Oil Rig Mishap Disastrous For Environment

Back on April 20th, just two days before the world celebrated the 40th annual Earth Day, a horrible disaster took place off the coast of Louisiana. As you are more than likely already aware, a deep-water rig operated by BP PLC, formerly known as British Petroleum, experienced a serious mishap resulting in a broken pipe near the ocean floor that is now pumping thousands of litres of crude oil into the Gulf of Mexico.

Two days later, the severely damaged rig sank, killing 11 people. To make matters worse, the oil spill is poised to become the worst such disaster in American history. As we all know from learning of such disasters in the past, the pumping of oil into our oceans is horrific for the entire planet. Everything from ocean life to our eco-system is at risk of futher deteoriation.

Today, Lee-Ann Goodman of The Canadian Press reports that BP is accepting the responsibility of the oil cleanup and will pay compensation for property damage, personal injury and business losses. According to BP’s chief executive officer, Tony Hayward: “We are responsible, not for the accident, but we are responsible for the oil and for dealing with it and cleaning the situation up.”

Sadly, the damage that is being done by the crude oil which continues to mercilessly spew into the Gulf of Mexico is irreversible. Animals of the sea are already perishing in abundance, fishing has been haulted and of course, the Earth is facing another major environmental catastrophe.

Earlier today, Cal Jillson, a political science professor at Southern Methodist University in Dallas put the disaster into perspective: “I don’t think anyone imagined that the pipe could break off at the ocean floor a mile down and could not be turned off. It’s almost unimaginable how terrible this will be if they cannot stop it.”

This disaster comes at cruelly ironic time. Or perhaps at a most opportune one, although it is hard to fathom that there can be a positive outlook on this situation. Synergy Merchant Services has long practiced the concept of conservation, recycling and resusing. We most certainly put that into practice as we participated in Earth Day last month.

Today, the talk around the office surrounded how one can even feel comfortable driving to work everyday knowing that the gas in our tanks comes at the risk of causing further irreparable harm to our environment. We know it is up to us to never forget that we can all contribute to either the world’s health or destruction.

Goodman writes of New Jersey lawmaker Frank Pallone’s urging of United States President Barack Obama to halt off-shore drilling. According to Pallone: “This (oil spill) happens to be one that’s incredibly catastrophic. That’s why you shouldn’t have offshore drilling in environmentally sensitive areas…we need to move towards renewables, have windmills off the coast.”

And while a ban on off-shore drilling may be a preventive measure from future disasters, it cannot put a plug into the gushing of oil that is currently causing havoc in the Gulf of Mexico. This occurrence is yet another reminder that we each should do our part in respecting and protecting the environment in our own ways every single day. We will continue to meet with this topic in our blogs thoughout the week.