Do you remember the BP oil spill? You know, “Deepwater Horizon” the Gulf of Mexico, back in 2010, the spill that released over 200 MILLION GALLONS of crude oil over a two month period? The spill was so bad that respondents notoriously resorted to “in-situ burning," the process of burning off oil concentrated on the surface of the ocean.
You would probably like to think that there are better solutions for oil spills than simply throwing a match on the problem, and you would be right: there was a much better alternative. Who brought this safe, ecologically-friendly alternative to the Gulf crisis?
None other than Kevin Costner -- yes, that Kevin Costner.
The story began in 1995, the year Waterworld was released. Mr. Costner had water filtration on the brain. It was, after all, a major component in the film. After spending 157 days on this 235 million dollar production, it’s easier to imagine Costner being compelled to pay 25 million dollars for a water pollution solution (the Exxon Valdez spill had triggered his concern years earlier.)
It was 15 years later when the BP rig blew and Kevin Costner with Ocean Therapy Solutions were there to address the problem. Over 30 of these water purification devices were deployed in 2010 during the crisis, each one cleaning around 200,000 gallons a day. How is it that in a world of 7 billion people, it was Kevin Costner who possessed one of the leading devices to address a complex oceanic, environmental, engineering disaster? A legendary screen actor, a man of poetry, music, and NASCAR doesn’t exactly fit the profile of someone who would innovate large scale water filtration techniques…but, every so often history surprises us.
And so it is, that we can’t assume all solutions will come from MIT, Oxford, or CERN. Sometimes the most urgently needed solutions will appear from outsiders, tinkerers, and earnest rabble-rousers; unpredictably passionate people who lack conventional credentials, but make up for it in drive and enthusiasm.
What might the unlikely innovator do for the challenges you face every day?
