Dear America,
I want to start by saying, I very much would like to believe that BP has their well under control. If this cap ends up working, I will breathe a giant sigh of relief with the rest of you. However, it seems that plugging the top of the well may have increased the pressure on the bottom, which could lead to a more dangerous, methane infused second leak. The Associated Press reported on this Sunday, and if it's true we are in way more trouble than we first imagined.
All that aside, let's say that BP does get the leak under control. A lot of people have speculated that I will shut down BPGlobalPR when that happens. I'm here to tell you that those people are incorrect. I didn't start BPGlobalPR to mock BP's efforts to plug the leak, I started it because BP is more concerned about saving face than they are about saving the coast. I'll stop tweeting about the terrible things BP does when BP stops doing terrible things. Unfortunately, it doesn't seem like that will be happening anytime soon.
My challenge to you, the average citizen, is simply to care. Believe me, I'd love to hang up my tweetin' trousers sometimes. I've already posted 440 tweets about BP, and I'm ready to write about other things, but we can't let BP slide. We have to keep shining a light on them. Look at the way they've acted thus far! Do you think they're going to change now that the well is capped? They are going to keep trying to play it down, shirk their responsibilities and in the meantime, they're going to pursue bigger and potentially more dangerous drilling operations. We have to pay attention, we have to care or this could happen again.
It's time we, as Americans, take a hard look at ourselves. Forget that you're a Republican, forget that you're a Democrat. We are Americans. What is our honest relationship with oil? Where has it gotten us? We've gone to war over it, we've overthrown governments for it, we've ruined ecosystems all over the world for it, we've angered the rest of the world by consuming a ton of it, and now we've got it all over our backyard. Not to mention, we pay a lot of money to put it in our cars. So if there are other cheaper, cleaner forms of energy, why would we keep using oil? What more is it going to take? When will we have had enough? When will we move on?
We can't sit back and depend on our government to regulate for us, we need to make this a priority in our own lives. Sacrifice a little bit, use less oil. In the meantime, speak up about it. This needs to be in the front of everyone's mind. How can you reach people? How can you start something? How can you stir things up?
I know that at the end of the day BPGlobalPR is just a twitter account. I know I'm not changing the world, but I'm doing SOMETHING. If you take anything away from BPGlobalPR, let it be that your little idea could work. The Internet offers a pretty accessible audience, so why not try and start something? We can use new media to affect the old. We can change the conversation. We can set a new standard for corporate responsibility if we just make the choice to attack corporate irresponsibility. Let's show these people that they can't get away with business as usual anymore. All I'm asking of you, the reader, is to TRY. Just TRY. You'll be surprised what can happen.
<3
Leroy
p.s. Leroy Stick is in the process of starting up the Leroy Stick Foundation, a non-profit organization that will focus on funding publicity stunts and projects to direct attention towards corporate irresponsibility. "Forget Your Brand" t-shirts are on sale on Street Giant to get this off the ground. If you'd like, please buy one and help out. Shirts are available here.
Cross-posted from Street Giant
Bill McKibben: The World's Biggest Environmental Crisis Flows on
3 E-Z Ways 2 HELP THOSE TOXED in the GULF. http://kck.st/bVaI0d 1-CLICK link. 2-PLEDGE. 3-SHARE link! RT
One day in decades to come, hopefully we'll look back to this time and see the beginnings of the new transport revolution.
Been doing climate advocacy for 5 years and I'm fed up with it. We can't keep throwing pebbles at Goliath, we must get more clever. Leroy, thanks for being such an innovator!
See today's edit of What to Do! at http://www.aesopinstitute.org The subtitle is: A 5 Step Program to Increase the Odds We Will Survive the Oil Disaster!
400 parts per million of carbon has recently been found to be the Arctic Tipping Point, which could conceivably endanger everyone now alinve. We are presently approaching 390 ppm. The safe limit is 350 ppm.
A very thin oil film on the surface of the Atlantic and Arctic oceans threatens to raise temperatures toward the catastrophic Tipping Point.
If these facts are accurate, far more effective, emergency, action is now urgent.
Little known and hard to fathom breakthroughs involving radically new energy technologies can help to supersede oil much more rapidly than might be readily understood or believed.
See Moving Beyond Oil on the same Aesop Institute website.
All renewable energy work should rapidly proceed on a 24/7 basis. Congress needs to provide whatever incentives are necessary to make that possible without delay.
We need robust action to effectively attack the problems in the Gulf and prevent as much oil as possible from reaching the Atlantic ocean.
The little understood emergency may threaten every person on earth!
Meeting the challenge effectively requires a wake up call that so far is hardly heard. It needs to be much louder without delay - and trigger effective actions.
I'm so happy that amidst all the crap on social media these days there is someone out there provoking change and accountability.
Not to mention, Leroy Stick is probably the funniest and most clever micro-blogger out there. It is HARD to be sarcastic and spark a movement at the same time.
Bravo, Mr. Stick.