On Tuesday night April 20th, in the Gulf of Mexico, 50 miles southeast of Venice, Louisiana, the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig exploded.
Two days later on Thursday afternoon the blazing inferno of wreckage sank 5,000 feet to the bottom of the Gulf. 126 people were on board at the time of the explosion, 17 were injured, and on Friday rescuers suspended the search for the 11 people missing from the British Petroleum leased Transocean Ltd oil rig explosion in the Gulf of Mexico.
On Friday the Coast Guard said crews were continuing efforts hoping to have it all “cleaned” up before the estimated shoreline arrival in nine days. They had recovered 181 barrels of an oil-and-water mixture by midday Friday, with ‘only’ about 200 barrels remaining within a 2-by-12-mile-long oil slick spreading through Gulf waters 40 miles offshore.
But by Saturday morning the Coast Guard reported the spill now covers a 20-by-20 mile area as remote vehicles found the rig capsized and lying on the sea floor about 1,500 feet northwest of the well. Oil shooting from the end of the pipe that had connected the rig to the well at the sea floor. Spewing out at a sickening rate of 42,000 gallons a day.
Forty-one years after an oil well blowout off the Santa Barbara, California coast gave rise to the environmental movement and the first Earth Day event, look how far we have come. An accident that is likely to be one of history’s worst in terms of human loss and environmental destruction.
Without a doubt, the major talk will be around the financial cost. So, let me ask you this, would the ‘cost’ have been this severe if the accident had been a blown out wind turbine rotor or a faulty solar panel? I think not. And neither do you.
Bless the fragile waters, wetlands and coastline of the Gulf of Mexico that are now is serious peril. Bless the families of the lost. Bless our world and her children.
For Every Sector, Little Earth Day Ideas For A Better World
For everyday people like you and I:
Celebrate Earth Day by doing simple things like checking the air pressure in your car tires. Keeping tires properly inflated can earn you another 10 cents per gallon. If everyone’s tires were properly inflated, we would be saving about 4 million gallons of gasoline every DAY. (more…)
The U.S. Congress appropriated $300 million nationwide to support state rebate programs for residential ENERGY STAR appliance products (those that represent improvements in efficiency compared to the majority of products on the market). (more…)
Earth Day celebrations are over and you are wondering what you can do to contribute. But, you don’t know what or where or how. So, here are some small steps we can do right now. Because what may seem like insignificant actions by each of us, results in giant steps as a whole. Some are old and some new. So feel empowered for going green with little or no effort and money:
Wash clothes in cold water, they get just as clean.
Switch from bottled water to reusable bottles, fill with filtered tap water. (more…)
April 22, 2009 will mark the 39th anniversary of Earth Day. On the following link is a remarkable history on the birth of Earth Day, by the man who actually started it all, it is truly a ‘must read’. Once word got out it, the interest in the project spread like wildfire. It is staggering to think of the numbers of people, the involvement, and the honest ecological concern that people around the globe shared.
http://earthday.envirolink.org/history.html
So, what happened? It sure would have been nice to be 39 years ahead of our current environmental situation. Who knows? Global warming could actually be a non-issue at this very moment. But, nooooo…! Our nearly four decades of waning interest is caused by a myriad of reasons. No sense in listing them, each one of us could name at least 5.
We no longer have the luxury of procrastinating, not even 1 day longer, much less 39 years. Earth has fever, and we better put forth a Herculean effort to nurse her back to health because who wants to be in the cross-hairs of a planet’s antibodies. Not pretty. (more…)
A young Jewett, Texas mother told me her 7 year old son came home from school with a
packet of wildflower seeds stapled to a letter. The letter was dated April 22, Earth
Day. It was from a company called Nucor, and it said (not quoting here), that it was
giving these wildflower seeds to all the young school children to experience their
first occasion to participate in Earth Day, and watch the wonder of beautiful flowers
grow from seeds they planted with their own hands. (more…)
On Tuesday night April 20th, in the Gulf of Mexico, 50 miles southeast of Venice, Louisiana, the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig exploded.
Forty-one years after an oil well blowout off the Santa Barbara, California coast gave rise to the environmental movement and the first Earth Day event, look how far we have come. An accident that is likely to be one of history’s worst in terms of human loss and environmental destruction.
Celebrate Earth Day by doing simple things like checking the air pressure in your car tires. Keeping tires properly inflated can earn you another 10 cents per gallon. If everyone’s tires were properly inflated, we would be saving about 4 million gallons of gasoline every DAY. 
April 22, 2009 will mark the 39th anniversary of Earth Day. On the following link is a remarkable history on the birth of Earth Day, by the man who actually started it all, it is truly a ‘must read’. Once word got out it, the interest in the project spread like 
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