Earth Day was 27 March 2010. And as part of Earth Day there was the lights out Earth Hour initiative. A billion people in 4000 cities worldwide turned off their lights for 1 hour. The Earth Hour event was declared a success.

Since I sell environmentally friendly products, I go to a lot of “green” events. And the week before and after Earth Day was chock full of events. Everyone was trying to ride the “go green” wave and to capitalize on the interest and focus on going green. We had the illusion that many supported the save energy, save the earth, save the environment, save the planet movement. That was the end of March.

But what happened in the next 30 days?

• 25 people died in the West Virgina coal mine tragedy
• Oil spill near Australia
• And the now infamous Deepwater Horizon oil rig explosion and the resulting BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico

The BP’s oil spill is the biggest ever in the United States, but it’s not the biggest in history – yet. The largest oil spill was intentionally caused by Iraq in 1991 during the Persian Gulf war. We can certainly find fault with British Petroleum in this disaster. But the US government is not blameless either. BP is trying to stop the flow and clean up the oil that has already spilled into the Gulf of Mexico, Who know how much oil will continue to spill into the gulf and for how long? This oil spill doesn’t take first place honors yet, but it could get there.

And Earth Day kicked off a month full of disasters…

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BP’s Gulf of Mexico oil spill is still in the news and will continue to be because the oil continues to flow into the gulf. In the aftermath of the oil spill disaster and the aftermath of grilling of BP executives by the US Congress and President Obama, what’s the really important question?

How to clean up the oil spill?

People from universities and private companies and even Hollywood have submitted solutions. I’ve heard criticisms about BP not responding to suggestions very quickly. It takes a lot of time. Rational people would have to know that BP and the rest of the oil industry would like the spill to be cleaned up yesterday. The environmentalists want the oil cleaned up. Everyone in the gulf region would like an oil spill cleanup solution. And seafood lovers want to avoid the escalating prices that the oil spill will cause. The cost is high in terms of finances, the economy and in terms of quality of life.

I wrote “Hey Hay – Is There a Simple Way to Clean Up BP’s Oil Spill?”   about one proposal for soaking up the oil.

Check out “In the aftermath of disaster: Cleanup solutions for oil spills” for other solutions that have been and are being considered and implemented to address the Gulf of Mexico oil spill crisis.