A lot of folks who read this blog have been asking how they can get involved in the clean up efforts down in the Gulf of Mexico. In fact, I’ve never seen such an outpouring of sympathy and desire to help before, and it’s really been quite moving. So in the interest of ensuring everyone is getting plugged in to the efforts to clean up the Gulf and stop the next oil spill before it happens, just wanted to post a follow up to my previous “Volunteer info for Gulf oil spill” blog.
As I wrote in that volunteer info post, if you want to get involved directly in the clean up and animal rescue efforts, the best thing to do is get in touch directly with the groups who are coordinating that work. You have to be trained and accompanied by a wildlife expert to assist in animal rescue, for instance, and those groups have experts standing by ready to train volunteers and lead them out into the field on rescue efforts.
Since the first days after the oil started gushing out of BP’s damaged well, Greenpeace has had a team — including independent oil spill experts as well as staffers — on the ground, where they’re reporting the truth about what’s happening in the Gulf — the truth that BP has been trying to hide. We’ve taken many members of the media out on our boats to see for themselves the devastation of the Gulf and its coastal ecosystems. Our phototographers have helped document the real extent of the damage. In order to keep up the sense of urgency, and to keep the pressure on BP, spreading the messages in our oil spill updates or the pictures of the oil spill that show the extent of the damage is a big help.
If you can’t make it down to the Gulf Coast region but want to do something, there is plenty more you can do. The most important thing for those of us not involved in the clean up and rescue efforts is to call on our elected representatives to stop the next spill before it happens. A quick and easy way to help is by taking action right now to tell your members of Congress to ban any and all new offshore drilling.
Of course, simply signing online petitions will not be enough to kickstart an Energy [R]evolution and get us off of dirty fossil fuels like oil once and for all. That’s why we’re partnering with Hands Across the Sand, MoveOn, 350, the Audobon Society, the Sierra Club, and many other organizations on June 26th to hold hundreds of events nationwide where people will join hands to literally draw a line in the sand and say it’s time to end offshore oil drilling and start the clean energy revolution.
Our national organizer, Anna, has the scoop on the Hands Across the Sands events over on our Grassroots Blog: “It’s time to draw a line in the sand.”
