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

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