I think we can all agree that the Deepwater Horizon oil spill is devastating.
I am sure watching volunteers clean the poor brown pelicans who are soaked in oil breaks your heart, too.
Facebook is a great place to observe others express their frustration with BP. Since the spill, I have noticed many friends, family members and classmates become fans of or like pages similar to the one titled “1,000,000+ People to Boycott BP … forever.”
Granted, I enjoy viewing the reactions from most of the people I know in one convenient place. I can’t help but think, though, that simply liking a page on a social networking site is not enough.
Don’t get me wrong, boycotting BP. is a great way to tell the company that you are not pleased with its recent activities in the world. Don’t forget, though, that BP has a few brands under its heading. Your boycott should also include Arco, Castrol, ampm, Wild Bean Café and, if you happen to travel to Germany in the near future, Aral.
Even if your boycott goes well, there are still people, plants and animals suffering from the spill.
There are many more opportunities to help the victims of this catastrophic event.
The Hands Across the Sand event is another example of how you can help. I discovered it on the “1,000,000+ People to Boycott BP … forever” Facebook page, which shows these pages are also used to spread additional useful information.
The event will be held June 26 in an attempt to send a strong message to Washington of support for clean energy and a ban on offshore drilling. It is ridiculously simple to participate. First, go to the beach at 11 a.m. in your time zone for one hour before joining hands for 15 minutes starting at noon. You form a line in the sand with like-minded people to show you are against oil drilling in coastal waters, then leave.
If you live to far from any of the local beaches and have some hair to spare, donate anything you can to a local salon or barbershop.
Since volunteers realized hair helps soak up the oil, salons across the country have been sending in hair to relief efforts.
If you can afford to donate money, the National Wildlife Federation has set up mobile services to collect funds for its work in the Gulf Coast. You can send a text message with the code “Wildlife” to 20222 to donate $10 to help wildlife victims of the oil spill.
Oxfam America is helping communities, wetlands and marshes affected by the oil spill with financial assistance, and you can find out more information by visiting their website at www.oxfamamerica.org.
What better way to spend your free time this summer than volunteering on the front lines of what some are calling “Obama’s Katrina.”
To volunteer your time and energy or join a cleanup organization visit OilSpillVolunteers.com.
BP is receiving a lot of criticism now, and rightly so, but it has also launched its own campaigns of support.
You can report injured wildlife or unknown damage from the oil spill on the BP Volunteer Hotline.
You can call the same number, 866-448-5816, to request volunteer information.
At this time the most important aspect of this crisis is reducing and eventually eliminating the damage of the oil spill.
How you help is not as important as the fact that you are helping.