Two things today, both on the hippie green front. The first is from Ana, from whom I received an e-mail message asking for petition signatures to let IDEM know that Hoosiers are opposed to a new plan by BP to dump several more tons of toxic material into Lake Michigan - material that will come from their expanding refinery operation in Whiting, Indiana
Click here to go to the U.S. PIRG petition to oppose this increase in water pollution.
I waffled on this one, at first. They say that one of the reasons gas prices have been going up is because there hasn't been a new refinery built in the United States in a generation. That would, on the surface, make it seem as though expanded refinery operations would be beneficial, since they would, in theory, help to bring down gas prices.
But that's a short-term fix, and it wouldn't even be guaranteed to be a fix. It's possible that gas prices might go down a bit if we the people ramped up refinery operations. That only increases business and profits for corporations, though, and I don't care for that. It also puts more heavy industry online, and I don't care for that, either. It's time for our dependence on fossil fuels to go away - so that we stop pouring garbage into our lakes and streams and stop spewing garbage into our air.
There are two sources of energy out there that are virtually untapped and renewable in perpetuity - the sun and the wind. Hell, if someone had just hooked up a windmill to George Bush the moment he was sworn in, he'd have generated enough electricity by now to power Sri Lanka! All of that hot air, just wasted - if he had had a windmill hooked up to him, he might have accomplished something by now.
Speaking of the wind, here's another petition. This one is from MoveOn - and I know that very phrase scares the hell out of you right-wingers out there, but hey...the way you nimrods deep throat the Second Amendment scares the hell out of the rest of us, so there! - and encourages Congress to pass House Resolution 969, a bill that would increase our use of renewable energy, such as solar and wind energy.
Click here to sign the MoveOn petition, and click here for more information on the House Resolution in question.
Building more refineries and continuing to allow big business to poison our air and our water - not to mention hoard all of the money while their lowest-paid workers avoid going to the doctor because they don't have health insurance - isn't going to fix anything; and signing a couple of petitions might not be much, but it's something - just like it's something to take your recyclable stuff to the recycling bins rather than throwing it away. Hell, just let your junk mail pile up for a week, then drive it by one of those bright green-and-yellow ABITIBI Paper Retriever bins once a week on your way to work - those things are everywhere, too, in the parking lots of just about any school, library, or church you pass. Just by doing that one thing, you'll be amazed at how much less trash you take out to the curb every week.
I've signed both petitions. Every little bit counts. And don't be fooled by big business. Unless you're a (big) shareholder, they don't give a shit about you.
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