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what can I do? (about BP oil gusher)

Bunch of stories in the media about volunteers and other people feeling helpless because they're not allowed to do anything to clean up the spill, or they're not able to do anything.

Toronto Star - Plenty of Gulf volunteers, not enough work to do - June 11, 2010

Not enough work to do? Are you cussing kidding me? How about, you know, FIXING THE CARBON ECONOMY. I think that should keep you busy for a while.

“I have problems because it’s not a tangible. It’s intangible. It’s a hole in the ocean,” he said. “The hard part is — what can I do?”

Toronto Star - Despair and anger in wake of Gulf oil spill - June 11, 2010

What can you do? Oh I don't know, off the top of my head:
* reduce your own use of oil and gas
* reduce your city / region / state / country's use of oil and gas
* fight for better regulation of oil exploration everywhere
* fight for elimination of offshore drilling
* fight for a plan to reduce use of foreign oil, risky-site and high-energy-input oil to zero
* fight for a carbon tax
* fight for walkable urban regions that reduce oil use
* fight for reduced oil subsidies worldwide (estimated at $550 billion per year)
* eliminate all US oil subsidies
* reduce highway spending, increase spending on cycling and walking
* eliminate the use of oil for non-transportation uses (plastic, asphalt etc.)
* reduce waste of plastic (e.g. replace plastic water bottles with municipal tap water in reusable containers)
* raise fuel-efficiency standards even higher and more aggressively
* eliminate this corn ethanol boondoggle
* put billions into clean energy research, like wild hippies such as Bill Gates and the CEO of GE have recommended
* fight for public transit in every city and town
* fight for high-speed trains connecting every city

I'm sure there are many more.

You want to help? Don't drive or fly thousands of miles to try to get approved to clean some birds that are going to die anyway. (The irony of burning oil to get to a beach to clean up oil is rich.)

STAY WHERE YOU ARE AND USE LESS OIL.

Don't just say hey, it's the Petrochemical Age and Cutting your personal dependence on oil easier said than done. Just do it. Less plastic. Less driving. You want to fight this fight?

Fight against the entire oil system, don't go scrub some birds.

Labels: rant

posted by Richard at 10:27 / permalink (post) | permalink (numeric)