Yes, we have lost patience with this situation and are angry as hell. Yes, we wonder what the hell is wrong with America today and why its priorities are so topsy-turvy. Yes, people are stupid and contradict themselves for personal gain. Yes, I will give up cynicism for Lent if Top Kill works today. Yes, the frustration kills. Now let’s understand that these feelings, too, are luxuries that others who are hurting can’t afford and get down to the business of helping them.
* Help the fishermen of the Gulf Coast!
* First Draft | Blogs for Birds: Something We Can Do for the Gulf
Your contribution to the The International Bird Rescue Center via First Draft will help rescue oiled coastal birds, clean them and house them in a rehabilitation center. First Draft readers alone have adopted four 6.5 pelicans. I hope the readers of this blog can get us up to 10 (yes, I’m looking at you).
* Stop screaming at the federal government to push BP aside and to fix the continuing leaks. Why do you think we lease our land and waters to various oil companies to do the job on our joint behalf? In other words, the United States of America has no technology to stop the flow. We have essentially rented out our roads, for a paltry sum, to a chauffeur who made a car we haven’t the first clue how to drive, and are along for the ride. Furthermore, other companies like Shell and Chevron may have such technology but the US cannot order them to step in where BP has failed.
There are useful things our government can do. You must urge your congresspeople to:
– grant NOAA and other research institutions the necessary access to collect as much data as possible on the gusher and everything it impacts.
… researchers are expressing concerns over the limited science being done in and around affected areas … the information could help efforts to contain the effects of the disaster and, in the longer term, “ensure we have the best underlying science to guide our response to the next spill,” says Ira Leifer, a chemical engineer at the Marine Sciences Institute at the University of California, Santa Barbara.
– vote to end spill liability caps. As Jude says, “If it takes two days or two months to stop the petroleum spewing out of the sea floor, [the Gulf is] still f***ed. BP can’t stop that. The government can’t. But the government can make ’em pay.” You can help MAKE THEM PAY until the spill is cleaned up and everything is back to the way it was. (Fifty years should do it, D adds.)
– acknowledge that the most important activity for the United States should be an engineering program similar to the Apollo Moon Project to develop alternative energy sources that are renewable and nonpolluting. Every single bit of research on alternative fuels pulls us that much farther away from our dependence on fossil fuels and the murder of our nation and planet in the process. It was innovation that helped us find coal and oil and will aid us in fueling the future. Help your kids with their science homework while you’re at it.
If you have any other ideas, please leave them in the comments’ section. No useless petitions please – all they really accomplish is putting your email address on a spam mailing list.
Being angry, crying and then retreating to our bedrooms and computers in a depressed huff is understandable but it isn’t enough. A whole big portion of America is in real pain.
