Bush administration set to allow drilling off Virginia coast: a Call to Action
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Posted on April 28, 2007
Filed Under Consumer culture, Fossil fuel dependency, Environmental disasters, Earth spirituality
Fostering Ecological Hope
Today from Margaret Swedish:
Okay, sometimes the struggle really becomes personal. I just read this online from today’s Washington Post. The Bush administration is prepared to allow drilling for oil and gas off the Virginia coast, as well as in more of the Gulf of Mexico, and Alaska’s Bristol Bay.
Drilling off Virginia will require Congressional action, and, folks, this is time to really push this new Democratic majority to do the right thing.
If you read this article, you will see that there are real concerns for the ocean off the protected areas of Assateague and Chincoteague, two magnificent natural wonders at the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay.
Friends, are we really going to let our insatiable hunger for fossil fuels undermine more and more of the ecosystems of this Earth? What if we all started sending the message that we are going to change our lives, and the energy base of our lives, how and what we consume (mostly a lot less), rather than allow anymore of our Earth to be exploited, threatened, ruined for the sake of the oil and gas industries?
We are all participating in this. The industry and the politicians tied to it are doing this because, as they will tell you, this is what we want. They can say this by pointing to the evidence of our increasing demand for oil and gas.
The political climate has hopefully changed. We may not be able to stop the drilling in Bristol Bay right now, since Bush was able to do this by executive decree, but we can insist that Congress give no ground in laws that prohibit drilling off protected coasts.
However, saying that, we must remember that we are getting oil and gas from other far-away places, and those places are as threatened as the ones we cherish here and try to protect. We can’t be hypocritical by opposing drilling off our shores while consuming fossil fuels that come from other places where environmental damage is being done — like oil tar sands in Canada.
The only real solution is to sharply reduce our use of fossil fuels, work to change the energy base of this society, conserve like crazy, and change how we think about this Earth. The planet is not here for our exploitation, to be laid waste for our consumption. It is here as our womb, our birthplace, our home. Future generations would like it to be that for them as well.
Photo credits:
Jennifer Mueller/Chincoteague
tar sands in Alberta, Canada
Technorati Tags: off-shore drilling, Assateague, Chincoteague, oil tar sands
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