Dear The Discovery Channel- For better or for worse, you are looked to by Americans as a trusted authority on science and nature. So what the heck are you thinking preparing to air a grossly biased, anti-science, anti-environment documentary by Sarah Palin? The lying, misleading, and sleazy politicizing in Sarah Palin's Alaska documentary would fit right in on Fox, but has no place on what's supposed to be a real science channel. I just signed this petition calling on you to refuse to air it!
Dear [Florida Governor] Charlie Crist- You're a self-serving son of a gun, but at least you have paid enough attention to popular opinion about the oil rig disaster in the Gulf of Mexico to temporarily back away from your plans to drill for oil off the coast of Florida. If that accident had happened nearer to our state we could kiss our nice marine life and tourist-friendly beaches goodbye. You darn well better position yourself firmly in the no-drilling camp and stay there if you want to have a chance in heck of getting votes in the next election. Not that you would be getting my vote, anyway, since Kendrick Meek is a much better candidate who has been against drilling all along.
Dear Obama, again- I'll bet you feel pretty stupid for supporting more drilling off the US coast right before this horrible disaster occurred in the Gulf. You should take a page from Charlie Crist's book and scrap your drilling plans. Anyway, we can gain a lot more energy security by improving energy efficiency and conservation than we can by expanding drilling. I'm sharing this Sierra Club petition with my readers asking them to tell you to knock off the new drilling.
Nice rant. Funny that I actually agree with you!!
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Whaling is bad! Discovery channel is good. What about that freedom of speach thing? Obama has no idea what he is doing.
The oil leak is very bad but other nations are drilling in international waters in the Gulf and the US has no control over them. The damage to the fisheries along the coast may not come back in our lifetime. I just learned to eat crawfish last year.
What do the financial market meltdown, oil spill, and the Massey mine explosion all have in common? They show that regulation is good and needed. BP could have installed
ReplyDeleteAn acoustic shut off valve at the well head which may have enabled them to shut off the flow after it blew ( standard equipment in north sea oil rigs)...their cost would have been approx $600K, they chose not too and argued against that being required, saying it would be "too expensive"
that cost is now dwarfed by the cost of their "clean up",
The environmental costs, and the economic damages the gulf coastal states. BP itself has a very checkered record as far as following worker safety and environmental regulations and have been fined more than $450 million dollars for violations. This is what comes when you let corporations essentially regulate themselves which is what most republicans, neocons, and free market enthusiasts support...recently it's been all to clear how wrong that approach is.
Frank- Yes, we have common ground! I hope you get many more chances to eat crawfish, because they are not only delicious, but they are one of the most environmental and sustainable types of seafood.
ReplyDeleteEste- Thanks for the great contribution. I agree absolutely that responsible outside regulation is needed to keep big companies from doing dangerous and unethical things for quick money.
The whale eaters will kill themselves off, eventually.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.japantoday.com/category/national/view/mercury-levels-of-whale-eating-towns-residents-10-times-japan-average
Paul- Thanks for the link! I'll bet the national average mercury level in Japan is already pretty high because of all the tuna and other high-in-the-foodchain fish they eat, so 10 times that is really bad.
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