 | As a child and teenager growing up, I was not particularly interested in the environment until March 1989 when the oil super-tanker Exxon Valdez ran aground in Prince William Sound in Alaska, spilling thousands of barrels of crude oil into the water. The media were showing pictures every day of the oil spill spreading and all the birds and sealife that were covered in oil and the many thousands of animals that died. With full on media coverage practically 24/7, I was horrified when eventually Exxon the oil company was given just a slap on the wrist and told to pay just a few million dollars. They promised to pay for the cleanup but never did. The people of Alaska spent many hundreds of hours rescuing birds and sea-life, and cleaning the oil off those birds and animals who might survive. This year is 2014 - 25 years since that terrible disaster in Prince William Sound. And we humans still have not learnt our lessons. The business corporations are still far too greedy for oil, and they are still spilling the oil and damaging this planet that we call home. |
 | 1990 - The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) employed fertilizer-fortified hydrocarbon-consuming bacteria from the genus Pseudomonas to clean up Prince William Sound after the 1989 Exxon Valdez disaster. It was the first application of genetically-engineered microbes in oil spill remediation. There is also a movie about the Exxon Valdez oil spill, made in 1992. But I don't know how accurate it is. You can watch it on Youtube. |
 | In 1994, an action movie was released at the movie theatres. This movie was part action and part environmental. I fell in love with this movie. Most people did not like the environmental message at the end. They said it was preaching too much. But I found the message to be educational and interesting. The movie is not available on Youtube due to copyright reasons, but the environmental message at the end of On Deadly Ground can be seen. |
 | Actually I have been drawn to the oceans since long before 1989, but it became real for me when the Exxon Valdez disaster happened. I'm not sure why I am drawn to keeping the oceans safe, as opposed to the land. I just know I am. I think possibly because the Oceans cover 70 percent of the planet and anything that is dropped in one part of the ocean, may have some impact elsewhere. However, since 1989, I have made a special effort to keep up with environmental news around the world, especially any news pertaining to the worlds oceans. Another reason why I am drawn to protecting the oceans is because they are the last undiscovered frontier on this planet before we are forced to head out into Space and the unknown. For most of my life, I have also been drawn to reading books or watching any TV show or documentary or movie that involves the Earth's oceans. Some examples include The TV series, Seaquest DSV - the 1986 Star Trek movie The Voyage Home - The Black Sea and its toxic layer of water - Any underwater archaeology documentary - The Scripps Institute - The Woods Hole Institute - and lastly Clive Cusslers books, set around Dirk Pitt and his employer, the NUMA agency. |
 | On April 20,2010 - a massive explosion and fire aboard British Petroleum’s Deepwater Horizon drilling rig off the coast of Louisiana in the Gulf of Mexico resulted in the largest accidental oil spill in history. Eleven workers lose their lives in the blast, and another seventeen were severely injured. Multiple attempts to plug the gushing Macondo well failed. For months, oil leaked into the ocean, a mile beneath the surface. The spill damaged both the delicate ecology of the Gulf, and the fishing industry upon which the region depended for its economic livelihood. Five months after the initial explosion, the well was finally capped, but not before some 5 million barrels of oil flowed into Gulf waters. The disaster prompted President Barack Obama to push for legislative action to reduce the nation's oil dependence and make the production of energy from safe, clean, renewable sources - including biological processes - a technological priority. On September 05, 2014, BP was found to have been GROSSLY NEGLIGENT with regards to the Deepwater Horizon explosion in 2010. |