The massive environmental disaster in the Gulf of Mexico serves as a grim reminder of how delicate our planet’s ecosystems truly are. The fact that this was a manmade disaster makes it even more serious. In some ways I’m reminded of Chernobyl in the then USSR where the April 26, 1986 meltdown of a nuclear reactor spread radioactivity for hundreds of miles and as many as 100,000 of the clean-up workers died of various types of radiation-generated illnesses in the years after being exposed and more than half a million more have since become invalids.

Natural disaster such as hurricanes, tornados, floods, droughts, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, etc. are all part of what we Earth inhabitants live with. We can take precautions against them, thereby often minimizing the damages they can cause, but their effects on the environment and ecosystems involved are unavoidable but can rebound, given sufficient time and opportunity. So how long will it take for the damages invoked by the Horizon oil gusher to recover? Probably many years

I’m not sure how many of you have wondered how such an incident as the Deepwater Horizon oil disaster could happen, given all the supposed “failsafe” mechanisms that were in place, Why didn’t the emergency shut-offs kick in, why were the manual shut-off valves so frozen in place that the remote un-manned repair sub was unable to close them? Since that fateful night’s explosion it seems as though BP, owner of the ill-fated rig (and many like it), had no fallback plan to stop the gusher and has since been “playing it by ear” to shut down the huge influx of oil and gas – with little success.

Anyone who questions the need for domestic oil production should recognize that a barrel of oil produced in the United States means one less barrel that must be imported from the Middle East and other faraway regions of the world. So if it seems difficult to foresee oil rigs operating in deep waters off the U.S. coasts, it seems impossible to envision our economy remaining moderately healthy for long without them. ”Don’t throw the baby out with the bath water.”

The oil companies themselves should be able to cope with the challenges – provided they get the right signals from the government, something that might not be occurring, given today’s global economic investments mindsets.

So the obvious solution to the now mired situation is our government can’t have it both ways – plentiful oil to keep our economy (such as it is) going, or opt for more expensive alternative energy sources. Despite what some might want us to believe, we have far more untapped oil reserves hidden beneath the surface of our nation and coastal sea areas than what is currently being tapped. . If you doubt this, check out the following link about the Bakken Formation right here in America – http://www.nextenergynews.com/news1/next-energy-news2.13s.html