THE DIARY OF Z

When an offshore drilling rig sank in The Gulf of Mexico last week it was anticipated that the flood of oil that was entering the surrounding waters could be controlled. Initially experts believed only 1,000 barrels worth of oil a day would leak out, an amount they deemed manageable, and that they felt could be contained.

However, after the flow continued at the same rate for some days and the wind turned to blow inland, test sections of the slick have been set on fire in an attempt to burn off the oil before it reaches the shores of the surrounding countries which, if it does, would cause unprecedented environmental damage.

The major area that is of the most concern for conservationists is that of the Mississippi Delta and the Delta National Wildlife Refuge in Louisiana, an area which contains some 40% of the US’s wetland breeding grounds for fish and birds.

President Obama has been briefed on the situation and he has offered the service of the defence department to help control the spill.

However, one is left thinking, with increasing pressure on the G8 countries to reign in their carbon emissions for the sake of climate change, surely our greedy drilling for oil should fall into a similar bracket, and more restrictions on hunting for fossil fuels need to be made?

No there aren’t oil spills like this every day, but they are becoming more frequent, and the catastrophic environmental effect that each spill leaves behind scars our planet; our home, more violently than 5 years of carbon emissions.

Surely this is something worth thinking about?

Contributed by Jenny Wren-Charlton

My friend Arka has just written to industrialist Ratan Tata. No, not for some personal favour or lauding him for his Jaguar deal. But for urging him not to go ahead with his plans of constructing a port in Dhamra, Orissa. This is because he has reason to believe from environmentlists like Green Peace that the port will be dangerously close to one of the world’s largest sea turtle nesting grounds - the Olive Ridley Sea Turtles. Therefore, he is one among millions emailing him to move the port to another location and prevent the turtles from going extinct.

However, there is one problem. Arka cannot do it alone. He needs the help of you and me. And you don’t even have to be an Indian to do so. Anyone who cares about the environment is free to do his mite in alerting Mr Tata to the possible dangers of his business act.

And it’s easy to do. Just write directly to Tata by clicking here.