Devastation in the Gulf

The environmental calamity unparalleled in U.S. history just gets worse.

The most recent aerial video from the Gulf of Mexico taken by a few independent conservationists reveal in stark, clear images that the oil disaster is much worse than most people supposed or anyone from BP or the government had reported.

Video taken on a few occasions last week by John Wathen, -- reporting by David Helvarg, piloting by Tom Hutchings -- show catastrophic scenes of acres of oil slicks, with no skimmers or booms anywhere in sight. But there were scores of dead dolphins and a dead whale.

There were also, like scenes out of dark science fiction or Dante's inferno, sporadic groups of burns set by BP to destroy the oil, fires sending long, billowing plumes over the sleek surface.

"By 30 miles off the coast, oil is everywhere," Helvarg said." There are dozens of shimmers of purple oil that seem to sink downward into the sea, a possible effect from the millions of gallons of Corexit dispersant that have been sprayed over this stretch of ocean."