It's hot out there, or at least it will be.
Summer is here and I heard on the news the other day that this summer is set to be the hottest on record.
Fossil fuels and our over dependence on non-renewable energy has contributed to major changes in our environment.
We all have watched as global warming has caused a major reckoning on our global weather systems. Not only are there more catastrophic hurricanes in Florida and all over the East Coast, but massive flooding from storms as we are seeing in California and in the Southwest.
It’s not that storms never hit the West Coast. It's just the simple fact that because of the cold Pacific Ocean and its arctic currents, plus trade winds, the West Coast remains free of hurricanes. I learned by reading up on it. I also learned the last hurricane to hit California was in 1858, almost three years before the beginning of the American Civil War. It was a long time ago, but it could happen again.
Because of our dependence on non-renewable energy, we not only have weather changes from global warming, but we have catastrophic, man-made disasters happening. One unparalleled cataclysm happened on April 22, 2010, on the Deepwater Horizon floating rig. This rig was a semi-submersible offshore drilling rig. It exploded, causing the largest oil spill in history.
A movie about the disaster called "Deepwater Horizon" premiered in 2016, starring Mark Wahlberg, Kurt Russell, John Malkovich and Kate Hudson, among others. The film was a box office bomb, losing millions instead of making money. In spite of it being a box office disaster, the film was nominated for two Academy Awards for best sound editing and best visual effects. Check out the movie. I remember seeing the film and really liking it, but I guess not everyone did.
The massive explosion on Deepwater Horizon killed 11 crewmen and created a massive fire that could be seen from 40 miles away, according to Wikipedia. The rig itself was a technological marvel, according to sources I found. In September 2009, the rig drilled the deepest oil well in history at a depth of 35,050 feet. That's over 5 and a half miles deep, an astonishing depth up to that point in time.
The rig itself was a massive 356 feet long and 256 feet wide. That's huge. The rig was built in South Korea and operated by British Petroleum. Today, the entire structure sits at the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico.
It took 87 days before the leak was finally capped on July 15, 2010. After capping off the well, the cleanup that was already in full force went into hyperdrive.
Had the leak continued, it could have devastated the environment even more than it did in the entire Gulf of Mexico and beyond. Oil, we all know, does not mix with water. The oil from the spill rose to the top of the water and just sat there. As it sat, it spread out, covering everything and essentially plunging the water below into total darkness, cutting it off from the vital rays from the sun. Plants and animals began to die. The tides then carried the oil to the shoreline, covering vegetation, birds and mammals.
The Center for Biological Diversity looked at government reports, news programs and scientific studies to calculate the oil spill’s probable effects. They found that the spill likely injured or killed 82,000 birds from 103 species, approximately 6,000 sea turtles, nearly 26,000 marine mammals and a massive number of fish — too many to count — not to mention, oysters, crabs, corals and other creatures. The disaster brought oil to more than a thousand miles of shoreline, including beaches and marshlands. The area has still not recovered and may not for centuries, if ever.
Don't get me wrong, I am just as dependent on this fossil fuel as anyone else. In fact, we get not only fuel for our cars from oil but a host of other products like plastic, lubricants, tar, wax, medicine, fertilizer and pesticide. The list goes on and on. Since fossil fuel is not renewable, it will run out. Then what?
We may not be able to single-handedly prevent another oil disaster, avoid weather catastrophes or totally cut off our dependence on fossil fuel. But we can be aware of what we are doing to our world. We can be mindful of our contributions to global warming, to pollution and to our oceans.
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Richard Stride is the current CEO of Cascade Community Healthcare. He can be reached at drstride@icloud.com.
