Emergency personnel aboard four boats, two planes and seven helipcopters are racing to the scene of yet another oil rig explosion in the Gulf of Mexico.

This latest oil rig disaster is off the central coast of Louisiana approximately 80 miles south of Vermilion Bay, just west of the BP oil rig disaster that caused the devastating oil spill which began last April.

This most recent blast was reported at 9:30AM CDT this morning by a commercial helicopter. While all 13 oil rig crew members were apparently in the water after the explosion, there was only one injury and no deaths.

The NFL’s most eco-friendly cheerleaders are coming out with their third annual Saving the Oceans calendar. So if you like swimwear worn by NFL cheerleaders and saving the planet, this might just be the ticket for you.

The Philadelphia Eagles Cheerleaders will donate 10 percent of sales of the calendar to the Gulf Restoration Network, to help with cleanup Gulf spill crisis. Moreover, all the swimwear worn have sustainable elements like Eco Panda bikinis made from recycled nylon fishing nets as well as jewelry made from recycled glass bottles by designer Kathleen Plate of Smart Glass. The calendar comes out on Thursday, boys!

With the oil spill causing havoc on the underwater eco system in the Gulf of Mexico, Waterworld star (heh) Kevin Costner is stepping forward to lend a hand. As well as donating a whopping $26 million, Costner and his scientist brother Dan, will demonstrate a device designed to separate oil and water.

Records from the EPA indicate the Costner brothers have promoted an oil-water filtration system in the past via their company Costner Industries Nevada Corporation. Details regarding the device are expected to be revealed tomorrow.

U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu said that the “intellectual horsepower of the country is engaged in solving this problem,” to stop an estimated 210,000 gallons of oil that is gushing daily from a sunken BP-leased rig.

An estimated 42,000 gallons of oil per day were spilling out of an oil well in the Gulf of Mexico this week, following a massive explosion at an offshore drilling rig on April 20. The entire rig capsized and sank. An emergency response effort is underway to stop the flow of oil and contain the existing slick before it reaches wildlife refuges and beaches in Louisiana and Mississippi.

The oil spill could contain harsh chemicals and it is unknown how much of the 700,000 gallons of fuel that were on the oil rig burned in the fire and how much may have spilled into the water when the platform sank.

Twenty years ago, on the night of March 23, 1989, the worst oil spill in American history occurred when 11 million gallons of crude oil spilled from the Exxon Valdez onto the shorelines of Alaska. An 11,000-person crew removed oil from the beaches for five years, up until government officials decided to end the clean up effort. Of that 11 million gallons, more than 21,000 gallons remain, pooled and collected into isolated coves and hidden underneath the sand.

“The damage that the spill created is something beyond anyone’s imagination,” said Michel Boufadel, Temple University’s Civil and Environmental Engineering chair.

Oil from the decades old spill has been detected as far as 450 miles away from the spill site in Prince William Sound, where conservationists say it continues to be a cause of harm and destruction to wildlife, particularly the region’s salmon, sea otters, seals, and seabird population. Some scientists estimate that some shoreline habitats may take up to 30 more years to recover.

In 1994, in a court ruling against oil giants Exxon, an Anchorage jury awarded $287 million for actual damages and $5 billion for punitive damages. The punitive damages amount was equal to a single year’s profit by Exxon at that time.

In researching this article, this writer became familiar with some of Exxon’s (now Exxon Mobil) other admirable achievements. Even though it’s a little off topic, I though it interesting to note that these big oil big wigs scored a failing grade of 0 on the Human Rights Campaign’s 2009 Corporate Equality index, with one of the many reasons being their decision to end domestic partner benefits for same-sex partners of employees, as well as choosing to rescind formal prohibitions against discrimination based on sexual orientation by removing it from the company’s Equal Employment Opportunity policy.