I’m currently consumed by what’s going on in the Gulf and at a loss for ways to help. I’m writing this today to ask you for help. If you know how to help the victims of the Gulf oil spill—both animal and human—please post links or let me know what your thoughts are. This is colossally bad and I’m not sure that we fully understand the extent of its damage.
Look at this: http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2010/06/caught_in_the_oil.html
Crushing.
So sad and so very disturbing. What can we do? Stop driving. Stop flying. Get rid of the car. Stop buying gasoline. Limit our energy use. Show the big oil companies that we aren’t dependent on their off-shore drilling.
Thing is, the public transportation here in the states is horrible. People literally CAN’T give up their cars and continue to live and work. So, that’s a wonderful idea, but impossible. We can cut back, but to stop driving and using oil? Impossible. Unfortunately.
So, what can we do? Vote only for politicians willing to actually make change happen?
Also: Does anyone know if there’s a fund set up for the fishermen out of work? They are going to be screwed by this. And there are thousands.
This site has some good info:
http://fieldnotes.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2010/05/15/4377374-gulf-of-mexico-oil-spill-how-to-help
This whole thing makes me want to cry–all the people whose livelihoods are destroyed, all the animals that are suffering and dying, all the coastal beauty that is being destroyed. It is just sickening. I don’t have any good solutions except to keep pressing our elected representatives to support alternative energy sources and do less driving myself.
I feel the same way about coal. Our state is relies heavily on coal for power, and it’s rare that I turn on a light switch and don’t think about that. So much death and destruction for our convenience.
The worst part is waiting for the impacts in order to know how to mobilize and where to direct our efforts as members of the public. We just don’t know enough yet.
I think that BP is too big and too crafty for consumers to make much of a dent with their wallets. Plenty of people boycotted Exxon after the Valdez spill and that company is still going strong. BP oil goes to other gas stations and other oil companies, to consumer products, into fueling infrastructure we depend upon. It’s near impossible to cut it out of our lives. I would love to see a flow chart, though.
But, there are plenty of well-established support organizations to which donations might go for when the impacts become more apparent. Maybe the thing for all of us to do is to choose a pet cause and push towards that. The Red Cross, shelters in the Gulf region, or existing support infrastructure can’t be bad places to start. Even a crate of Dawn detergent would help a heck of a lot of birds.
http://www.audubonaction.org/site/PageServer?pagename=aa_HowtoHelp
I really hope they get this stopped soon. There are no words to describe what I feel every time I see it in the news or on the net.
Thanks, everyone.
Thus far, I’ve donated to Audubon and NWF. I also called GNOF (Greater New Orleans Foundation) to ask about their donation process. All money donated to them goes directly to the fishing families of New Orleans, which is super. The woman I spoke to said there’s a more general Gulf donation site for families in the other states effected, but I couldn’t find it. Does anyone happen to know what that site might be? Or organization? I know that BP says they will be paying every fishing family, but I am not sure I buy it.
http://www.gnof.org/gulf-coast-oil-spill-fund/disaster-on-the-gulf-coast//
GNOF.