It's my fault, too

 Photo credit: National Geographic

The biggest environmental disaster in our nation's history continues, and I take responsibility (thanks for the lead, President Obama) because it's my fault, too. Blame BP all you want, but we who are addicted to oil -- for our cars, for our way of life -- caused this. BP wouldn't be drilling if we weren't a nation(s) of addicts needing our oil fix.

So look hard at this mess we have collectively created and the collective power we have to do something about it.

Riding my bike to work, recycling, turning off the lights, turning the thermostat down, and buying locally grown food is not enough to/does not fix this problem or appease my guilt at the images of oil coated wildlife.

But those things, multiplied by millions of people doing the same and more, do make real change. We have to start somewhere.

We need to be educated. Crude oil is used to produce everything from plastics to paint to detergent to make-up and candles. We use it all the time. But their are alternatives - know what they are and support their use.

We must reduce consumption. This map (source: Wikipedia) shows global energy consumption levels per capita (darker colors represent more consumption):

Join me in this: Make a list of the things you do to reduce your energy consumption and personal carbon footprint. Double it. Then make a list of ways you can lend yourself to organizations and coalitions working for large scale change. Sign up. Send your money.

Need help?

• Calculate your carbon footprint
• 15 ways to reduce your carbon footprint
• Environmental organizations (international, national, and by state) can be found here and here

BP and others directly responsible for this disaster must be held accountable.

But make no mistake.

We did this.

Will Obama finally kick some oily ass?

 Image: "Spotted at a BP station in Ohio," 
First published on The Rachel Maddow Show's Flickr stream 

Credited to "Mark and Vicki Cipolle." 

About half the world is furious at what is happening in the Gulf. Furious at BP. Furious someone can't figure out how to stop this catastrophe. (My dad used to say, "If we can land a man on the moon, how come we can't [fill in blank for problem that needs solving].")

It helps me that Barack Obama is our president during this crisis. Unlike George W. Bush, who seemed to think it was okay to leave thousands of hungry, thirsty, poor (mostly Black) people stranded in the Superdome during the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, Obama is a moral, principled man. That would not, could not have happened on his watch.

So I have faith, but my patience is running thin.

I am ready for him to kick some major ass.

I doubt - as brilliant as he is - that he personally knows how to stop the oil gushing into the Gulf. But he does have the power to make the people who do know what to do fix the damn leak and then be accountable to clean up the mess and address the environmental fallout over the long term.

Today on her very fine blog, Whose Shoes Are These Anyway, blogger and New Orleans resident Nordette Adams ("Vérité Parlant is Nordette Adams") says,

"MSNBC is promoting Matt Lauer's Today Show interview with President Barack Obama, which airs tomorrow, June 8. Already, the clip of Obama on the oil spill, saying he talks to experts so he'll know "whose ass to kick" is making the rounds. I have no comment other than what I've said before, "Obama needs to put on the Great Oil Spill Show." See also, "Obama calls GOP the party of No."

"And will Obama's use of the word "ass" appease Bill Maher and Spike Lee and the rest of America clamoring for "the angry Obama"? I still say people want to see him in chest-high waders scooping oil from the Gulf of Mexico with his hands."

Check out the rest of her post, including a promo clip for the Obama interview, as well as some spot-on related posts here.

(I agree with her about Obama in waders personally scooping oil, BTW, while simultaneously kicking some major ass.)