Ecofriendly Economics & Harsh Facts: Oil Spills

Harsh Facts

The Exxon Valdez Spill of 1989 was often considered the worst oil spill ever before the BP Spill of 2010. Exxon Valdez leaked 11 million gallons of oil into Alaska’s Prince William Sound.

Without taking the BP Spill into consideration, an average of one billion gallons of oil are spilled into the world’s oceans each year.

In the BP Gulf of Mexico Spill, 60,000 barrels (2.5 million gallons) of oil were leaked each day. On May 17^th, 2010, the slick was 130 miles long and 70 miles wide.

The cost of Gulf Oil Spill to BP as of June 14^th, 2010, was $1.6 billion. $1.5 billion is the estimated amount insurers paid as a result of the spill.

About 400 wildlife species were threatened by the BP Spill, including the 25 million birds that traverse the Gulf of Mexico each day. 

2,300 square miles out of a total 7,000 square miles of Louisiana coastal marshes and cypress forests have been damaged as a result of oil drilling. 

The United States consumes 19.5 million gallons of oil per day. 

One estimate expects that over its fifty year lifetime, the Keystone XL Pipeline will have about 91 significant tar sands oil spills (significant meaning at least fifty barrels).  

Picture courtesy of: http://justmytruth.wordpress.com/2010/06/02/the-ripple-effect/

Weekly Green Challenge: Upcycle 5 Things

I continued to ride my bike this week to nearby places. I totaled 14.6 miles, which equates to .67 gallons of gas in my car saved, and with current prices, $2.45 not spent. That may not seem like a lot, but look at this way: this EPA fact sheet says that burning one gallon of gas emits nearly twenty pounds of carbon dioxide. So, traveling .67 miles on my bike kept my car from belching more than ten pounds of carbon dioxide into the air. Imagine how many pounds of emissions could be spared each year if we all started to use our bikes more often!

Do you love riding your bike, whether it be for exercise, sport, your wallet, or the environment? Sign People for Bikes’ pledge, and help them reach their goal of one million pledges! The pledge shows that you’re committed to riding your bike, and it will help advocate for making towns and cities more bike friendly by adding bike lanes, paths, and trails. Be sure to change your badge to the type of bike you prefer to ride! When I signed, I picked the “commuter” bike. Which style will you pick?

Picture courtesy of: http://lajollavelo.com/

Now, on to this week’s Green Challenge! I had a lot of fun this week reusing and repurposing a few things, so for the coming week, I challenge you to repurpose or upcycle five items instead of throwing them away or recycling them.

Here’s a good tip for upcycling; when planning to repurpose something, don’t think about what you can make that object into. Try to think of something you need or want around the house, and then consider the alternative items you could make it from. Not only does upcycling keep items out of the landfill, but, hopefully, your upcycled item will actually be useful to you and your household.

Weekly Green Challenge: Reduce Your Trash

This past week, I traveled a total 14.8 miles on my bicycle in replacement of my car. In my car, 14.8 miles translates to .68 gallons of gas, which is worth $2.48. That may not seem like a lot, but if I saved that much each week of the year, that amounts to $128.96 and 769.6 miles of exercise and miles not on my old car. The money savings are great, but I must say, I really enjoyed the exercise I got over the week. Not to mention, the sun has been shining, and I got a great tan! (Well, a sunburn that turned into a tan. Wear sunscreen when biking!)

I plan on continuing to use my bike more often!

How far did you travel on your bike? How much did you save? Email me at viridorari@yahoo.com and let me know! Did you miss Green Challenge #14? Read it here.  

This week’s green challenge is inspired by Amy and Adam Korst, who I featured in an Activism Spotlight. If you haven’t read about them yet, here’s the punch line: over an entire year, they only produced a single shoebox full of trash (items that could not be recycled, reused, reduced, or composted). Since the average American produces 4.5 pounds of trash a day, that means they prevented over a ton of trash from entering a landfill.

Using their advice for a trash-free life, which you can find here, for this entire week, I want you to commit to either significantly reducing or eliminating your trash production. Like Amy said, you don’t have to give up life as you know it to be environmentally friendly. A lot of the transitions they made were easy to do, and much more efficient. Adam believes that living trash-free can be a perfectly normal lifestyle.

Weekly Green Challenge: Ride Your Bike

For Green Challenge #10, I asked viewers to plant a tree, whether they went out and bought one or transplanted a sapling to a more hospitable area (i.e., from a garden to the edge of a forest). Well, Viridorari viewer Bruno sent in a picture of the tree he and his family planted! Together, they went out and selected a Colorado spruce to commemorate his graduation from high school, and now the tree has a permanent home in their front yard.

Picture courtesy of Bruno

If you have planted a tree recently, email me a photo of your tree at viridorari@yahoo.com and I will feature it on the next Green Challenge!

In last week’s Harsh Facts about car dependence, one of the facts was:

Americans now use motor vehicles for more than ninety percent of their daily trips. Keep in mind that a quarter of all car journeys are less than two miles.

This week, I want you to change that. Think of all the places you drive to that are two miles away or less. For me, that would be the gas station down the road from my house. We visit there frequently for things like toilet paper and dog food and soda when we’re not ready to go for a full grocery shopping trip.

So, throughout this week, instead of driving to these nearby locations (two miles away or less), ride your bike. If you really want to challenge yourself, increase the distance to four or five miles. Not only will riding your bike instead of driving your car be gentler on the environment; it’s healthier for you too. If you’re falling behind on your exercise, incorporating some bike rides into your schedule is an easy and fun way to make up for it. Hopefully at the conclusion of this week you’ll decide to continue replacing your car with your bike for short distance trips.