And You're Taking that Hummer Where?
Look, some people think global warming is a myth and some people even think that Barack Obama is actually a white dude who underwent skin toning to become President.
Barack Obama's real name? Barry Oberstein.
But regardless of your environmental leanings, you'd have to be an absolute fucking crazy person to think that this oil spill going on in the gulf is a good thing. Over 5,000 barrels of oil a day are being leaked into the ocean. Now I'm going to resist my rant on how this whole crisis was caused by sub-par safety regulation brought about when the Bush-Cheney administration deregulated oil companies' drilling standards, and instead just say that it's been over a month of this (that's 155,000 barrels of oil folks) and it's STILL GOING.
If you only check out one thing from this post (other than the links after the jump on how to help), please check out this infographic from the New York Times that shows the enormous reach and scope of this catastrophe. It's clear that it is not an easy task to get something like this contained and cleaned up, but check out what you can do to help.
- The Daily Green website lists callouts by dozens of environmental groups to write the White House, Congress, and their state governments to express their concerns about the spill.
- Global Green is asking for volunteers to lobby Congress to enforce tougher regulations on the oil and coal industries.
- Oxfam America is taking donations to provide financial assistance to Gulf Coast communities affected by the spill.
- Matter of Trust (this one's kind of gross) is collecting human and animal hair and other materials used to make hair mats for oil clean-up operations.
- Sites such as OilSpillVolunteers.com and the Oiled Wildlife Care Network are providing online volunteer information.
- Crisis Commons is setting up an online platform to merge “crowd sourced” digital media on the oil spill disaster.
- Several organizations are calling for boycotts of BP over its safety record."
(via CS Monitor)
Of course if you want to make a difference without actually doing more of something, you can do less of a lot of things. Don't run your AC unless you have to, turn off lights when you're in the room, use long-lasting halogen bulbs instead of high-energy incandescent...the list goes on. I'm not trying to be all hippie here, but we're quickly being caught in a never-ending cycle of energy dependence on oil companies who will continue to cut corners to raise profits unless something changes.
Plus, look at this duck. Do you want this to happen to ducks? Imagine Donald Duck covered in oil! Actually I'd kind of like that; I hate that bastard. But still...
This is one time I will ask you to think. I'll continue thinking on your behalf, but use your head and find a way, however small it may be, to help prevent things like this from happening again.
