One year ago today, the world watched in despair as the Deepwater Horizon exploded in the Gulf of Mexico, resulting in the worst environmental disaster the United States has ever faced. Since the initial explosion, over 450 million gallons of oil have reportedly spewed into the ocean, destroying fragile ecosystems and devastating southern coastal communities.

While BP's outlandish marketing campaign has largely dissolved, unfortunately, the oil has not. A few scientists are optimistic about the Gulf's recovery, hoping that livelihoods, fisheries, and habitats will rebound quickly. But most experts agree that the extent of damage from the sickeningly preventable spill is unknown, and that we're only witnessing the surface layer of devastation that will affect marine ecosystems for decades, perhaps centuries, to come.

One would think that a natural disaster of such proportions would incentivize a nation to create a clean energy policy, a stable climate policy, an ocean protection policy, or, at the very least, a bolstered natural disaster mitigation and response policy.

We've seen no such action. Instead, our leaders in Washington from both sides of the aisle have turned their attention on reinforcing their battle lines, prioritizing reelection over national security, environmental remediation, and progress.

Since the United States failed to muster the courage to develop an appropriate environmental response to the Gulf disaster, it's difficult to imagine that we'll take away any worthwhile learnings from the nuclear meltdown half a world away in Japan that has leaked immense amounts of radioactive water into the Pacific.

Our precious oceans have borne the brunt of the disasters in the Gulf and Japan. It will take years to determine the full extent of the damage that millions of gallons of crude and hundreds of thousands of tons of radioactive water have inflicted on marine life. 

In the meantime, perhaps it's time to bring the conversation about the intricate link between human behavior and the devastation of our oceans into the spotlight. Is it fair to link the four-fold increase in dolphin deaths to the Gulf oil spill? Are we ready to admit that overfishing, marine debris, contaminants, and toxins in our oceans will invariably affect our ability to maintain our current quality of life? And what can we do to make sustainable choices to contribute to the restoration of our oceans and the remediation of our precious, diminishing water resource?

While I don't personally have the answers, internationally acclaimed ocean expert Jean-Michel Cousteau (President of Ocean Futures Society and son of legendary explorer Jacques-Yves Cousteau) does. In honor of the year anniversary of the BP oil spill, Green Builder Media has the privilege to present a live interview with Mr. Cousteau on our Impact Series: Game Changers in Sustainability webinar program today at 11:00am PT/2:00pm ET.

Register now and join us for a fascinating voyage into the silent world of our oceans. If you can't make the live interview today, don't fret—we'll have the archived version online in about a week.

Have ideas about how we can improve the health of our oceans? Write to me at sara@greenbuildermag.com or follow me on Twitter @SaraGBM.

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I recently watched a documentary on yet another appalling layer of the Great Mortgage Fiasco. Apparently, our banks were so focused on pillaging the average American homeowner that they conveniently forgot to do the proper paperwork. So intent were they on taking every last penny off the table through mortgage securitization that they failed to create legitimate ownership documents when those mortgages were bought and sold. 

At the zenith of the trading frenzy, perhaps tracking bundled mortgages seemed unimportant. But now that those securities are unwinding, the banks that are trying to evict homeowners and sell foreclosed homes are finding themselves short on legal documents.

Unfortunately, some of those banks are apparently resorting to forgery, commissioning rogue document companies to counterfeit ownership papers. While scam organizations, aptly described as "sweatshops for forged mortgage documents," have deceived employees into signing approximately 4,000 false signatures per day, there mysteriously appears to be no paper trail for any kind of accountability.

Who is the Bernie Madoff of the Great Mortgage Fiasco? Why haven't we been able to put together a usual suspects lineup of delinquents who led the scandal? Is the scheme too complicated to isolate the main offenders, or is the real evidence secured in secret vaults that can only be reached through a labyrinth of shadowy, gargoyle-protected tunnels?

Unfortunately, the rotten core of the mortgage fiasco was simply a reflection of our broken system, so myopically focused on profit that it facilitated a complete breakdown of human ethics.

As a capitalist, I cannot agree with St. Timothy's assessment that money is the root of all evil. But as a dedicated advocate for sustainability, I am convinced that we are all prisoners of an archaic system that naively idolizes the single bottom line of profitability to the acute detriment of a healthy set of blended values.

Energy, water, and other natural resources have real, tangible economic value (just ask the Saudi Arabians who are phasing out grain production this year due to plummeting water tables, doubling down on the bet that they will be able to trade oil for food).

The infinite growth juggernaut has finally collided with the immovable reality of finite resources, and we're just starting to see the bloody contusions. With a series of environmental disasters caused by the breakdown of human infrastructure (namely the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico and nuclear meltdown in Fukushima, Japan) compounding the widespread and prolonged economic despair of the recession, how can we possibly deny that the organized management of our global economy and environment has eluded us?

We have no time for denial. The choice is clear: We either mature as a society—investing in and properly accounting for the development of clean power, local food, and regenerative systems—or we don't. Let's not allow inflexibility or ignorance to become the tragic downfall of modern history.

Want to learn more about global sustainability issues? Write to me at sara@greenbuildermag.com or follow me on Twitter at SaraGBM.

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