There are plenty of photos from the oil catastrophy caused by Deepwater Horison last year from a different perspective then the photos you've seen previously. The photographer rented a plane to take photos of ground zero (the place where Deepwater Horizon went under was called that).

If you have the chanse you should have visit the exhibit, I know I will.

One problem with oil is that we're so dependent on it, and we don't have any other energy sources that really can compete with oil.

After the accident at Fukushima earlier this year everyone got afraid of nuclear power as an energy source, but oil could also cause problems as we saw last year with the Deepwater Horizon accident. The solution isn't just so easy that we can get afraid of all power sources we have, the solution is to utilize the sources we have at the moment so secure as possible until our scientists can find new and petterwaysof producing energy. This is whyit's so important to invest in companies and organizations that are researching new energy sources. Hopefully we will find betterwaysto produce energy in the future, but until then we have to prioritize safety over anything else when we produce electricity before our planet gets destroyed completely.

By the way, what kind of electricity are you using to run your website/blog? We use wind power.

The impact of oil in our world is a post from: XavierMedia.org

For over 20 years USA has been the number one energy consumer in the world and for only about 10 years ago China consumed about half of the energy consumed by USA. Forecasters had anticipated that China would pass the USA  as the world's largest energy consumer in 2015, but due to the economic crisis that slowed the USA energy demand by so much that China could do it earlier.

According to IEA, China consumed 2.252 billion tons of oil equivalent*  last year, which is 4 percent more than the USA has had a total energy of 2.17 billion tonnes of oil equivalent. In 2008 China used more than 40 percent of the world's coal and nearly half of the increase occurred in electricity consumption.

In 2007 China passed the USA in usage of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases, and today there are not any other country in the world to emit as much as China. To address this growing problem, China has set targets to reduce its emissions intensity and improve energy efficiency. A tough challenge because the government would simultaneously increase GDP growth by four times by 2020.

USA is still the largest energy consumer if you look to the energy used per capita, and China only gets a 4th place in that ranking. If you consider that it took China about 10 years to double it's energy usage and that China got a population of 1.3 billion while USA got only 310 millions you don't need to be a scientist to figure out that energy is going to be a luxury in the future.

*  An energy measurement based on the energy content of average crude oil.

China – The number one energy consumer in the World is a post from: XavierMedia.org

How many remember the Exxon Valdez accident outside Alaska about 20 years ago? This was one of that times greatest catastrophes where over 40,000 tonnes of crude oil filled the Alaskan coast line. The BP Gulf of Mexico Catastrophe is even worse than the Exxon Valdez accident [1], so the more we drill for oil the worse accidents we should expect

At the moment the US government is claiming BP will have to pay for the oil damages, but just look what happened after Exxon Valdez. Exxon had to pay 5 billion dollars at first in fines, but thanks to their lawyers they managed to fight the legal system and get it lowered to only 500 million dollars. Call me pessimistic, but I think the same thing will happen in this case too. At first BP will have to pay a huge amount of money and it will be all over the news, but many years later they get it lowered to a tenth of the original amount and by then everyone will have forgotten about the catastrophe so nobody cares if they don't have to pay.

This is why it's so important that we all help supporting the organizations working to make our planet a better place (like WWF and Greenpeace).

[1] This is how we calculated that the BP oil spill is worse than Exxon Valdez:

We know that the Exxon Valdez spilled 40,000 tonnes of oil and according to calculations from BP and environmental organizations the latest oil spill is somewhere between 5,000 and 50,000 barrels per day. We calculated on 25,000 barrels per day for 45 days. One barrel is about 0,1369 tonnes ("1 barrel per day (b/d) = 50 tonnes per year (approx.)" from eppo.go.th) of oil so we get:

25,000 barrels * 45 days * 0,1369 tonnes per barrel = 154 012.5 tonnes of oil

BP Mexican Gulf Oil Catastrophe is a post from: XavierMedia.org

WWF says it all in their blog with this qoute:

The UN climate talks in Copenhagen were inches away from total failure and ended with an outcome far too weak to tackle dangerous climate change, WWF said today.

So it looks like the ordinary person (Average Joe if you like) have to do the most work once again since the people we pay to negotiate these things are just too fat and happy to bother…..So my suggestion to everyone is to make a new year promise to focus all their little actions on the environment next year. Like for example switching to renewable green energy, try to walk instead of using the car for short distances, and maybe bring leftovers as lunch from the dinner the day before. By taking these actions you may not only reduce your impact on the planet, but also save a few bucks

If you have any money left after buying your Christmas presents, then perhaps you may consider investing in a fund investing in companies working for a better planet (like the SEB Baltic Sea fund/WWF) or giving some money to WWF. You can read more about donating money to WWF here.

Merry Christmas to you all and Happy New Year!

Merry CHristmas and a Happy New year is a post from: XavierMedia.org

I read in an article that the global IT industry is generating as much greenhouse gas as the world’s airlines!!!! By consuming less CO² you can make a difference for the planet by not speeding up the global warming, but how do you do that an easy way? One way is to do like we at Xavier Media did:

We invested in a wind power plant. This is not only making it possible for us to only use renewable green energy at our office, but it makes it possible for us to save some money too since we get to buy electricity at a much cheaper price as part-owner of the power plant. At the moment we're saving about 10% of our investment on our energy costs.

Xavier Media has always been interested in investments that make a difference especially when it comes to our planet and our environment. This is why we started this blog at XavierMedia.org and started investing apart of our profit from our regular business in companies and fund that donate a part of their profit for good causes.

Take a moment to think about how you can use little means to reduce your need for greenhouse gases and CO² needed in your every-day life. Every little thing helps like for example leaving your car at home for all shorter trips .

Blog Action Day: Renewable Green Energy is a post from: XavierMedia.org

A whole Indian community that lived on fishing in the area went bankrupt just because of the accident!

Exxon dismissed the drunk captain and was sentenced in 1994 to pay five billion U.S. dollars in damages. Exxon did however manage to get the U.S. judicial system to reduce the fine down to just 500 million U.S. dollars.

Still 20 years later there are still some oil on the coastal line, but Exxon is not interested in cleaning up any more since they claim the oil residues are not dangerous to the wild life.

Exxon Valdez was repaired, renamed to the Sea River Mediterranean, and continued to go in traffic for Exxon until 2002 but with the prohibition to sail to Alaska and European ports. According to some sources the ship remains in the Far East…..

Support WWF in their work making the world a better place since companies like Exxon seems to not be interested in helping.

Exxon Valdez is a post from: XavierMedia.org

According to www.earthhour.org more than 930 cities and towns in 80 countries have already committed to VOTE EARTH for Earth Hour 2009, as part of the worlds first global election between Earth and global warming.

Companies encouraging their local offices and facilities to switch off their lights in support of this initiative include companies like Coca-Cola, IKEA, Electrolux and Hilton Hotels (and of course Xavier Media ).

Earth Hour started in Sydney, Australia in 2007 when 2.2 million homes and businesses switched off their lights for one hour. During 2008 this spread around the globe as a global sustainability movement, with over 50 million people switching off their lights. Some of the more famous contributors in 2008 where Golden Gate Bridge and the Coca-Cola billboard in Times Square.

VOTE EARTH you too by simply switching off your lights for one hour, and join the world for Earth Hour.

Earth Hour got an account at Twitter you can follow and you can also see videos at YouTube.com.

Earth Hour – Save energy is a post from: XavierMedia.org