please read and take action
Dear peoples, though I rarely do stuff like this, pestering the masses, this is a topic that is too vital, too central, and too important to our entire planet to ignore or to simply not do something about. Every once in a long while, one nation on our small planet attempts to take a selfish step that goes against the tide of history. That time is now, and that nation is us. I’m asking for your help to stop George W. Bush’s energy plan. His plan will take us back in time to an era when we moved Native Americans from their lands in order to mine the minerals where they lived, a time when people thought that nuclear power was safe, a time when coal power plants turned America’s skies black as the night.
Let me give you one example of how far this thing reaches. In the far northern regions of Alaska, the Gwich’in people have lived harmoniously with the land for the last 20,000 years. Their culture is based around the caribou. It’s the source of their food, their ceremonial clothing, and their spirit. President Bush has proposed that we allow oil companies to drill for oil in the center of their lands, a place that America protected long ago called the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. The Gwich’in believe that the drilling will destroy their way of life by destroying the land on which they live.
95% of Alaska’s coastal oil plane is already open for oil development. Even the oil industry says that there’s only a six-month of supply of oil on the Gwich’ins land. The Sierra Club calculated that if automakers just made our cars 3 miles per gallon more efficient, we’d save the same amount of oil that we might find on the Gwich’ins land. Don’t you think we would have learned by now that destroying the native land and people of America is wrong?
Then there’s the part of the plan that suggests all of these new subsidies to nuclear power plants. Has everyone forgotten about Chernobyl? One new report that just came out says that 92% of US nuclear power plants have violated federal safety regulations since 1996. Bush wants the federal government to insure nuclear power plants, so that if they melt down, the corporations who build them won’t be fully responsible. There’s something really whacked about the logic there. I could go on.
Bush wants to build 1300 new coal power plants. Can you imagine what that will do to people with asthma? He also wants to allow oil companies to drill for oil off of the coast of Florida and in the Rocky Mountains. Burning coal and oil contributes to global warming. Bush’s plan is going to affect every being on the planet, causing permanent and irreversible damage.
So what’s the alternative? First of all, we all would do well to remember that it’s our use of energy that allows politicians to suggest that we give away the farm to oil companies. So this may in fact be the most difficult part to get across. But can we all just try to start taking a step in the right direction by refining our own actions, consumption, and attitudes? We could all learn to simplify our lives a little turn lights off, take a bus if you can, wear a sweater, share a ride, ride a bike etc....Each individual act may seem very small, but as a whole all such actions together are very strong and our only real means of achieving harmonious sustainable growth and living. I myself spend my time primarily in two very large cities, New York and Los Angeles. In New York, I try to ride my bike as often as makes sense (no shoulder jokes please) or take the subway. Sure at times, almost daily I will have to take a cab, but at least I am thinking about alternatives. In LA, the picture is a bit bleaker. I would gladly use the mass transit train system if it went anywhere I needed to go from the station near my home, but unfortunately it’s not there yet. So wouldn’t we better off spending our governments time and resources building a better mass transit infrastructure then on further exhausting our finite amounts of natural resources, spoiling our wilderness and the planets eco system along the way? If none of this is compelling enough, another reason to interject this kind of awareness into our lives is in order to serve as a bit of an example for others. Again, this may seem high handed. But on the real, how do we make others aware of these solutions? By practicing them ourselves. Straight up.
We also need the government to pursue alternative energy sources. The sunlight the Earth receives in 30 minutes is equivalent to all the power used by humankind in one year. Why isn’t Bush excited about that? President Bush’s budget actually cuts research in renewable energy programs by 37 percent and cuts energy efficiency research by 30 percent. Could this be because the Republican party received more than $25 million in campaign contributions from the oil and energy industry?
There’s a lot more that I could write, but you can check it out for yourself at www.saveourenvironment.org I took the one minute of time it takes to use this form to send mail to your governmental representatives on this issue. Please do the same. I’m asking for your help by participating the campaign to stop this energy plan and help us move forward towards a safe and more responsible future.