Greenpeace members Anais Schneider from Germany and Victor Rask from Sweden had recently returned from a trip to the Arctic where they took part of a protest group with the scope of stopping the deep water drilling executed by Edinburgh-based Cairn Energy. This experience didn’t frighten the two activists as decided to take direct action against Chevron. They literally climbed up the giant anchor chain and suspended themselves in a tent to it with signs that could read “Go beyond oil”. There courageous action is impeding the anchor from being pulled and there it is preventing the ship from going to the drilling site. The actions of the two young activists are not simply a spur of the moment impulsive move, as they are calling upon the North Sea competent authorities in order to take action against the drilling and hopefully ban it. Activist Victor Rask, and occupant of the tent declared:

“UK Prime Minister David Cameron said his government would be the greenest every, but he wont even support a plan to protect our seas from a BP-style disaster. Instead on drilling for the last drops in places like this, the oil companies should be developing the clean energy technologies need to fight climate change and reduce our dependence on oil. In order to shift the oil companies and governments need to ban deepwater drilling. In the longer term we need a permanent shift awat from fossil fuels towards clean energy solutions” (Source: http://www.greenpeace.org/international/en/news/features/chevron-shetland-stopped210910/).

While the activist’s comments are strongly valid, authentic and in sync with the values defended and represented by Greenpeace, there is no doubt that various other stakeholders and lobby associations are putting a considerable amount of pressure on the Prime Minister in order to force him to consider the economic interests in this situation.  It appears that concealing both opposing points of view is a much harder task than what it seems. BP, the oil company responsible for the greatest catastrophe, is already operating in the area with three oil and gas field they also have further plan to start drilling deeper. The young and courageous Anais Schneider described with frenzy her experience as something incredible:

“It was incredible to climb up the anchor chain, the rungs were nearly as big as I am and Chevron’s drilling ship is one of the biggest things I’ve ever seen at sea. It’s time to go beyond oil. Our addiction is harming the climate, the natural world and our chances of building a clean energy future” (Source: http://www.greenpeace.org/international/en/news/features/chevron-shetland-stopped210910/).

The infamous duo is also supporting a new initiative called “Go Beyond Oil” (find out more at http://www.gobeyondoil.org/) a call to action brought to you by Greenpeace as a response to the BP oil accident. This call to action is also a way to force people to reflect upon their dependency on oil and the risks it could present for the future of our planet. According to the official website, governments shouldn’t subsidize oil companies, instead they should put money towards the development of a sustainable long-term clean form of energy. Yet, things are not always so crystal clean when it comes to doing the right thing. Indeed Chevron went to court and demanded for measures to be taken against the two environmentalists that now risk to get arrested for their environmentalist act of bravura. Chevron declared that such action is “foolhardy and demonstrates that Greenpeace is willing to put its volunteers at risk to carry out such reckless publicity stunts” (Source: http://www.u.tv/Business/Chevron-wins-court-order-in-bid-to-end-Greenpeace-oil-protest/8295de1d-b600-413f-8a93-e40e0b2a8b39). While this stunt is indeed dangerous, the activists  partly got what they wanted; managing to raise public awareness and getting the media involve on the case.

Greenpeace is a world-respected organization that fights for the conservation of our planet and its wildlife. While the actions of the activists can be somewhat debated, the reflection they propose is a very valid one. Has our dependence on oil gone overboard? What will happen once the planet runs out of oil? Perhaps it is indeed time to focus on cleaner forms of energy.

Plastic bottles are made from oil, a nonrenewable source and in most cases these bottles are not recycled and are vulgarly thrown in landfill where they can take more than two hundred years to decompose.  Alternative technologies such as bioplastics like Polylactic acid (PLA), a or polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHA), yet the problem is that these new technologies are too costly and are often too slow to decompose. Martin Myerscough, an English inventor and engineer, has come up with a much greener and efficient solution in order to replace milk plastic bottles: a milk bottle that is made from paper, also known as the GreenBottle. “The outer shell is made from paper which can then be recycled, or if left it will just decompose within a matter of weeks. The inner liner, which takes up less than 0.5% of the space of a plastic bottle if dumped in a landfill, prevents liquid from contaminating the paper outer” (Source: http://www.greenbottle.com/about-us/ ). Myersough claims to have had this brilliant idea after his son came home from school one day with a papier-mâché  balloon. He constructed the milk bottle with on outer shell made of recycled paper and implemented a plastic bag to hold the milk. The plastic bag is meant to be recycled and in case it isn’t it still has less plastic than your average plastic bottle, in addition to also holding up less space. The outer shell made out of recycled paper can be recycled once again. The plastic bag needs to be seperated from the bottled in order to be recycled properly. “The manufacturers claim that it has a carbon footprint 48 per cent lower than that of a plastic milk jug” (Source: http://www.greenbottle.com/documents/news/the_times.pdf). This is a simple alternative that every citizen should put into practice to lower their daily water footprint. Retailers and businesses all over Europe have been pressured by the European Union and the Department for Environment, food and rural affairs in order to diminish packaging and therefore the quantity of waste that is produced.  The first 50 bottles put on the shelves of a Lowestoft store where sold in one hour on their first day in the store.  Customers all over the world have an increased awareness to environmental issues and the numerous damages caused by plastic bottles. The GreenBottle alternative works because it is a simple alternative that isn’t forcing customers to comply with many compromises or switching costs. Indeed, after having reached an agreement with Asda (british supermarket chain retailer), for Lowestoft stores, to sell the milk paper bottles at the same price as conventional bottles. Even the cardboard bottles cost “around 30% more to produce than plastic bottles, Mr Myerscough believes the price will even out when they get to higher production runs” (Source: http://www.greenbottle.com/documents/news/independent.pdf ). If this new paper milk bottle is as popular as they hope, Asda is hoping to launch them nationwide “in an attempt to cut the three-million tons of plastic that is thrown away in the UK annually” (Source: http://www.greenbottle.com/documents/news/independent.pdf).

The GreenBottle is a long-term sustainable green alternative that will hopefully spread all over Europe and eventually in the United States. This is a simple alternative in order to large quantity of un-recycled plastic bottles. The bottle has been designed in a simple way in order to be torn apart so that you can easily and quickly separate the paper to be recycled and quickly place it in the bin. This environmental friendly milk bottle is compostable and biodegradable and the hope for the future is that such similar invention should be applied to water bottles and all other sorts of plastic containers.

Do you remember last time we talked, that I told you about my new friend from France! Her name is miss Evian, she is very lean and elegant, and she speaks English in a funny way. She keeps on telling me: “ I want to return to my maison in France!” She sure is silly, I don’t even know what a “maison” is! The word does sound funny “mai –son”. Maybe she means to say “my son” but her French accent makes the word sound strange. Oh, but I do hope she doesn’t have a son! She seems so young! If she has a son does that also mean that she has a husband bottle? Well not that I care!

Anyways, the other day miss Evian was telling me about this beautiful place where all the nicest and prettiest water bottles get send to the Rice- Castle! She told me it is a lovely castle where rich people go to sleep and eat in gold plates. Wait, it wasn’t called Rice -Castle, I think it was something more like Ritz- Carlot…Oh I know, I know the Ritz-Carlton! Well, miss Evian isn’t being very nice, since she thinks she is better than the rest of us, the other water bottles from the super market and that she should be in a prettier place. What she doesn’t know is that Mrs Goldendiamondy, the oldest water bottle in the super market, who knows a lot of grown up things, told me that the Ritz-Carlton doesn’t like plastic water bottles anymore. According to Mrs Goldendiamondy, 73 of the Ritz Carlton castles have blocked the entrance to us simple plastic water bottles and have chosen “plant-based, biodegradable materials for special water bottles”.  Bio-de-gra-da-ble, that sounds like a very long and complicated word for grown-ups.  I want to be a special water bottle!! I want to be a super “bio-gra-da-ble” bottle! Not quit sure what it means, but it does sound pretty cool to me! Almost like the name of a super hero bottle!

When I asked Mrs Goldendiamondy why miss Evian could not entre the Rice-Carlote Castle she says that us, water bottles from the supermarket we are “old and made from crude oil and we take way to much energy to be produce”. Again with that thing called “oil”! It must really be a bad bad thing from the way everyone talks about it!  Well, anyways, Mrs Goldendiamondy – Gosh that is a funny name!! – also told me that people at the Carlton Castle prefer the new bio-de-gra-da-ble bottles because they cost the same price or even cheaper than we do but they are much nicer to the environment and much easier to transport. My cousin the bottled water from Chicago even told me that over there, the plastic bottles are now 5 cents more expensive so that way less people will want to buy them! That is funny, no everyone is against us! Well I am sure things would be different if all of us were bio-gra-da-ble, no wait, I think it was something like bio-de-gra-da-ble! Well, either way, I think Miss Evian won’t be too happy when she hears of this! Well, it is not so so bad in the end that the people for the Ritz Castle don’t want miss Evian, that way she can stay with us at the supermarket!

A violent hurricane has hit the country of Belize, carrying strong winds and torrential rain that preoccupied the American National Hurricane Centre (NHC). According to Admiral Thad Allen, “the continued bad weather caused by Hurricane Alex means that skimming vessels and other boats working on the clean-up have to remain in port” (Source: http://english.aljazeera.net/news/americas/2010/07/2010721622335501.html).

A part from putting in danger the lives of the clean-up staff the storm is pushing junks of crude oil on the beaches and the already damaged and fragile Gulf coasts. In addition to the clean temporarily stopped cleaning activities, the control of oil on the ocean and the diffusion of dispersant chemical products were all put on hold due to the weather conditions. The hurricane has given life to six-foot waves and winds going up to 20 miles per hour. This nightmare has caused the total paralysis of a lucrative tourism industry on the states situated along the U.S. Gulf Coast. The ruined beaches have killed any potential tourist activity and this situation has consequently left all hotels and restaurants empty handed. “The lucrative tourism industry in the Gulf could be had to hit for years by a false perception the spill has ruined all the beaches, tourism officials said” (Source: http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE65O5TA20100629). Many blogs and comments on the web seem to believe that this hurricane is being wisely as an additional excuse to elongate the time of clean-up since blaming mother nature is easier than taking full on responsibility. Polls and public opinion have treated President Obama in a very serious way for his slow response to this national crisis. Logically, an even harsher treatment was reserved to BP who has been fined $ 5.2 m by the US Interior Department (Source: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/10461597.stm).

The United States have finally accepted 22 offers of help from 12 countries in order to contain the spill. Skimmers will be sent from Mexico, Norway, France and Japan while sweeping systems will be given by the Netherlands. ” The details of which offers will be accepted and how to help will be delivered were still being worked out, but would include two high skimmers and fire containment booms from Japan, the State Department said” (Source: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=115×252319). At this stage, it is impossible to assess the concrete difference that will be brought by those other nations. As we have seen with the Haiti earthquake, with the increase of help and resources comes the increasing challenge of a real coordination which is often the most important aspect of emergency operations.

The President and his staff seem to avoid presenting an immediate solution in order to clean up the oil, contain the spill as much as possible, pay back damages to the local population and coordinate action in order to achieve more rapid and effective results. Mr. Obama stated numerous times that he would restore the Gulf as it was before and went as far as to declare he would make the Gulf of Mexico even better than before (see our previous post on BP oil spill /bp-oil.html). While public opinion is expecting and demanding a direct plan of action in order to contain the oil spill and protect the wildlife and the coast, President Obama is diverting attention on the long-term plans he has in mind. This is an emergency situation and before evaluating a long term plan the damage needs to be controlled and contained immediatly. The drilling seems so to have stopped temporarily, yet so far, the administration hasn’t proposed any new legislation on energy or on the specifics related to oil drilling.  It is time for the President to deliver because is somewhat already fragile reputation is at risk especially when the Republicans are waiting around the corner to demolish him. According to various news papers, Obama has promised he would force BP to take action, cover all the expenses and clean up the mess; yet in the meantime, the oil has reached the coastlines of Florida (Source: http://www.suntimes.com/news/blogentries/index.html?bbPostId=B1aDpUOQ1QDlAW9jwB1a9hmBDrwltKNRB00B2whb3NCjpUh&bbParentWidgetId=B8k88rWwXopuz5STgLeVwBLu). It is obvious that BP alone will not be able to resolve this crisis any time soon due to the expensive cost, the long procedures and most of all the need to cooperate with local officials in order to come up with a unitary plan. It could take years or even decades to restore the balance of some fragile ecosystems that are starting to suffer from the oil spill and to clean up all the oil. The many disagreements between federal, local authorities, scientists, environmental activists and the BP administration on how to handle the situation is only making things worst.  Just like we have recently experience with the Haiti earthquake, in situations of emergency coordination becomes key in order to be able to use all resources effectively.

The BP official website presents a completely different outtake on its response to the oil spill. A special report page entitled  “Gulf of Mexico response” presents numerous daily updates of all the positive things the Enterprise has accomplished so far in order to clean up the mess and contain the situation (Go see for yourself: http://www.bp.com/extendedsectiongenericarticle.do?categoryId=40&contentId=7061813) .

Their updated page seems to present no explanation for the shortcuts on security norms and regulation that the company decided to take in order to save money and meet deadlines. The damages that need to be repair exceed 100 million dollars in payments. Ironically, BP chose to take shortcuts in order to save money, causing the spill, and is now obliged to spend an amount of money that is so much more costly than it would have been to simply abide by security norms in construction and piping. BP’s ferocious communication campaign is perhaps the last strand the company has in order to save itself from total investor panic. “After closing above $60 before the April 20 disaster, the energy giant’s share plunged almost 20% in New York, to below $50, in just two weeks” (Source: http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE65H4A920100618).  Despite the plunge, when the disaster occurred very few analysts suggested to sell most of them. The motto only slowly shifted from “buy” to “hold”. Only a few financial advisors advocated the sealing as the ultimate solution. While it all seems to revolve around economics, shares and profit the ocean has turned a worrisome color of black, a canvas left without life where every shad of blue has been swallowed by the spill of black paint.

Now that the oil has reached the coast of Florida things could only get worst. This is taking a tool on tourism and on local economies that are centered on fishing. All eyes are pointed on the Obama administration as a sentiment of distrust is spreading around public opinion. The president’s charismatic cheer “Yes we can” seems to have be transformed in an interrogative stance: “Can we?”.

Last time we talked I told you about my daddy PET and my mummy WATER. Well since I have been sitting in this superstar, oh…no wait…what was it called again?? Oh right, the supermarket! What was I saying, right, since I have been sitting in this supermarket well I have been feeling pretty lonely without my dad and mom. Water, my mom, tells me she is doing lovely, she lives in a lovely peaceful environment with trees, birds and sunshine. For some reason, my mom still won’t explain what are those feathery things called “birds”. Maybe it is something only grownups can understand.

Now that I have to spend all my day in this cold fridge at least I have had some time to make friends with the other bottles sitting next to me. In this multi-cultural environment, I have made friends with water bottles that come from all over the world. Last night, when all the people in the supermarket left, and it got dark all of a sudden, I met this French bottle who just got in last night. She is elegant and nice but seems a bit nostalgic; maybe she misses her home. The French bottle was very tired last night, she told me she traveled all the way from France from her home spring called “Evian”. What a funny name don’t you think?? She traveled by road, her transportation all the way to America required 5.8 MJ. That is a long way to travel and it most have cost a lot of time and energy to bring her here. It’s funny, because we already have so much water in America, I wonder why all this trouble to bring the poor bottle so far away from her hometown Evian. Well, right now she is sleeping, so I guess I am going to have to wait until tomorrow to ask her more questions about her trip. But what if she is gone by tomorrow afternoon??? Oh no, that would be so sad for me to loose a new friend. The other night I heard the King of the supermarket talking and he said that Americans consume about 33 billion litres of bottled water a year! That’s a lot of us! By the way, what does “consume” means?! Anyway, he was saying this is the equivalent in energy terms of around 50 million barrels of oil!! Can you imagine all that oil?? Well…to be honest I can’t…I’am not even sure what that funny word “oil” means…! But still, that just doesn’t sound to good to me…. Plus 33 billion litres, that is a ridiculous amount of bottles disappearing every year. I hope they won’t take miss Evian away from me just yet! Tonight sure is a lonely night, maybe I should wake up miss Evian and ask her to tell me more about her adventurous trip to America….

(Data source: http://environmentalresearchweb.org/cws/article/news/38143)

“According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, a small portion of the slick has entered the so-called ‘loop current’, a stream of faster moving water that circulates around the Gulf before bending around Florida and up the Atlantic coast. Its arrival may herald a wider environmental catastrophe affecting the Florida Keys and tourist-dotted beaches along that State’s East coast. There is the growing risk that the spill could reach farther south”. (source:http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1279881/Gulf-Mexico-oil-spill-NASA-images-slick-spreading-Florida.html). In a pre-emptive manner, U.S. officials have initiated talks with Cuban authorities in order to help them respond effectively to the spill should it reach the island’s northern coast.

On May 19,  Bobby Jindal,  Gov. of Louisiana has declared that sheets of crude oil from the offshore spill have entered deep into the marshland around the entrance of the Mississippi River. The governor has been putting a considerable amount of pressure on the Federal government to approve a plan to build sand berms   to protect the remaining wildlife. Mr. Jindal has accused BP, the Coast Guard and the Army Corps of Engineers for not moving quickly enough in order to implement the Sate’s proposal of building 80 miles of sand berms along the coastline.

Ken Holder, a spokesman for the Army Corps of Engineers, said in a statement “that the Army Corps was still evaluating the potential environmental impact of the sand-berm plan”.  “The Coast Guard was also still reviewing the plan”, said  spokesman Lt. Cmdr. Tony Russell. Tom Mueller, a spokesman for BP, said “The company had several questions about the proposal, including whether the berms would be effective or cause unintended damages to the environment”. (source: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/20/us/20spill.html?ref=science).

The risk is that the process of evaluation becomes too long and daunting while the disaster continues to worsen.

On Monday, May 14^th, the President visited Mississippi and Alabama in order to reassure local residents that “the government will leave the Gulf Coast in better shape that it was before”. Yet, as long as the cleaning task is in the hands of BP,  there is a sentiment of desperation and total distrust amongst the local community and scientists. Public opinion holds no faith in the company’s genuine desire to restore the Gulf and take full on responsibility for its actions. After the latest investigations on the dramatic incident, BP’s image and reputation are highly at risk. According to B. Skoloff and M. Daly from Associated Press, investigators found out that BP was terribly late on the project and was suffering from losses of hundreds of thousands of dollars daily. In order to respond, the company made a series of money-saving shortcuts including  well design to the installation of key safety devices. One of the world’s largest energy companies, BP, in order to save time and money, made decisions that increased tremendously the risk of a blowout.

(source: http://www.onenewsnow.com/AP/Search/US/Default.aspx?id=1050566)

“A 2003 report by the National Research Council predicted that the oil in a deepwater blowout could break into fine droplets, forming plumes of oil mixed with water that would not quickly rise to the surface. That prediction appeared to be confirmed Saturday when the researchers aboard the Pelican reported that they had detected immense plumes believed to be made of oil particles”

(source: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/20/science/earth/20noaa.html?ref=science).

The results were not confirmed as final, and came as a surprise to the government.  The greater worry is that unique sea life concentrated in those areas could be exposed to a heavy amount of toxic materials as the plumes flow through the sea.

With evaluations, research and investigations still on-going, it is impossible to fully evaluate and comprehend the real dimensions of the spill and the continuous damage it is causing to the wild life and local economies.  The clock is ticking and a rapid solution needs to be found. The Obama administration has to promote greater transparency on this issue and to work closely with BP in order to coordinate an efficient and rapid plan of action.  People demand the truth, as the nation is nurturing a sentiment of exasperation.