Onshore drilling is not the answer to off-shore drilling spills

Some people have taken the Gulf oil spill as a call for more onshore drilling. Doesn't make any sense to me... so I wrote about that in a blog post for The Wilderness Society. I am working for them this summer, and since I write posts for their blog, I realized I could post those here (at least the ones with my name in the byline), as well.

Here is the post I wrote on June 15 about the dangers of onshore drilling (before the whole judge ruling against the deepwater drilling moratorium debacle).

The first few paragraphs (click if you want to read more):

Following the Gulf spill, proponents of the fossil fuel status quo have called for more onshore drilling as a safer alternative to offshore drilling. Don’t let them fool you. Drilling can have devastating environmental impacts for both our waters and our lands.

Take, for example, today’s Chevron oil leak of 500 barrels (or about 17,000 gallons) into a Salt Lake City creek. At least 100 birds were covered in oil, and water quality has certainly been affected.

Oil is not the only fossil fuel that poses risks—so does the supposedly safe fuel, natural gas.

For example, just as there were few (or at least unenforced) regulations of Deepwater Horizon’s drilling process, there are few regulations on hydro-fracking, a natural gas drilling process that is unregulated by the Safe Drinking Water Act, despite regular and serious reports of it polluting drinking water in local communities.

Green World Cup

Though Team USA is out in a heartbreaking loss to Ghana, millions of Americans are now tuned into the World Cup.

But did you know...

• Nike, the official sponsor of 9 teams including USA, Brazil, and Portugal, has made team jerseys entirely out of plastic bottles.
• Solar panels have been retrofitted to street lights, traffic lights, and billboards in 6 of the host cities.
• Eleven teams have pledged to offset the emissions caused by their participation in the World Cup.  PUMA has sponsored the offsets of Teams Algeria, Cameroon, Cote d'Ivoire, Ghana, Uruguay, Italy, and Switzerland.  Chile, England, Republic of Korea, and Serbia have committed to offsetting their own emissions.
• Indigenous trees will be planted in Soweto.
• Waterless urinals are being used instead of traditional toilets.
• Food will be served in biodegradable containers.
• Soccer City Stadium has been built using recyclable concrete.
• Many of the stadiums are using LED lighting.

So... where does that leave us with regards to the oil spill?

3) What's going to happen and how can we help?

The only thing I can say for certain, people won't forget anytime soon.

If you've been reading my last posts about the BP oil spill, first off: thanks!  They're pretty lengthy, but I think I've managed to get a lot of information in them.  Secondly, I don't think anyone knows what's going on or what's going to happen.  I have some predictions, as well as a run through of some historically huge oil spill disasters, and some thoughts about what we can do to help.


As always, your feedback is much appreciated.

So... what's going to happen with BP and how will the government respond?

2) What are the business implications?  What are the political implications?  And, most importantly perhaps, how are these intertwined?

Team Hayword vs. Team Obama.  Let's not make it a draw a la World Cup.  Image source.

As with most national catastrophes, in this situation Big Business and Big Government has seemed to be in cahoots.

BP is in shambles as of late.  Their stock price has plummeted in accordance with their involvement with this disaster.  Though once lauded by those less knowledgeable about alternative energy as seeming to put emphasis on renewable energy, they have proven that "Beyond Petroleum" wasn't BP but BS.  The question remains though, can BP return from this?

The US government, meanwhile, has also been criticized and blamed, though also lauded and praised.  President Obama has been accused of using this event to further push his own agenda, particularly when it comes to cap and trade.  He has also been praised for taking a strong stance against BP's nonsense.  (Though, as with most events in politics, also criticized by Britain for trying to ruin their economy.  All right, England, let's save it for the World Cup.)  The question from this stance is will the government use this disaster to finally and seriously attempt much needed energy reform or will it allow Big Business to roll all over it, as it often does, and we go back to business as usual?

Read on for a breakdown of what BP's business implications are and what government is doing.

So... what exactly is going on with the oil spill?

1) What is the BP oil spill?  What's been done?  Who are the players?  Who is affected?

These are the images BP doesn't want you to see.  Image by Charles Riedel.

Hint: this is not what a pelican is supposed to look like.

The BP oil spill, as it's now being called (though it is more accurately called the Deepwater Horizon oil spill) is, without question, our generation's worst environmental disaster, and one of the worst in history.


Though the blame, in public eye, falls to BP (British Petroleum), the third largest energy company in the world, there are other players in this disaster such as Transocean, the world's largest offshore drilling company, and of course, the US government and President Obama, whom many consider could be inextricably linked to this crisis and think it could determine his legacy much like Hurricane Katrina determined (in part) President Bush's legacy.


Besides the 11 killed people who were on Deepwater Horizon, there are many other people affected - the other workers and injured members of the rig, the BP execs all the way down to the gas-pumpers (if you live in NJ! [or Oregon]), the residents of Louisiana/Alabama/the rest of the Gulf, and, of course, YOU.  Not to even begin to mention the animals who have already been killed by the oil spill, the ones who will be killed, and the ones who are in dire trouble (see photo above).  Of course, the Gulf itself will be, perhaps irreversibly, damaged.


Read on for a breakdown of the oil spill itself, the players, and the victims.

BP oil spill: let us break it down for you

Image from The Rachel Maddow Show Flickr

Over 50 days ago, on April 20th, 2010, the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig (a mobile offshore drilling unit designed to drill underwater wells for oil extraction) exploded due to a high pressure in the well, leading to what experts now think may be one of the largest oil spills in history.

With news reports every day updating citizens on new estimates of oil spilled, who's blaming who, which politician is offering his two-cents, which celebrity is offering his new technology, why they went wrong, and who is in trouble, it can be near impossible to figure out what's happening.

Over the next few days, I'll be writing some posts about:

1) What is the BP oil spill?  What's been done?  Who are the players?  Who is affected?

2) What are the business implications?  What are the political implications?  And, most importantly perhaps, how are these intertwined?

3) What's going to happen and how can we help?

I'll split it out over a few days so it's not like reading a novel but all we can say with certainty is that this event could be a major turning point - but of what?  (We don't quite know... a turning point for big corporations?  For small business?  For President Obama?)

Even more than a month later, there's quite a bit of conjecture, so, as always, your feedback is appreciated.

Children's Environmental Movies

Babysitting this summer?  Finding yourself nostalgic for some children's movies?  Bored?
I've compiled my top 5 children's environmental movies.

5) Ferngully (1992): Long considered the quintessential children's environmental movie.

Ferngully is about a group of fairies who need to protect their rain-forest home from humans who want to cut down their trees for wood.
Environmental theme: deforestation

4) Jetsons: The Movie (1990): Though maybe a bit before our time, this space-age adventure is still relevant to our time - almost a past-day, children's version of Avatar.  (Minus the cool effects and blue people.)

The Jetsons, America's favorite future-family, have moved to Orbiting-Ore Asteroid, where a new mining colony has opened.  However, the factory is drilling into aliens' community and ruining their homes.
Environmental theme: habitat destruction

Power Summer

Hey Eco-Readers!
Sorry for the lack of posts as of recently.  We would like for you to keep tuned for some easy summer posts and to give you a heads up for some reformatting to come this summer.
Additionally, we'd like to wish good luck and offer thanks to our seniors who graduated a few weeks ago:

• Jon Cohn, blog-poster extraordinaire, and ex-President/Treasurer/general holder-together-er, who will be going to graduate school
• Tripti Bhattacharya, peace loving, plant loving, ex-board member and voice of reason, who will be going to graduate school
• Mike Durante, generally awesome guy, ex-Monk, who will be working with his non-profit, Compass Partners, over the summer and then into the working world come Fall
• Anique Drumright, enthusiasm-expert and spear-header of the off-campus composting movement
• Maggie Curme, outdoor lover and kayaking master
• Annie McBride, artistic genius and ex-board member

Peace out everyone and look forward to some great posts
Love,
Kristin 

My Opinion Piece in the Hoya: "Earth Day: Consider Impacts of Daily Action"

I recently wrote an opinion piece for The Hoya in honor of Earth Day. You can find it here, or you can scroll down, where it has been reproduced for this blog.

Last week, Eco-Action co-sponsored an event with Campus Ministry on Catholicism and the environment, which included a speech by the executive director of the Catholic Coalition on Climate Change. In its newest wave of ads, the Catholic Coalition poses the question: “Who’s under your carbon footprint?”

This inquiry is jarring because it forces one to reflect more deeply on the effects that daily actions have in our interconnected world. As Earth Day is turning 40 this Thursday, and as the old adage says that wisdom comes with age, the best message I could give this Earth Day is simple but profound: think.

It’s not a complicated edict, nor is it very specific; however, it is by all means an important one. When we take more time to think — to truly reflect — on our daily actions and choices, it is much easier to see how they fit into the greater scheme of our own lives and those all around us.

Take, for example, the food in your lunch. All of the items on your plate did not just magically appear — they came out of the complex forces of nature (the seeds, the water, the sunlight) and the forces of transportation (the plane, the train or the automobile) that helped get them from their source to your plate. That brief moment of reflection — thinking about all of those people and entities that enable us to have what we do — can make us appreciate what we have and also to be more conscientious about what we do and what we buy.

Moreover, that brief pause — which allows us to see greater value in what we have — makes it more difficult to throw something away as easily as we do. If we do have to dispose of our goods, where do they end up? It is a sign of an educated person to be always asking questions.

It is only through the processes of self-reflection that we are able to engage in dialogue with others. This critical analysis and discussion are the reasons why we came to Georgetown: We came to challenge our minds to think about forces greater than ourselves, to enable ourselves to comprehend things that before may have seemed outside of our limits and to understand ourselves in the context of the environment in which we live.

These forces of reflection are essential to improving our roles as both consumers and citizens. Thinking about what we buy, why we buy it, from where it came and where it will go allows us to make choices that are both environmentally and socially responsible. Good citizenship is even more connected to the process of reflection. We must see our individual selves as integral parts of society and nature. We should understand that we have the knowledge and power to affect positive and lasting change.

We have to grapple with large concepts in order to come up with new ideas, breaking from the past or rediscovering what was lost. Engaging in discussions about these issues forces us to both challenge our beliefs and hone them. Out of the disparity or clash of beliefs will come new convictions better developed than before.

In both our roles as citizens and as consumers, however, we should never stop at thinking, but ultimately we must act. Never forget that an action is nothing more than an idea made into reality.

Jonathan Cohn is a senior in the College and a former board member of EcoAction.

EcoAction in the News

EcoAction has gotten some media attention this week, so I thought I would highlight two articles:

Vox Populi featured an article about our upcoming collaboration with the Center for Student Programs to help make marketing events less wasteful and more effective and to help reduce the waste generated by the events themselves. Stay tuned as this develops.

The GW Hatchet also covered the Glover Park cleanup from last week. It is a great piece that highlights the collaboration between the student groups at Georgetown, GW, and AU for the benefit of the local community.