Why I love the Drudge Report

Leaving aside the obvious comments when one sees the headline ‘Vaginal Cream Could be Harmful to Face’…

I couldn’t help but be amused when the Drudge Report linked it as: “Vaginal Cream Could be Harmful to Face: As Seen on Oprah”.

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Oil is a four letter word

So I was reading this morning about a new oil find in Utah that could satisfy the nation’s oil needs for – *gasp* – a month and a half. And we’re getting all excited about it.

I think we’ve hit a point where “ending our dependence on oil” isn’t just a political move but a necessity. Our oil crisis will not be solved by sending twenty thousand kids to their deaths in a country whose name our President can’t correctly pronounce. Remember how the oil market was so much more stable when Saddam was actually in power?

(No, I’m not saying Saddam was a good guy; I despise most of his practices and a good many of his principles – I just don’t think it is any of America’s business what anyone does over there, unless there is incontrovertible public proof of an imminent threat to America.)

We need to drastically lower the demand for oil in this country. This process begins at home.

Today:

Start thinking about walking or using public transit instead of driving.
Recycle as much plastic as you can.
Petition the authorities in the city/county/state where you live to accept more plastics for recycling.
Choose products made from recyclable and recycled plastics over new.
Learn a little about hybrid cars. Honda and Toyota are good places to start. I’m all for “Buy American”, but the American manufacturers seem to be clinging desperately to gasoline, Ford even going so far as to scrap an entire fleet of hybrids.
Write to your congressperson or other such representative suggesting federal or state subsidies for recycling projects.
Write to your congressperson in support of nuclear fusion research. Goodness knows there’s enough sea water to meet our energy needs for the next, um, ever.
Comment to this post. Tell me what else we could be doing.

This year:

Set yourself a target, whether in terms of how much you reduce your driving or how much you increase your recycling… and stick to it.
Tell your friends and family. This is perhaps the most important thing you can do. I imagine that most of the folks reading this are pretty “green”, but know someone who is not as much so. This advice isn’t for a handful of folks on LiveJournal, though – to make a difference, we need as many people as possible.
Make yourself a pain in the authorities’ collective ass enough times that they have to notice. E-mail is free, and doesn’t even waste paper.
Try to cause an increase in the number of recycling facilities available to your community.
Consider making your next car a hybrid. There’s a waiting list for them right now, which is great. Make the waiting list bigger. The bigger that list is, the sooner other manufacturers will jump on board.

Always:

Ask the hard questions. Ask how America benefits from its wasteful habits. Ask why clean energy research is pursued less aggressively here than almost anywhere else in the developed world. Ask whether people would send members of their family to war if it meant they could keep their gas-guzzling SUVs. Ask why anybody needs a Hummer. Ask how much of the world’s undiagnosable, untreatable illness might be coming from toxicity we have created.
Pick up that flapping bit of newspaper on the street and recycle it. Just because someone else can’t be bothered to take an interest in the Earth doesn’t mean we can’t do it for them.
Support “green” initiatives. The Green Party is unlikely to win the White House any time soon, but in many ways a strong grass-roots movement has more power than the entire city of DC.
Copy and paste this post somewhere that more people will see it. Better yet, add a few ideas of your own.

EDIT: I know there’s more to the excitement over the Utah find, due to its potential yield and the geology involved. It’s not really that relevant – that was just a trigger for something that needs to be said even if we find another trillion barrels.

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