Past and Future Scenes

"Abadan, Persia, the Oil Quays." c. 1920. 
From A Dweller in Mesopotamia, by Donald Maxwell.
The challenges we face in this project are substantial - but many of them are not new. Oil spills from primary production fields, like the one shown here at the turn of the 20th century, still happen. So does the fallout from unregulated flaring. We are encouraged by the support pledged by those oil operators who understand that this is a longstanding set of challenges, with tails that stretch long into the past,  far forward into the future, and enwrap us all. Last year, G. Bell donated a solid week of his time helping us search the bottom of the Shatt Al Arab for the 19th century wreck of a mahaila very like the one depicted here. We saw firsthand virtually identical shoreside scenes now, nearly 100 years later. #cmarsh