For Memorial Day... Boycott BP?

So this never would have occurred to me if I had not sat next to  gray-bearded guy from Alaska traveling here on the East Coast for a while at a bar last week.  He's taking a long working vacation, visiting family and doing some woodworking along the way, taking some side trips.  He mentioned that he loves to travel but is limiting himself to one (air) trip a year to reduce his carbon footprint.  He didn't go on and on about it.  But it stuck with me.  A lot of Alaska's economy, like the gulf coast's, relies on oil.  But they also have seen impacts of oil spills and are seeing impacts of global climate change directly, in ways that many of us fortunately have not (yet).

I was considering trying to make a trip to New Orleans at the same time a couple of friends will be there for work/family visits, but I can't bring myself to add an oil burning flight out there.  It just feels wrong.  Jet fuel is the worst of the worst when it comes to oil use and carbon, and for me, it's really the only significant piece of my carbon footprint, and certainly my oil footprint. 

As soon as I saw it, I "liked" the Boycott BP page on Facebook.  But there are a lot of posts on there saying things like, when you see the BP station, drive on past... Sure, of course you should!  But... I'd like to believe the hype that BP is actually worse than others, ignores safety even more than others in the name of even more profits.  It seems unlikely though, and it seems much more likely that we are all going to have to get used to the idea of no more off shore drilling.  That's right: No new drilling, and shutting down existing drilling.  And, if we really want to honor those who have made the ultimate sacrifice for our country, we're going to have to kick the foreign oil habit too.

And how can we do that?  It's time for an all-oil all-American energy boycott.  Of course, we don't have a way to completely separate out what type of energy we're using right now, and some energy use is essential.  So how about a national brown-out on all energy use, and hence all economic activity.  It would be great if it could be organized and focused on a particular day, but on the other hand oil is going to gush and soldiers are going to die all summer long.  If we take this horrible disaster as a kick in the pants to finally reduce our energy use, even those of us in the choir, it will be felt.  And, if we do it long enough, we will get used to it, shifting to the way things will inevitably be soon enough and finding ways to make up for it.  So take one less flight, hit the library or park and leave the ac off at home, take the bus, carpool.  Make this the summer you or your employees try out video conferencing as a substitute for business travel.  Do something, unilaterally, to stop putting money in the pockets of oil.  All oil.  Right now.