Current pic of the Gulf of Mexico

Here's a current pic of the Gulf of Mexico, courtesy of NASA:



More info from the page (http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/IOTD/view.php?id=44375&src=eoa-iotd) :

On Saturday, June 19, 2010, oil spread northeast from the leaking Deepwater Horizon well in the Gulf of Mexico. The oil appears as a maze of silvery-gray ribbons in this photo-like image from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Aqua satellite.

The location of the leaking well is marked with a white dot. North of the well, a spot of black may be smoke; reports from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration say that oil and gas continue to be captured and burned as part of the emergency response efforts.

The large image provided above is at MODIS’ maximum spatial resolution (level of detail). Twice-daily images of the Gulf of Mexico are available from the MODIS Rapid Response Team in additional resolutions and formats, including a georeferenced version that can be used in Google Earth.
References
* National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. (2010, June 20). Deepwater Horizon Incident, Gulf of Mexico. National Ocean Service, Office of Response and Restoration. Retrieved June 21, 2010.

- - -

It doesn't help that the hurricane season is coming in, sadly enough I can only think that the petrol will continue to expand.

Anyone wants 魚 (fish) from there?

Advice of the week

Driving at 90 km/h (55 miles) instead of 110 km/h (68 m/h) means that you'll save 25% of petrol consumption. Even more, if the tyres are well, and you change the filter on time, you'll save as much as 15% energy consumption.

Bonus:

Walking is nice!

Use the stairs instead of the lift (elevator) every time you can. It's good for your health, and you'll also save energy!

On BP

Sorry for not updating the blog in the past couple of weeks, it's the end of the semester so I had lots of works to do. But I can finally update the blog again! And thanks to everyone for their comments on the blog!

I will also start a new section called "Advice of the Week", in which, by courtesy of Preserve Planet.org; I wll give information on how to reduce one's environmental footprint. Because destroying nature is not very metal, is it?

BP facts:
Here’s more info on BP, the company that has caused the worst environmental disaster in the U.S. in history:


- Originally called “British Petroleum”, now called BP.
- Has lost 40% of market value since the crisis began.
- Based in the UK. BP’s is the “kingdom’s” largest company, has shares held by almost every British pension fund.
- Actually a multi-national business, employs more USA citizens than British.
- 40% of its quarterly dividend goes to USA pension funds to help US people.
- It was a US regulator that said “no more shallow sea, go to the barriers of technology without complete approval and support and do the drilling so we can put the black stuff into our cars, and so ”we” at the Fed get the tax revenue”.
- US American company that operated the rig, and a US American company that built it.

Info taken from John Hofmeister, author of “Why We Hate Oil Companies” commenting on Politics UK. Info taken also from Business Weekly podcast.

If extraction of petrol in deep water stops…:

Far less deep-water drilling -> Less supplies in the marketplace -> Higher prices for consumers

Overall, this certainly represents a necessity for “greener” energies. It's mandatory to move to different energy sources, and to, say, eliminate the “internal combustion engines” of cars, and to switch to battery driven ones. The world needs more energy diversity, or there'll be no world at all. And that means no metal gigs, which is not nice.

Costa Rica: The Land that Hates Nature

Tourists (usually North American, i.e. U.S. Americans and Canadians) that come to Costa Rica, come and they see this:




… beautiful rainforests and magnificent beaches. However, they do not see the reality of the country. A reality that is far from being "nature loving". The country, promotes itself to the world as a country that is "one with nature", so to say.





But this is what really happens:




The previous administration, of Oscar Arias, was marked by one thing: Uncontrolled development (and international treaties) and destruction of nature. He may have won a Nobel Peace Prize, but he's incredibly corrupt (re-elections were illegal until he bought the deputies so they could correct that), and did nothing to help preserve CRn nature. (And who can't win a Nobel Peace Prize nowadays? Even Obama won one, whilst the US military is still invading Iraq. So much for "peace".). Not only that, but as you can see in the picture above (the cartoon), he let a Canadian company (Vannessa Ventures) come and try to open up the biggest mine in Central America, the now-famous Crucitas. Ironic, since this type of mining is not legal in Canada. (Tar-sands is another issue.)

Crucitas is something that should never happen, and a country as CR should be ashamed of itself (at least its governors should), for even approving it. Thousands of trees will be cut, rivers will be polluted, and animals will be killed and moved. What's more ironic is that the government only takes 3% of all the money that the company will make out of the gold extraction. But perhaps someone else is taking a bigger share….

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V-YZqZH_ZvQ&feature=player_embedded#!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M6YUVOnyNzI&feature=related



The current president (as seen in this link "http://www.nacion.com/2010-06-06/AldeaGlobal/NotaPrincipal/AldeaGlobal2397984.aspx" ), of the same party as Oscar Arias (Liberación Nacional) thinks that everything is solved by planting a few trees. My opinion: Rubbish. Unless the country has a sustainable and controlled development, and rejects ipso facto projects like Crucitas, we will never stop being hypocrites. Remember: There can't be development without nature.

BP oil spill? No, catastrophe!

As most of you should know, there's a horrendous oil spill right now. It is a massive oil "spill" ("spill" indeed falls too short to describe what is happening) at the Gulf of Mexico. "Now considered the largest offshore spill in U.S. history. The spill stems from a sea floor oil gusher that started with an oil well blowout on April 20, 2010. The blowout caused a catastrophic explosion on the Deepwater Horizon offshore oil drilling platform that was situated about 40 miles (64 km) southeast of the Louisiana coast in the Macondo Prospect oil field. The explosion killed 11 platform workers and injured 17 others; another 98 people survived without serious physical injury". ("Gulf oil spill now largest offshore spill in U.S. history as BP continues plug effort". USA Today. 2010-05-27. Welch, William; Joyner, Chris (2010-05-25). "Memorial Services Honors 11 Dead Oil Rig Workers". USA Today).

In order to get an idea of the extent of the damage, one needs to look at things. Just click on these links to see the extent of the damage:



This can easily be stopped, but I seriously doubt that BP will blow up the well and say "bye-bye" to their precious billions of dollars.

(Image courtesy of NASA. Thank you.)

About the blog

Hello everyone!

This is a new blog, and as such it'll constantly "evolve" thanks to your constructive criticisms.

I aim to talk mainly about nature, and how it is affected by us humans. Not only that, but I'll write information about nature-loving metal bands (e.g. Borknagar, Empyrium), and also about how a band feels towards nature and the lyrics a band has written.

Diverse tips and information ranging from bands, to food production and consumption, to oil "leaks", mining and electronics will be given. I'll try to cover the most topics that I can that are related to nature, as well as some other important ones such as politics and manga (;)).

And, to start the blog in the appropriate manner, I quote thee, Empyrium (from "A Wintersunset…"):

"We, the members of Empyrium [and the blog] would like to look upon this work as an expression of the overwhelming beauty of nature… that so strongly inspired our art. Thus, we dedicate our work to our mighty mother Earth.

Only those who cultivate the fruits can harvest them.

SAVE THE PLANET!