Meet me halfway!

Since it is now halfway through the quarter, it is time to evaluate how I have been doing with my goals.

As far as walking to and from class goes, I guess I did not do that bad. Although I reviewed my initial goal after a couple of weeks, deciding to walk home from class only. I have been doing it most of the time, even though I was too lazy a couple of times and still took the bus home. I guess this is still better than if I would drive a car every day. There is still room for improvement, and I am sure it would help if spring could finally be here!

I did only purchase fresh food, no cans, no frozen food, no imported goods. Farmer’s Market being open again, it offered a great opportunity to buy local. Plus, de taste of fresh food is unbeatable! I also kept buying organic food as much as I can, and as much as my wallet can!

I also did a pretty good job at unplugging my devices and also switching off everything I can at night. However, my roommates do not really cooperate yet, there is a light on somewhere all the time at my place. But I will keep bugging them until I get so annoying that they will switch lights off just to escape me!

Finally, I thought of a fifth goal I will add to my list. I will stop using the dryer for my clothes, and simply have them dry with air. It will certainly take more time, but the result will be the same!

Oil Spills

As one of the biggest oil spills the US ever had to fight against is dangeroulsy approaching the coasts of Louisiana as well as Texas and the Mexican coasts, the drama remains the same. Dozens of oil spills, and humans did not learn anything from it. Always seeking for more oil, large corporations build off-shore platforms with very few security requirements. The quest for black gold dominates everything else.

Causing the death of about a dozen of workers and affecting the animal life in and around the oceans, no one seems to be able to stop the oil from propagating, not even the Navy!

Although President Obama said last week that the US will ''use every single available resource at our disposal' in response to the spill, will it be enough? BP, the company owning the platform that sunk almost two weeks ago, is working on a giant lid that could be placed in about a week, because the platform still contains and leaks oil. Indeed, about 5000 barrels a day escape from the platform. The average US mileage being 27 miles per gallon, 5.67 million miles could be covered with this amount of oil, that is about 2350 times the distance New York - Seattle.

Obama also declared that BP is responsible for this catastrophe and that it will have to pay for the damage. But what are oiled birds, fish, and other ocean inhabitants supposed to do with BP's billions of dollars?

videos:

What happened

Its effect on the ocean

Interview with the president of BP America

(sources: businessweek.com, google.com, youtube.com and nytimes.com)