As the world is well aware, oil continues to be pumped into the Gulf of Mexico. This horrible disaster, which began with an explosion at a BP oil rig off the coast of Louisiana on April 20th, has been spewing thousands of litres of oil a day into the water. This, naturally, has terrorized the beaches, sealife and birds of Louisiana, Alabama and Mississippi’s coasts.

As Campbell Robertson and Joseph Berger of the New York Times explain today, so far, a number of strategies to slow down and stop the flow of oil into the gulf have pretty much been unsuccessful. Attempting to close valves didn’t work and trying to capture leaking oil with a containment dome failed as well. Last week, a “top kill” technique was adopted to seal the well with mud and solid debris. That failed too.

The most recent strategy, writes Robertson and Berger is “to place a containment cap over the well and funnel the leaking oil up through a riser pipe to a tanker on the surface…(the pipe) must be sheared off so that the containment dome can be fit snugly over the well, a procedure called cut-and-cap for short. Officials have cautioned that after the pipe is cut but before the dome is in place, the flow of oil could increase by as much as 20 per cent.”

The news saddens environmentalists all over the world, as it appears as if nothing can be done to prevent the inevitable destruction of the ecosystems in the affected areas. The old adage that “oil and water don’t mix” is being proven on a daily basis as a reddish-brown, goopy cloud continues to grow larger in the Gulf of Mexico waters.

As a result, many people are seemingly becoming more understanding that cleaner energy sources are mandatory for a healthy future of our planet. United States President, Barack Obama addressed this issue at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh earlier today.

Said Obama: “The time has come, once and for all, for this nation to embrace a clean energy future…If we refuse to take into account the full cost of our fossil fuel addiction — if we don’t factor in the environmental costs and national security costs and true economic costs — we will have missed our best chance.”

Referencing energy-efficient cars and homes and more nuclear power as important methods by which we may acheive the goal of a more environmentally-friendly future, the president also called for a rollback of tax breaks for billion dollar oil companies.

Obama acknowledges, of course, that the gulf disaster was caused by human error. Therefore, it is human action that will need to prevent such disasters in the future. The U.S. government is still investigating the possibility of criminal action surrounding the oil rig disaster. The harm, however, has already been done.

At the beginning of May, the Synergy Merchant Services Blog began discussing a topic that continued to make mainstream headlines all throughout the month. Now, as we begin the month of June, that massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico continues to wreak irreparable damage to that body of water and all life that exists within in it.

Sadly, the news surrounding the cleanup efforts today is not so bright. Today, CBC News reports that the hurricane season in the southeast United States is causing great concern to those helping with the cleanup efforts. Officially beginning tomorrow, the hurricane season is expected to bring about storms with winds of at least 178 km/h.

According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the upcoming season is anticipated to be “extremely active”. CBC News also reports that, at present, underwater robots are being used to saw through the pipe that is leaking the oil into the Gulf of Mexico. The heavy winds expected to be brought on by the hurricane season threaten the attempt of BP – the company responsible for the spill – to contain the flow of oil that is gushing out of the pipe.

Carol Browner, the White House adviser on energy and climate change explains the possibilities: “If (the new containment dome) is not able to contain the oil, we would be in a situation where it is conceivable that there would be oil leaking at a rate of something on the order of (1.9 million to 3.2 million litres) a day until the relief wells are dug.”

As if the environment needed any more bad news, the oil rig mishap that caused this catastrophe apparently couldn’t have happened at a worse time. BP crews are attempting to intersect the leaking well with two new relief wells to in order to pump a heavy liquid that may “stem the flow of oil”. This process began at the beginning of May and is not expected to be completed before August.

United States President, Barack Obama is adamant that the oil spill cleanup is a top priority. He insists that the U.S. government is doing all it can to monitor the situation and tirelessly work towards stopping the flow of oil.

Said Obama: “Until this well is stopped, we’ll multiply our efforts to meet the growing threat and to address the widespread and unbelievably painful losses experienced by the people along the Gulf Coast.”

Once again, this situation should remind us all about the fragility of our environment. And although we cannot all join in with the U.S. government’s efforts to clean up the oil spill, we should be aware of our daily activities that may either contribute to the health of our environment or work to destroy it.