Global Green USA continuous commitment on Gulf Coast inspires stronger green initiatives on 1st year anniversary of BP Oil Spill

As we get closer to Earth Day, several anniversaries help put things in perspective. Today, we celebrate the first anniversary of the massive oil spill on the Gulf Coast. While BP and the other parties involved are filing claims and counter claims to protect their rights from further financial liabilities, the world is embarking on pledge to achieve one billion acts of green during Earth Week.

Some argue that nuclear power should be part of a clean energy policy. Countries like France have been successful in running a large park of nuclear reactors without major incidents, yet the 1-month and 25-year anniversaries of Fukushima and Chernobyl leaks make everybody pause this month and reflect on the dangers on nuclear energy.

I connected with Matt Pettersen ahead of Earth Day who leads Global Green USA, an affiliate of Green Cross International that was created by Mikhail Gorbachev to reconnect humanity and the environment after the Chernobyl catastrophe. Tomorrow at GreenNet 2011 he will promote smart grids and clean renewable energy sources.

In the wake of Fukushima, Matt’s thoughts go first though to the victims of the Tsunami in Japan. However, Matt is critical of nuclear power and argues that it should not be considered a clean source of energy. He points that “the full life-cycle of nuclear power from uranium mining to spent fuel storage generates an enormous amount of pollution to the air, land, and water”. This overweighs in his mind the benefits of not generating greenhouse gas emissions.


Global Green USA promotes the use of renewable energy and the wide deployment of energy efficient practices. They have been very active on the Golf Coast, even before the oil spill of last year. Following Hurricane Katrina, Global Green opened an office in New Orleans to provide green rebuilding resource and expertise to the community. As a result, a low income housing community was built in he ravaged area of Ninth Ward.

With the help of $2M grant from the Bush Clinton Fund, Global Green also launched a high-performance Green Schools initiative that benefited thousands of students in New Orleans. With the oil spill disaster last year, Global Green went back to work on the Gulf Coast and redoubled their efforts to help thousands of people affected.

Matt Pettersen recounted on his Global Green Blog one of the families that was desperately in need of food assistance after they could no longer make a living shrimping. They lived on a very limited income in Terrebonne Parish near the city of Houma. This is one of the stories of families affected around the world by our energy infrastructure.