Is the oil spill on your mind?

Is anyone else sickened by the massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico? As if the loss of 11 human lives wasn’t enough, now the oil spewing from the underwater well (at a rate of up to 25,000 barrels a day, according to news reports) is reaching the shores, promising long-term problems for wildlife and economic ruin for the people whose livelihoods depend on it—i.e., the seafood workers who will no longer be able to harvest oysters and shrimp from those waters. You can read more about that issue here .

And here’s an excerpt from a Dow Jones wire story today about the environmental impact of the spill:

“While BP may be able to mitigate the oil spill’s impact to critical habitats in the estuary, studies have shown that exposure to hydrocarbons is long term.

As long as the underwater well in the Gulf of Mexico continues to spew, oil will wash into estuaries on every tidal cycle, building up successive layers of silt and oil along the shoreline. The salt marshes and beaches are home to thousands of nesting waterfowl and a rest stop for millions of migrating birds.

Crude oil’s heavier carbon compounds, called polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, can persist at toxic levels in sediment for years, isolated from the sunlight and bacteria that ordinarily would break these chemicals down. The oil traces can contaminate fish and animals’ food, impair their ability to breed successfully and even alter their natural behavior.”

What can we do here at home to help? I’m reading that the International Bird Rescue Research Center is helping the animals affected by the Gulf spill, so you could donate to that effort.

But what keeps coming to mind is this: use less oil. If we didn’t depend on it so much, we wouldn’t go to such great (and dangerous) lengths to get it.

Ride your bike. Ride the bus. Buy less junk.

Sorry to be so blunt. This is a message to myself, too. These thoughts ran through my head this week as I waited in my car in line at an espresso stand. Was the gas I used to stay warm in my car worth the sacrifice those families that lost loved ones made? Worth the fact that, right now, animals are choking on oil.

Needless to say, that was the worst-tasting coffee I’ve ever sipped.

I know I’m oversimplifying the problem/solution. But every chance we have to reduce our use of oil inches us further from problems like this happening again.

I’ll get off my soapbox now … and start planning the bike routes to my neighborhood grocery store and daughters’ schools instead.

Update: Here’s a link to an article about how folks can help with the oil spill. Take note of the last suggestion: Use less oil. I still think that’s the best thing we can do.