Not too long ago, BP was best known for its efforts to rebrand itself as Beyond Petroleum. Today BP is notorious because of its inability to stem the toxic tide of crude oil gushing from its ill-fated Deepwater Horizon drilling platform.
Like all Americans, I am sickened by the news coming from the Gulf of Mexico. The oil spill is now 100 miles long and is moving toward the Alabama, Mississippi, and Florida coastlines.
As I watch coverage of the devastation, I am reminded of another energy story from last week: the approval of the Cape Wind offshore wind farm in the Nantucket Sound.
It's strange how things converge in our lives. If you had asked me a month ago, I would have said I don't work on petroleum-related issues. Of course that wasn't technically true, since most of the pesticides and industrial chemicals that I'm working to eliminate are derived from petroleum. But aside from seeing the occasional hydrocarbon-exposed patient, I never worked on the health effects of the nasty gunk itself. That sure has changed fast!
Introduction
The modern pencil was once a controversial addition to the classroom. Some American schoolteachers said the 1858 invention of pencils with attached erasers would encourage student carelessness. But the pencil prevailed and is now among the world's most popular tools for writing and drawing.
Sperm whales have long had a particular attachment to the underwater canyons that extend into the Gulf of Mexico south of the Mississippi Delta. The waters there are both deep and nutrient-rich, and for the Gulf’s small sperm whale population they constitute a sort of nursery, inhabited by groups of breeding females and calves and immature males.
All you Planet Green watchers out there, keep your eyes out for our friend Leilani Münter. Sometime in the next few weeks, you'll start seeing a 90 second version of her story zoom past you when you least expect it.
Leilani's story is part of a new project called Fast Forward, a TV and webisode series that "tells the stories of thirteen unique visionaries in their quests to build a greener and healthier future for our planet."
There has been much more news surrounding the leaking oil rig off the coast of Louisiana in the Gulf of Mexico. Officials had said the exploded rig's pipeline was leaking 1,000 barrels oil/day, but now that estimate is up to 5,000 barrels/day.
As oil gushed out of an underwater oil well ruptured by a deadly explosion in the Gulf of Mexico, the American Enterprise Institute (AEI) published an essay on April 26 by AEI scholar Steven Hayward that called the environmental threats from off shore oil "largely obsolete."
And no, that’s not out of context. Here is the full paragraph:
America took one giant step into the clean energy future today when Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar approved the Cape Wind offshore wind project. Finally, we can move forward with this critical tool for addressing climate change.
I spent every summer of my childhood on Cape Cod, digging for clams and collecting shells on Nauset Beach. My father still goes to there regularly, and the Cape means a great deal to my family.
Our friends at NativeEnergy are participating in the dedication of a wind farm on Friday, in Greensburg, Kansas, one of the most resilient, ambitious, and inspiring towns in the world....
On Friday, April 30, 2010 residents of Greensburg, Kansas will witness a milestone in the town’s recovery and its effort to become “the greenest town in America.”
