A commercial salmon "fisherma'am," Dr. Riki Ott (PhD in marine biology) experienced firsthand the devastating effects of the Exxon Valdez oil spill — and chose to do something about it. Ott retired from fishing and founded three nonprofit organizations to deal with lingering harm. Her books on the spill are Sound Truth and Corporate Myth$ and Not One Drop: Betrayal and Courage in the Wake of the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill. She lives in Cordova, Alaska.

Blog Entries by Riki Ott

Beware the Sirens of Big Oil

1 Comments | Posted September 25, 2009 | 10:43 AM (EST)


Cordova, Alaska. In the early 1970s, Big Oil wooed Alaskans with a seductive chorus promising jobs, riches, and risk-free oil development, pipeline transfer, and tanker transport. Alaska politicians fell under its spell.

Today Big Oil generates more than 85 percent of Alaska's operating revenues - and the song has...

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Protecting a Whaling Culture

Posted February 11, 2009 | 04:56 PM (EST)



Dr. Riki Ott is the author of Not One Drop: Betrayal and Courage in the Wake of the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill from Chelsea Green. For more information, visit chelseagreen.com.

The Human Cost of Bush's Arctic Policy

Posted February 10, 2009 | 05:50 PM (EST)



Dr. Riki Ott is the author of Not One Drop: Betrayal and Courage in the Wake of the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill from Chelsea Green. For more information, visit chelseagreen.com.

Crimes at the Top of the World: The Human Cost of Oil

Posted February 4, 2009 | 02:28 PM (EST)


Wainwright, Alaska. Rebecca "Ricky" Ekak, a tenth grader at Alak High School in Wainwright, implored her teacher, "Please, can we learn more about this? What they said went into me." Ricky and her classmates are Inupiat ("In-OU-pe-at" or "Eskimo").

Wainwright is one of eight Inupiat villages at the top of...

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Upping Arianna's Ante: Pledge to be Unreasonable

Posted January 14, 2009 | 10:46 AM (EST)


Arianna Huffington is calling for people to step up to Barack Obama's call to service by having each of us make our own personal commitment to working for the public good.

We as Americans got into our current mess because too many of us shirked our basic responsibilities as...

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Connect the Dots: See the Real Costs of Our Oil Dependency, More Oil is Not the Answer

Posted August 8, 2008 | 04:12 PM (EST)


Cordova, Alaska. The other night I biked over to the home of Linden and Kevin "Sam" O'Toole to watch the CNN Anderson Cooper 360º story on the Exxon Valdez oil spill. They had spent the better part of a day with the television crew while I was out of town....

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When Harm Goes Unpunished: Why Congress Should Overturn the Supreme Court's Exxon Valdez Decision

Posted July 22, 2008 | 06:37 PM (EST)


Cordova, Alaska. When the Supreme Court slashed punitive damages in the Exxon Valdez case last month, it was more than a travesty of justice. The court's decision also charted a dangerous course for America -- one largely overlooked in the flurry of coverage on the court's other eleventh-hour, high-profile decisions,...

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