The daily news reports on the BP spill haven’t provided us with any real good news.
Even our government is now stating that they grossly underestimated the oil flow from the well comes as no surprise. They’ve even admitted that the amount of oil spewing forth equals the Exxon Valdez spill every 8 days. Everyone is waiting for some kind of good news that can show us that there is light at the end of the tunnel. But, instead of waiting, and groaning about this, let’s try to do something on an individual basis. Sure boycotting BP helps alleviate some of our anger towards them, but the reality is we need to start something that individually could make a difference on a collective basis. Let’s start with our cars. We all love to drive them. It’s a hard habit to kick, and we collectively suffer from wanderlust. The car represents freedom of movement. Freedom to escape the mundane, the daily commute being the exception, but the car has always represented our way of life. Big, bold, fast, and care free. As much as I’d like to advocate a car free existence, for many of us that is just not practical. So let’s cut back, and try to slowly wean us from it. Maybe we could start by not driving one day a week. That would save 3 kilograms of air pollutants from being spewed into the atmosphere, and anywhere from 1 to 10 gallons of gas being used on a daily basis. Try something novel; like riding your bike, walking, taking the train, or bus to work instead of your car. If everyone tried this, just imagine our ability to collectively reduce air pollution, and our dependency on oil. It’s a start, a small one, but just imagine if we all did this together, one by one we would reduce our need for oil.
Photo: Commuters Photo By: Shaun Curry
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