Black oil, millions of years old, gushes out of a gash in the Gulf of Mexico. One of the world's largest companies, BP, formerly British Petroleum says it's 1,000 barrels a day, then 5,000. Satellite photos suggest 25,000 a day. In a closed session at Congress, BP admits they don't know - it could be 40 to 60,000. The Governor of Louisiana prepares for 100,000 barrels. The "spill" is really a man-made underwater volcano of oil.

I'm Alex Smith. This accident taps a primeval fear in the human mind. Something dark and uncontrollable rushes out of the Earth, poisoning the global oceans. Could that really happen?

Madness ensures. Right-wing radio's Rush Limbaugh suggests the giant rig Deepwater Horizon was bombed by environmentalists. Others say a North Korean submarine did it.

During two administrations, BP lulled regulators to sleep, with assurances and campaign contributions. All that dirt will leak out too.

Meanwhile, 20,000 feet below the Gulf Waters, the giant Macondo field spurts out a relentless wave of fossil carbon, suspected to equal a new Exxon Valdez spill, every three days.

So many victims, so many tales to tell.

In this Radio Ecoshock report you'll hear from the activists who knew this was coming.

* Riki Ott, marine biologist, fisherwoman, and the conscience of Valdez, Alaska, checks in from New Orleans.

* Antonia Juhasz, oil researcher from Global Exchange, introduces us to BP - and it's lobby in Washington. Antonia wrote "The Tyranny of Oil: The World's Most Powerful Industry – and What We Must Do To Stop It."

* Peak Oil guru Richard Heinberg looks at the big picture impact. His famous books are "The Party's Over," "Peak Everything," and "Blackout". Richard is a founder of the Post Carbon Institute.

* And former Shell Oil executive Anita Burke finds the inside track, and the real culprits.

We'll end with a new song, "Corporate Catastrophe", written about the spill by Dana Pearson, and heard first on your Radio Ecoshock.

READ MORE with tons of links to follow the Gulf gusher story.