Well, this happens to be a trifecta of days. This is Earth Day, Good Friday and the anniversary of the worse ecological disaster in U. S. history, the BP oil spill. Now Earth Day is a day to celebrate and Good Friday for Christians is a day of blessing.

But, one year later, after the BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill started it is a bittersweet day indeed. In the Gulf Coast region BP claims are still rolling in from people injured or out of work from the environmental disaster.

Yesterday, BP announced that they are suing their partners in this disaster. Transocean, Halliburton (Dick Cheney anyone), and Cameron International, the maker of blowout preventer are all on the block for a collective $40 billion in damages if BP has its way.

In the first quarter 2011, BP made profits of $5.6 billion thanks to higher oil prices. But there is a little good news in all of this oil mess and that is that movie star Kevin Costner is getting involved.

Costner is teaming up with a company that builds state of the art oil skimmer barges. According to the Daily Comet, “… the barges, which are capable of processing up to 1 million gallons of oil and water per day, separating out the oil and depositing cleaned water back into the Gulf, could have prevented oil from ever reaching the coast.”

Well, he may not be dancing with wolves (or is he?), but Costner is taking action so that we have a readiness plan in the Gulf Coast should disaster strike again. Besides the oil skimmers, oil spill spotters in the form of aircraft will also be used as part of an early warning system.

So, Earth Day is also “Water Day” and it’s no time to pass over the environmental tragedies of the past, but instead remember them and take action so if they do happen again at least there will be a viable emergency plan in place this time. Earth Day is indeed a day of action.

Even though this website is about green technology (as in high tech), I also enjoy reading other blogs that feature low tech solutions to environmental problems. I happened to stumble upon such a website called DIY Gadgets that tells people like you and me how to recycle household items into art (such as this computer cat clock – pictured).

Since I was fascinated with the artistic photos on the website and the idea of recycled art, I decided to interview green blogger Jessy Troy about her website.

1. How did you come up with the idea for blogging about how recyclables can be turned into art?

I am a stay at home mom and there is no better way to get kids busy than learning crafts with them. I’ve been using the Internet to find some inspiration and tutorials and decided to collect my finds in a blog. Obviously, I haven’t had enough time and skill to try to make everything which is listed there, but as my kids grow up, they try more and more new things. The fact that my own blog is able to inspire my kids in fascinating.

As they say, the best tools are those that you use yourself. If the collection turns useful to me, it is likely to come in handy to other people as well!

2. I see that you feature turning many recyclables into clocks. Is this something anyone can do?

Browsing Etsy is another passion of mine. And featuring some artists who are selling eco-friendly DIY things means showing support to them. I have never tried making a clock myself but there are lots of DIY fun clocks on Etsy and I hope other people will either get inspired by my collections or support the awesome artists by buying something from them.
Either way, it’s a win

3. What are some of the wildest designs you’ve seen in recycled art?

I love drinking-straw designs. Take this drinking straw live light, drinking straw chair and this drinking straw furniture. I love the color play, the looks and overall the fact that such useless things as drinking straws (which people seldom think of recycling) can be turned into such useful and beautiful projects.

4. What inspired you to pick this particular green niche to focus on?

I am no eco-expert. I am trying to raise my kids in eco-friendly environment but that’s not something I go insane about. I do have a number of blogs featuring other aspects of my life like vegetarian living and entrepreneurship. The DIY Gadgets blog is my sweet hobby. I don’t pretend to be good at making stuff but I like to think that the blog is able to inspire someone!

It’s often been said that one man’s trash (or woman’s in this case) is another man’s treasure. The DIY Gadgets website show you how to turn trash into art and help the environment as you do so.

However, this kind of alphabet photography focuses on photos of beach foam. Now, this seems a little peculiar until you see the images for yourself. What has happened is that the photographer of the Words from the Sea website has taken months to put together a collection of letters and shapes made from the sea washing against the shore.

For just one barely discernable moment, the seafoam will form a letter and the photographer shoots this in the water. None of the images has been Photoshopped, manipulated or doctored. Besides the ABC’s in seafoam letters, there are also interesting shapes like that of a whale, a heart, and an exclamation point.

The letter art can be arranged as desired to spell out whatever words one desires. For instance if you want to decorate your child’s bedroom you can with this seafoam alphabet photography and you can arrange the letters on the website to see what you’re getting before you buy.

One motive of course is profit. But behind this motive is one of ocean conservation. The photographs, papers and canvasses are made with environmentally friendly materials. In addition a portion of the proceeds of the sales is donated to ocean conservation organizations such as the San Diego Ocean Discovery Institute.

So, you see the alphabet photography from Words from the Sea is fun, environmentally-friendly and helps to promote ocean conservation. What’s a better green gift to give this holiday season or any other time for that matter?

The X Prize Foundation will be calling all scientists, engineers and others to put their creative minds to work to solve the devastation caused by the oil spill. In the past a large cash award has been offered for the efforts.

In the recent past I’ve talked about the $10 million Progressive Insurance Automotive X Prize that is still ongoing that will make an award to the vehicle that is able to achieve 100 mpge (miles per gallon equivalent) and that people will want to buy.

In 2004, the X Prize Foundation awarded Burt Rutan the $10 million Ansari X prize for flying the first space vehicle into low earth orbit, thereby launching the space tourism industry. The Oil Cleanup X Challenge will put the brightest eco minds to work with a cash incentive in order to solve this nation’s largest ecological disaster to date.

I just participated in their survey, found it to be both fun and informative and donated two trees to fight against global warming. The website is being supported by the selling of advertising and t-shirts.

Here are a few of the sample questions you may get when taking their green test:

1. True or False: Ground level air pollution from cars is estimated to cause 30,000 deaths each year.
2. True or False: Hillary Clinton’s hair spray use depletes more of the ozone layer than all of the carbon emissions combined.
3. True of False: Experts estimates that we are losing 70 plant, animal and insect species every single day due to rainforest deforestation. That equates to 25,000 species a year.
4. True or False: New home construction consumes two-fifths of all the lumber and plywood used in the U.S. each year.
5. True or False: An F16 uses more fuel in one hour than an average car owner uses in 2 years.

Of course, I’m not giving you the answers here. Sometimes the questions aren’t as dramatic as the real answers that you’ll learn once you’ve taken the test. No matter what though, this is a fun little exercise, that just takes a couple of minutes and will save trees, clean the air and empower people to take action.

But, what will the other mischievous cartoonists have to offer? I thought it would be fun to take a few guesses as to what the top comic strips will focus on for Earth Day. For instance, I thought it would be fun to see Dilbert powering his PC with a small wind turbine that pal Wally is blowing upon.

Perhaps Garfield will eat a spinach lasagna in honor of the day. Beetle Bailey could put up a large solar panel in a field, then sleep in the shade underneath it. Dennis the Menace may slip Mr. Wilson a “prescription” brownie full of “oranic” materials. The Lockhorns may battle out the best method of recycling.

Linus may find out that he likes a hemp blanket better. And, the Wizard of Id may just invent a free energy concoction that will save the world (for a day). On Earth Day, I myself, will partake of a yummy tofu Scoobie Snack and bang my wild bongos at midnight. Ruh Roh!