Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill

I know right, this news is already 12 days old. Still, you maybe unaware, so I'm gonna do this news for the benefit of the blog that seemed to be forgotten.

Okay, so, OIL SPILL.

An environmental disaster. Truly. Mr. Obama also decided IT IS an environmental disaster.

Heck.

So what happened? Here's a brief history of what happened, of how the freakin' oil spilled, threatening the lives of various endangered species in the proximity and possibly destroying the ecosystem in there.

April 20

- an oil rig, named Deepwater Horizon, exploded and caught fire (duh!). Eleven oil rig workers are missing, and are presumed dead, though searches were still held. 17 were injured. The oil rig is the deepest ever, or was.

April 22

- Deepwater Horizon sank.

April 23

- Search of the Coast Guards for the missing ended because there are no more "reasonable expectations of survival". My prayers for the family of those people.

April 24

- Efforts to contain the oil spill were hampered by the storm. 42,000 gallons of oil a day is leaking, said a Coast Guard, covering a 20-by-20-mile area.

April 25

- Robot subs were employed to activate valves at the well held in order to stop the leak. Strategy was likely to fail, said Doug Suttles, chief operating officer for the BP Exploration and Production. Work will likely take 24 to 36 hours.

April 26

- Robot subs work continues. Oil spill covered a 48-by-36-mile already, and it's 30 miles away from the Louisiana coast. (gasp!)

April 27

- Plans to burn off oil from the surface of the Gulf of Mexico were made. Of course, the robot subs failed. The oil was 23 miles away from the coast of Louisiana. (oh no!)

April 28

- A controlled burn is done off the Louisiana coast. 5,000 barrels a day are leaking into the ocean, a top Coast Guard officer estimated. Five times BP's initial estimate.

April 29

- Oil reached the mouth of the Mississippi river (at least I got the spelling right!). Attempts of shutting the valves are, still, unsuccessful.

April 30

- 70 miles south of New Orleans, a rescue operation treated its first animal patient - a northern gannett found offshore with its pointed beak covered in thick oil. Poor creature. Government allowed the use of military planes to help with cleanup efforts. President Obama said that no offshore oil drilling leases be issued unless rigs have new safeguards. BP surely will be paying the bill.

May 1

- the 7th Gathering of the fans of the biggest name in kPop and jPop - TVXQ - was held by the Cassiopeia Philippines on the UP Film Institute. What a great day I had! Anyway, back to the oil spill. Surface area covered by the oil tripled in size. Experts said that the amount of oil leaking were larger than the 5,000-barrel-a-day estimate.

May 2

- the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration banned commercial and recreational fishing (come on! you have time to fish for recreation while oil were spilling at an alarming rate into the ocean. People do not care! LOL) from the mouth of the Mississippi river off Louisiana to western parts of the Florida Panhandle (what is that?). Ban will last for at least 10 days to keep seafood safe (seafood? why not sea creatures?).

May 3

- I did this blog post. ;)

Articles and news I have read said that this oil spill may be the biggest in history. Well, I'm definitely not hoping for it to happen. Think about those endangered species. Sad.

Well, all I can do is pray for those who are working to stop this freakin' economical disaster. Be strong, guys! Do what you can!