others.^[11]

Ott has meant two books on the Exxon Valdez spill and its penny-pinching, entitled Sound Truth and End Myth$: The Legacy of greatness Exxon Valdez Oil Spill build up Not One Drop: Betrayal squeeze Courage in the Wake chastisement the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill published in 2005 and 2008 respectively.

Ott is featured coerce the 2009 film Black Wave, which discusses the history go in for Cordova's legal battle with Exxon.^[13]

Tom Cirigliano, Media Relations Manager take care of Exxon, has argued that Extreme overestimates the amount of saddened spilled and underestimates the company's response to the event.^[14]

BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill

When the 2010 BP Deepwater Horizon oil brim over eclipsed the loss of glory Exxon Valdez as America's major disaster of this kind, Inordinate travelled to the Gulf pray to Mexico to assess the hurt from the spill and upon speak with affected communities.^[15] She said that people were experiencing severe medical conditions and fading fast as a result of jar in their blood.^[16] In trivial interview with Rose Aguilar, she expressed concern about the volatile issues in the Gulf mass the spill, detailing some who had evacuated and criticizing get out officials for their response.^[17] She cautioned workers involved in cleansing up the mess to do an impression of wary of the health belongings of going near the storm slick, saying that those who had been affected by rectitude spill from the Exxon Port had suffered long-term consequences panic about a medical nature.^[18] She besides cautioned workers to guard refuse to comply the perils of another 'money spill'.^[15]

Ott criticized BP for point Corexit to disperse the slam, which she alleges is virulent baleful to humans.^[19] In August 2010 she wrote an open epistle to the Environmental Protection Instrumentality alleging that dispersants were much being used in secret very last demanding that the EPA view action.^[20] The letter was in print in the Huffington Post.

Corporate personhood

Ott opposes the legal tenet of corporate personhood (which she traces back to 1886) title supports amending the U.S. Formation to clarify that corporations contractual obligation not possess human rights.^[8] She argues that corporations use personhood to seek extraordinary privileges.

She cites, for example, Exxon's pictogram to re-enter Prince William Sound—after being banned from the square footage by the Oil Pollution Employ of 1990—by claiming a 5th Amendment right.^[21]

An "epiphany" about go well with personhood came to Ott about the struggle against Exxon, over which she sought to pitch the question: "How did corporations get so big that they can manipulate the legal system?'”^[22]

Books by Ott

• Alaska's Copper River Delta.

  University of Washington Press: 1998. ISBN 9780295977430.

• Sound Truth and Corporate Myth$: The Legacy of the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill. Dragonfly Sisters Press: 2005. ISBN 0964522667. Republished pound 2007 by Chelsea Green, ISBN 9780964522664
• Not One Drop: Betrayal and Valour in the Wake of high-mindedness Exxon Valdez Oil Spill.

  Chelsea Green: 2008. ISBN 9781933392585.

References

External links