Deepwater Horizon trajectory, courtesy NOAA
The environmental catastrophe in the Gulf has been an incredibly sobering experience for all of us, and it’s really opened a lot of eyes, my own included, to just how damaging our consumption of oil is.
Right now, over 200,000 gallons of oil are spilling into the Gulf every single day. I can’t even wrap my mind around that much oil, and the devastating effects that it’s going to have on the coast’s wetlands and wildlife. It’s simply heartbreaking.
Some Good News…
You regular readers probably have seen my good friend Renaissance Ronin lurking around here. He loves leaving snappy comments to get a laugh. In spite of his sarcastic, gruff exterior, though, he’s got a heart of gold. And, he’s an expert building with shipping containers.
Well, he lives in Biloxi (about 1,000 feet from the local beach). And, he’s putting together a relief center, out of ISBU shipping containers, to help feed the thousands of volunteers that are descending on the Gulf to help out. Here’s an update on his progress:
Man, has it been a long day…
I spent all day long trying to coordinate the creation of a foodbank system that will actually be able to feed over 500 housed workers, camping in the Mississippi Coliseum.
I have fresh/frozen chickens coming from Florida, meat from Tennessee, and vegs from Ga, plus a ton of water and drinks from the CocaCola bottlers locally.
The powers that be are planning to feed the workers MRE’s. Yeah, that’s what I’d want after 12 hours of mucking oil and sand… a big plastic bag with lousy tasting “kinda food” in it…
So, we’re taking 4 20′ ISBUs and turning them into galleys. We put them on car hauler flatbeds, and all we’ll need is a hose, and a water source. We have generators to power the electrical, and the ranges are gas, and will work off LPG.
Another ISBU is being turned into a walk-in cooler storage unit, by fiddling with a Window AC unit, and sticking a foot of foam on the outside of the box for insulation.
(Okay… we’re using three units that we prepped for the build in Alabama, because the concrete floor was already in them, and they were already basically gutted and ready to rework. We’re going to just polish the floors with a surface grinder, and then paint them. We’ll prep replacement boxes for the Alabama build, after these are set.)
A church across the street from the church next door to me… has offered up their community center building, to be used as a dining hall, if we want it.
We’re waiting on a ruling from City Hall, now.
No oil yet, but I’m told that it’s getting closer, and it should start fouling the beaches by midday tomorrow.
We’re also told that they’ll start bringing people in to train the locals in oil clean-up, on Wednesday.
Local vets are already planning to start establishing a training center, so volunteers can learn how to clean wildlife. It’s going to be horrific.
The damage to wildlife is going to be catastrophic. The damage to the economy is going to be horrendous.
Sure, a lot of people will get jobs, but there is NO housing, and little in the way of a real food source, to support that many warm bodies all piled together.
We’ll have our work cut out for us.
Ronin is going to be sending pictures when he can, so I’ll keep all of you updated on his progress.
How You Can Help…
For a full list of volunteer and donation resources, check out this list put together by MSN.
The Hidden Oil In Our Lives…
This catastrophe has made me feel like I’m partly responsible. Why? Because I use oil all the time. I’m paying companies, BP included, to drill and provide me with that oil.
It makes me feel really, really bad.
I don’t drive that much, but I DO consume a lot of oil. Oil is in tons of products we use every day, and I wanted to share a list (courtesy ANWR.org) with all of you to illustrate just how much oil we’re using. Some of these products will probably surprise you…I know it did me.
Oil is used in the creation of:
Clothing Ink
Heart Valves
Crayons
Parachutes
Telephones
Enamel
Transparent tape
Antiseptics
Vacuum bottles
Deodorant
Pantyhose
Rubbing Alcohol
Carpets
Epoxy paint
Oil filters
Upholstery
Hearing Aids
Car sound insulation
Cassettes
Motorcycle helmets
Pillows
Shower doors
Shoes
Refrigerator linings
Electrical tape
Safety glass
Awnings
Salad bowl
Rubber cement
Nylon rope
Ice buckets
Fertilizers
Hair coloring
Toilet seats
Denture adhesive
Loudspeakers
Movie film
Fishing boots
Candles
Water pipes
Car enamel
Shower curtains
Credit cards
Aspirin
Golf balls
Detergents
Sunglasses
Glue
Fishing rods
Linoleum
Plastic wood
Soft contact lenses
Trash bags
Hand lotion
Shampoo
Shaving cream
Footballs
Paint brushes
Balloons
Fan belts
Umbrellas
Paint Rollers
Luggage
Antifreeze
Model cars
Floor wax
Sports car bodies
Tires
Dishwashing liquids
Unbreakable dishes
Toothbrushes
Toothpaste
Combs
Tents
Hair curlers
Lipstick
Ice cube trays
Electric blankets
Tennis rackets
Drinking cups
House paint
Rollerskates wheels
Guitar strings
Ammonia
Eyeglasses
Ice chests
Life jackets
TV cabinets
Car battery cases
Insect repellent
Refrigerants
Typewriter ribbons
Cold cream
Glycerin
Plywood adhesive
Cameras
Anesthetics
Artificial turf
Artificial Limbs
Bandages
Dentures
Mops
Beach Umbrellas
Ballpoint pens
Boats
Nail polish
Golf bags
Caulking
Tape recorders
Curtains
Vitamin capsules
Dashboards
Putty
Percolators
Skis
Insecticides
Fishing lures
Perfumes
Shoe polish
Petroleum jelly
Faucet washers
Food preservatives
Antihistamines
Cortisone
Dyes
LP records
Solvents
Roofing
Last Word…
That list is mind-boggling to me.
All of us can make a big difference in the amount of oil we use simply by driving less, and avoiding the products on this list whenever we can. Buying used, and reusing what we’ve got, can also make a difference.
Again, as pictures come in with Ronin’s efforts to get his ISBU containers set up in Biloxi I’ll keep all of you updated.
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No oil yet. The tide was holding North-northwest for a while, but it’s starting to shift now. In the beginning, we’ll see small amounts of trace oil, as it starts to arrive. Then, all hell will break loose.
In the meantime, we’re trying to get something in place to actually care for the workers who will be caring for our coastline as this crisis starts to impact us. Experts are already saying that this could be the largest oil spill in the history of oil production as we know it. Oy.
If you’d like to help, any donation would be appreciated, no matter how small. You can find that donation information, on my blog, or Heather’s. We have a lot to do, and little time. In the meantime, when we take off our welding helmets, we’re looking out to sea, waiting for the tide…
Thanks,
Ronin
Cinco De Mayo…
I’ve been talking with beach workers… you know, those guys that rent you beach chairs and jet ski’s. They’re telling me that the beaches are literally covered with camera crews (both foreign and domestic), and the hulls on the water toys are are starting to foul (on the bottom of the water bikes and jet ski’s), and that the footwells on the water toys have oil rings on them, from the splashing water, carrying the beginnings of the spill to our shores.
The first to be affected will be all the waterfowl that feed in these waters. If you’re looking to help, a donation to an agency tooling up to try and save these sea creatures would be a wonderful place to start. Hundreds of thousands of sea animals will be affected. It’s hard to think about this without tears in your eyes. IF this spill lives up to expectations, it could signal the end of life as we know it on America’s Southern Shores.
In the next week, we’ll start seeing how bad the damage will be. The winds and the tides will be the messengers.
Wow. This is an eye-opening list. Thank you for posting. I will definitely think twice about some of the things I purchase. And thank you for the MSN link on ways to help.
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