Some of my favorite people in the world I've met on the internet. In the era of the social web, people increasingly refer to folks they might've met in a comment thread or a retweet as a friend. The connection made by the once obligatory "Hello" plus handshake in real life----IRL, if you will----can now be accomplished with a few keystrokes. But that doesn't mean that those friendships should stop there.
Tomorrow is World Ocean Day and, the Huffington Post and Meetup are encouraging our readers to meet other readers nearby to talk about how you can help the Gulf oil spill clean up effort, strategies for reducing our dependence on oil and how to work towards a clean energy future for our communities. At the time of publishing this post over 1,500 people have self-organized and scheduled 300+ Meetups around the world on June 8th. We're asking organizers to report their findings back to us, and we'll report on what YOU determine to be the best ways to respond to the gulf crisis.
We've also compiled a list of resources to help get the conversation started.
As a part of a broader initiative to offer our very social readers the opportunity to be more social both online and off, we're using a tool called Meetup Everywhere that helps HuffPost readers can find folks near them that share similar passions. So whether you want to connect with people near you to talk about Arianna's latest book club selection or to talk politics with fellow HuffPost wonks, Meetup is powering the technology to make it easy.
Meeting HuffPost readers near you empowers our community in really interesting ways. While book clubs and politics chats are fun, we also hope to connect our readers to organize themselves into action on pressing issues. Look forward to more opportunities to meet other HuffPost readers around world news events, shared interests, and even fun happenings.
In the meantime, sign up below or click here to find a HuffPost Green Meetup near you.
Follow Adam Clark Estes on Twitter: www.twitter.com/adamclarkestes
Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee: An Ecological Disaster: Polluting the Waters of Life
We can return to a relationship to life that honors it as a sacred whole whose voice can be heard. We won't have to wait until the next disaster before waking up to our responsibility to the planet.
What can we do up here in Canada to support the Gulf region at this time?
Keep pushing the White-house for action. In case you haven't heard, Obama was really slow in taking this thing seriously and getting things going.
If we are going to use lots of oil (and we are for the forseeable future) we should take the environmental risks ourselves, not shove them off to other (poorer) countries.
We are being environmental hypocrites and NIMBYs
Nigeria's agony dwarfs the Gulf oil spill. The US and Europe ignore it
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/may/30/oil-spills-nigeria-niger-delta-shell
Thanks for a link to that article. Yes, we North Americans are major NIMBYs, it's the same in Canada as well - the Conservative government wants to maximize profits from the Alberta Tar Sands while ignoring the environmental destruction that entails.
For instance, why should oil on the west coast be carried to the east coast if it's cheaper to bring it to the east coast by tanker from the middle east? Why drive up energy costs and drive down jobs and the economy with more expensive energy?
I see your point that we should drill our own but that doesn't always work. I live in New England. We can't drill our own we have to import. We import from where it's LEAST EXPENSIVE.
Are you sure their safety records are worse than ours? I've heard other nations have higher standards for deep water drilling than we do. Our standards have clearly been compromised in the Obama administration and in prior administrations. Isn't that one of the lessons from this mess?
WE MUST NOT ALLOW THE PRIVATE OIL INDUSTRY TO OWN OUR COASTLINES AFTER THIS IS ALL OVER. The demand to make people whole and the way the private industry never does ONE SINGLE THING that doesn't benefit them has me very very concerned. We must not allow all this "whole" making to include a one step selling of our coastlines to the Elite Controlled Oil Industry which operates exclusively for the super wealth of a few. They could easily do a land takeover and make our Gulf Coast truly bought and paid for. Fifty years from now they will call it Gulf Oil owned and operated by BP and the rest of the Elite.
I DEMAND THAT ALL PROPERTIES PURCHASED BY THE BP OIL COMPANIES TRULY MAKE AMERICA "WHOLE". THIS INCLUDES THE RETURN OF THESE LANDS TO THE PUBLIC DOMAIN FOR ALL PEOPLE TO ACCESS THE OCEAN, ITS INDUSTRIES, AND MOST OF ALL FOR RECREATION. People should be made whole in a way that allows them to maintain ownership of the land they now own in the event they want to stick it out. The good people of this nation deserve access to beaches not owned by the few. We all pay dearly if we lose control of the coast in one fell swoop.
If the OIL Industry controls all the coastlines you know what they'll do with t hem.
http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2010/06/a-victory-for-native-americans/57769/
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=%2Fg%2Fa%2F2010%2F06%2F04%2Fnotes060410.DTL
Article: Behold our dark, magnificent horror
Caption under the photo: "Like Satan's own finger painting"