Gulf Crisis and help

oil pelicanWhen I saw this image, I wanted to turn away, close my eyes, and not look. It is just way too painful for me. I love birds. Feeding and watching and protecting birds are part of my everyday life. I am crushed. But I can’t turn away and pretend it’s not happening. Now the oil has reached four states, and might be underneath the Atlantic ocean, heading its way to the East Coast.

I want to help this pelican. I want to hold it and clean off the oil. I want it to live. But I am far away, so all I can do is pray, and hope it helps. I feel helpless, and I’m sure many other people do too. So when I got a request by the Sierra Club I felt like I was given some action that I could do. Here is what they say:

Watching the largest environmental disaster in our nation’s history unfold has been infuriating — it’s clear that there is no quick fix to clean up this mess. We need to make sure this type of disaster never happens again.

Are you fed up? Sickened by what you’re seeing in the Gulf? This is the time to join together and help break our nation free from Big Oil’s stranglehold.

The Sierra Club will be holding rallies and events, running ads, and engaging people all across the country to generate a movement to move Beyond Oil. We have never needed President Obama’s visionary leadership more than we do right now — it’s time to stop letting the oil industry call the shots, and to start embracing clean energy.

I am attaching the link so you can go to Sierra Club and take action too. We must be sure this never happens again; That we never drill for oil so deep into the ocean that we can’t fix it when it breaks. That we all become aware of how our own personal use of energy is part of this problem. It is easier to look away from the bleeding in the Gulf. But as much as it hurts, I will face this tragedy head on, heart open.

Oceans: Need our love and help

I just went to see the movie Oceans. It is a product of Disney Nature and was released on Earth Day. It was so lovely and I was very moved. It was especially poignant since millions of gallons of oil were polluting our ocean  while I was watching. I could never forget that fact. The creatures in the ocean are amazing, with such strange eyes and mouths. Like aliens from another planet, but from our planet.

The Thirteen Indigenous Grandmothers are having a healing for the waters tomorrow. Prayers will be given all over the world. I will join in the prayer of hope and healing for our waters. If you can go to a body of water, a spring or creek or pond that would be ideal. But just a glass of water on your kitchen counter can be the focus for your healing prayers to this wonderful and traumatized ocean of ours.

Oil spill environmental disaster

Thursday, April 29, 2010. The massive oil spill off the gulf coast is an environmental disaster. Since it was an oil rig that blew, the oil is leaking from an underwater well, deep in the ocean. It has been hard to calculate how much oil continues to leak, but today it appears to be leaking at the rate of 5,000 barrels a day, not 1,000 as had been thought, and that the spill could reach the coast by Friday. And they don’t have a way to stop the leaking. This is different that the oil that leaked from a grounded ship over the coral reef in Australia this month. That was terrible due to the damage it did to the endangered (and supposedly protected) Great Barrier Reef. But the ship had a limited amount of oil. Since this is a well that is leaking, it seems as if the oil leak could go on and on until they find a way to cap the well. The oil slick is over 80 miles across. The coasts of Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and Florida are preparing for the oil to reach the shore line by as early as Friday. The military has been asked to help, and the Coast Guard are trying to burn the oil in the sea before it comes to the shoreline. What a disaster. And it is synchronistic that it is occurring at the same time that the President Obama has supported an increase in off-shore oil production. Whew! The money made by the oil production could be off set by the loss of income by tourism to these coastal areas. The tension that exists between protecting our environment and increasing our energy sources like oil, coal, and nuclear power, seems to be very problematic. I hope they figure out a way to control this leak. But I fear for the oceans. There is a new movie out called Oceans that I plan to see. It documents the beautiful sea life we could never experience any other way. Pray for the ocean.