20 June 2010

Eco-Friendly Gas Stations?

What's the best way to protest BP's actions? The oil spill? By refusing to gas up at BP? Lieber with The New York Times say:

Advocacy organizations like Public Citizen urge consumers to stay away from BP stations. About 550,000 Facebook users have clicked the “Like” button on the Boycott BP page. And angry people have picketed at BP stations.

This doesn’t send a particularly powerful message to BP, though. After all, BP owns only a handful of the 11,000 stations that bear its brand and is trying to sell the few still on its books. So those who wish to inflict the maximum amount of pain on the company are instead putting much of the hurt on the family businesses that actually own the stations.

Umbra Fisk, the eco-queen of the universe, shares her thoughts:

There's no perfect choice, here's how I like to think about buying gasoline ... Every time we go to the pump, a pelican dies. It's a great motivator for using less gas. If we all drove a little less it could have a tremendous impact. If we all take the bus, bike, walk, telecommute or find some other carless way for just one day a week we could have a big impact with a small sacrifice. Even The New York Times concluded that "perhaps the best way for people to express outrage and inflict pain on oil companies is to use less fuel, thereby lowering overall demand."

For the full, informative article from Umbra regarding our gasoline choices, click here.

Greenpeace, instead of calling for a boycott, says in order for us to punish BP, we need to get 'Beyond Petroleum', in fact, 'Beyond Pollution' by boycotting ALL gas stations by using our vehicles less and less.

Beth Terry, author of Fake Plastic Fish argues that it's not just gas stations we need to boycott.
"Boycotting BP and simply going across town to buy our gas from the other guy does nothing to cut the demand for this terribly polluting substance in the first place."

1) Drive less or just stop driving,
2) Don't buy personal care products (most of them contain petroleum-based ingredients and come in plastic, which is made by petroleum),
3) Eat less meat and eat locally (petroleum is used to ship food over long distances),
4) Eat fresh foods! Don't eat processed foods (they contain petrochemical ingredients),
5) Stop buying new plastics altogether (Craig's list, Freecycle or get them from garage sales if you must).

By doing these things, that how BP (and other similar companies) are forced to seek out other alternatives to meet customer demand to thrive as a company. By getting gas, buying new plastics, eating meat, eating fast food, buying shampoo, make-up, and so on, we are helping fund BP and other companies indirectly.

2 comments:

  1. I just shared this blog on my facebook. I targeted this to our society, not to particular individuals with my comment, "exactly. consider yourself selfish, we still drive, we still fly, we still buy our beverages and food from restaurants, and we love new fads."

    I don't mean it harsh, but someone gotta say it. the earth future is in our hands.

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  2. you're absolutely right- targeting or protesting BP is like using an eyedropper to remove the oil spill. by simply reducing all our bad habits, and supporting local shops (no plastics though) and farmer's markets and using natural remedies we're using a titanic sized scooper for the oil spill!

    cass, thanks for sharing the link on your facebook page :) be harsh all you want. they'll thank you later! hugs

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