within minutes of stepping onto our favorite southern californian beach, i had a big patch of black goo stuck to the bottom of my foot. attempts to pick it off only resulted in my fingers being stuck with it too. mr. tribe said i must have stepped into some tar on the road, but i hadn't taken my shoes off until i stepped into the sand. a few more minutes passed and my mind unearthed the memory of this same thing happening to me the last time we visited this same beach two years ago. it had to be the beach not the road.
the surf was amazing that day...bigger waves than we'd seen in years. it was hard to take our eyes off of the water, but after a while we started noticing more and more black clumps in the sand. jo picked one up, and it stretched and smelled terrible.
a long walk down the beach, with great vigilance devoted to avoiding the goo clumps, and we all had masses like this on the bottoms of our feet. we started to wonder if it could be oil washing up from all the visible rigs offshore.
only when looking for information to write here, did i find that there had been an oil spill a couple weeks prior to our walk on the beach. at least some of this oil has been traced to that incident.
my sadness turns to guilt + anger, when i think that our desire for more and more gas and oil is causing damage to our beautiful shorelines...not to mention influencing climate change. climate change is something we can feel and experience...hotter and hotter temperatures year after year, rising seas, stronger storms, drought, depleted species, more and harder to control fires. it's no longer a far off problem that touches someone else somewhere else.
we need widely adopted renewable energy sources...not more offshore drilling.
my sadness turns to guilt + anger, when i think that our desire for more and more gas and oil is causing damage to our beautiful shorelines...not to mention influencing climate change. climate change is something we can feel and experience...hotter and hotter temperatures year after year, rising seas, stronger storms, drought, depleted species, more and harder to control fires. it's no longer a far off problem that touches someone else somewhere else.
we need widely adopted renewable energy sources...not more offshore drilling.
two amazing pelicans soared away from a large group of seagulls as we walked toward them that day. it's so sad to read that 115 dead birds and 58 dead sea mammals have been connected to this single incident so far, while many more animals have been oiled. who knows what the amazing creatures we saw will face in the weeks and months to come.
i don't really want to talk politics here. individual choices like choosing less, decreasing our waste, choosing organic, and turning down the air-conditioning (meaning turning up the temperature) are so important. each choice is a vote for a cleaner environment, a planet capable of sustaining our children and their children, and a safe home for diverse species. our voices and votes do matter, so let's make all of them count.
love,
jane
i don't really want to talk politics here. individual choices like choosing less, decreasing our waste, choosing organic, and turning down the air-conditioning (meaning turning up the temperature) are so important. each choice is a vote for a cleaner environment, a planet capable of sustaining our children and their children, and a safe home for diverse species. our voices and votes do matter, so let's make all of them count.
love,
jane
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