The Tricky Cleanup of a Deep-Water Oil Spill

It’s been so long since I’ve written. I’ve been extremely busy, but I do have a few old headline designs I wanted to share with you. I’ve learned a few things about this Headline project/exercise. Firstly, keeping up with current events is a bit of a time consuming process! It takes a significant amount of time and energy to be able to absorb and comprehend the facts or opinions of a story while hoping to be  inspired enough to come up with an effective method to communicate it visually. I can’t complain too much, it’s why I enjoy doing these posters! Secondly, in this new age of communication and the 24/7 news cycle, I underestimated how difficult it is to find a story that compels me or that I find compelling enough to share.  I was overly ambitious thinking that I would be able to do this everyday without making compromises – providing real-time design for the days headlines.

With that said, I’ve decided to release headline designs a few days later than the actual publication of the written article.  I still hope you guys are inspired and motivated nonetheless to continue to dig and learn more about these stories, to analyze and to question, to deduce your own conclusions and opinions. The implication of this does not apply just to analyzing particular news sources you encounter each day, but it also applies to your ability to be around people in your life who may have different opinions and views. President Obama spoke recently at a University of Michigan Commencement and spoke a little about that. I could not agree more with what he said,

If you grew up in a big city, spend sometime with somebody who grew up in a rural town. If you find yourself only hanging around with people of your own race, or ethnicity or religion, include people in your circle who have different background and life experiences. You’ll learn what it’s like to walk in someone else’s shoes…

In early April, there was a tragic mining accident in West Virginia that left 25 dead. Just last week, 11 workers were lost in the Deepwater Horizon oil rig explosion and sinking – not to mention the potential environmental damage as a result from the oil leak. I am really torn about this issue concerning our energy consumption in this country. I would love to see this country move towards much cleaner alternative energy sources. I am still on the fence about where it should come from, especially when it comes to things like electricity and electric cars.  This industry shift from petroleum fueled vehicles to electric doesn’t really help with pollution, when you keep in mind that approximately 50% of our electricity is generated from cheap, affordable and abundant coal. Perhaps, it’s the lesser of two evils, but still not the most ideal solution.

What impact will this have politically as well, as the Obama administration looks to open up offshore drilling as a short-term solution to our energy needs? Interesting that this happens so soon after Obama announces such a plan. I hate to get into conspiracy theories and such so I’ll end it there!

http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1985197,00.html?xid=rss-health&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+time%2Fscienceandhealth+%28TIME%3A+Top+Science+and+Health+Stories%29

EDIT: Here is a great explanation, courtesy of Al-Jazeera, regarding difficulties engineers are facing with proposed solutions to clean up the oil spill.