AlterNet: Want to Prevent Oil Spill Disasters? Stop Driving

[marmar]

AlterNet / By Jason Henderson

Want to Prevent Oil Spill Disasters? Stop Driving
A submerged oil well is spewing a river of oil toward Louisiana and the Gulf Coast. Birds and fish will die, wetlands and beaches will be ruined -- all because we drive cars.

May 1, 2010 |


An ecological disaster of enormous magnitude is unfolding in the Gulf of Mexico.

The BP Horizon rig blew up, listed through Earth Day, sank, and now a submerged oil well is spewing a river of oil toward Louisiana and the Gulf Coast. Birds and fish will die, wetlands and beaches will be ruined. People will be outraged and people will cry. Offshore drilling -- "drill, baby drill" -- is front and center once again. But this time environmental destruction dominates the storyline.

In response to this situation political progressives need to amp it up a notch. The emphasis by many progressives on "green cars" has been a distraction. Progressives need to get over it. Green cars need oil. Too much oil. Instead, now is the time for progressives to reflect upon the relationship between oil and driving, and to question the way in which driving perpetuates the ecological destruction now underway in the Gulf.

To be sure, oil is fascinating. It is one of the most utilitarian natural resources known to humans. Oil stores a tremendous amount of energy, is easy to transport long distances by pipeline, rail, ship and truck, and can sit for a very long time without spoiling or degrading. It can be refined and distilled easily and has many uses. Its petroleum byproducts are used in plastics and pharmaceuticals, and are part of the energy system for agriculture and the transport of food. Before there was Silicon Valley and the Internet there was Houston and New Orleans and innovations in oil. Oil is in the laptops and servers that belong to all the progressives who balk at oil and oil companies. Oil undergirds the organization of everyday life in America. And we'll need to keep drilling for it.

But we do not need to keep drilling everywhere we can. We do not need to keep searching further offshore, or push into remote, wild areas, or burn nasty tar sands. We need to conserve. We need to reduce. Most importantly, we need to stop driving. ..........(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.alternet.org/environment/146694/want_to_prevent_oil_spill_disasters_stop_driving

[stray cat]

1. Stop manufacturing, and any thing that requires energy to make or use

if you really care about the oil spill - DO NOT USE ENERGY

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

2. And stay out of the Sun, you're absorbing energy.

:grr:

[swilton]

3. Conservation is Not a Dirty Word

For all of the additional wind turbines we have put on line - they have only kept abreast of our increasing energy requirements....We need to quit talking about 'not changing the American way of life'. Changing the 'American way of life' is the only thing that will save this planet.