Kids & The Oil Spill
By Jenn (TinyChoices.com) | July 13, 2010
If there’s one teeny tiny bit of environmental news we’ve not been talking about much here at TC, you’ll have to forgive us– but the leaky pipe in the ocean is something that I think Karina and I both feel overwhelmed by.
Well, I’ll just speak for myself here– I feel overwhelmed by this catastrophe. Furious, too, and scared… but right now, mostly so overwhelmed that I’m kind of blocking it out. I’ll scan headlines about it but rarely click through to read a full article, because when I do, well, there are the photos of the shiny dead turtles and birds, and coverage of yet another failed attempt at stopping this thing, or stats regarding just how many “abandonded” deep sea wells exists out there with absolutely no regulation.
It’s almost enough to make an environmentalist go hide under the bed. Of course, that “almost” is important, because it’s the thing standing between me actually going and hiding under my bed– at times like these, I remember my obviously deeply held belief that the little actions we take do matter. They lead to bigger personal changes and decisions, which leads to even bigger changes and activism and growth on a larger scale, within our families and communities and countries. It all has to start somewhere, and I firmly believe that it starts with one person making one decision and letting that change ripple through their life.
I was recently listening to a friend talk about The Catastrophe, and I interjected a thought here or there but mostly just nodding meekly along with the outrage being expressed. And then she talked about how her three-year old asked about the spill, and what they could do to help. My friend thought about it, and told him that he could donate the money in his piggie bank to an organization which is helping to save the animals, and of course his little three-year old self was all over that, so that is what they did.
And then as we talked, we wondered what other actions kids could take to help, perhaps something a little more concrete than sending money to a group they’ve never heard of and most likely can’t visit. Now, this is not a small question, considering how I’m not even sure of the best ways for adults to help. But we came up with collecting cans in the neighborhood for the $.05 deposit, which could then be sent off to a worthy group… and then I spied a disposable water bottle on a table nearby, and it struck me: what better, more direct way to teach kids– and adults, for that matter– about how we’ve gotten ourselves into this mess in the first place?
Because this spill is not just about BP being a careless, heartless company, though that may be true. And it’s not just about our reliance on petroleum to provide fuel for our vehicles, though that is most certainly a huge part of this. It’s also very seriously about how entirely dependent our entire lives have become on petroleum to provide most of the products we use in our day.
The laptop I’m typing this pissed-off-at-plastic post on? Probably about 50% made from petroleum derivatives (that’san unscientific guess). The ceiling fan whirling overhead? Those blades are not made from wood. My alarm clock, the light switch, the chair underneath me– plastic. The bottle holding my sunscreen, and some of the ingredients in the sunscreen itself? Plastic and petroleum-derivatives. The sleeping bag I’ll use camping this weekend is made from high-tech polyester, which is made from petroleum– ditto the nylon tent and backpack and trail shoes and bottle containing the eco-friendly soap I use in the woods. The Metrocard transit pass I use around town, the cellphone I use to stay connected, the sunglasses which protect my eyes from the glare of the city sun, the coating on my wire bike baskets– all plastic, from petroleum. The containers I use to store my healthy, carefully chosen food. The nylon material used in my beloved reusable shopping bags. The screw-top on my stainless steel reusable water bottles. All part of my effort to make better, less impactful choices, and all plastic. The irony is not lost on me.
And this is just me– one individual who buys as little as possible, and tries to make the best choices possible. When we multiply this across the nation, let alone the world, we’re talking about entire days and entire populations who are living petroleum days from sunup to sundown. It’s no wonder we’re in such a mess!
And it’s not our fault, exactly, kind of, at least to a certain extent. When the newfangled wonder material of the future, plastic, hit the shelves, consumers were amazed and delighted– plastic made most everything lighter, more durable, and cheaper. What’s not to love?
Well, now we know what’s not to love. Consumers and manufacturers became so hypnotized by petroleum-based plastics that development of other, perhaps less negatively impactful, materials was effectively ceased. Whereas many paints used to be made with plant-based oils, they almost exclusively switched to petroleum. Plastics because almost exclusively made from petroleum, even though “…the first plastic ever developed was a “plant based plastic,” a cotton-derived product designed to replace ivory.”. Our lives are now so incredibly plastic-based that it seems nearly impossible to extract ourselves, though friend of Tiny Choices Beth Terry, aka Fake Plastic Fish, is certainly trying.
Did you think I forgot the title and original intent of this post? Well, the idea my friend and I came up with while wondering how kids could “help” out regarding The Big Leak is by collecting disposable water bottles in school, houses of worship, town greens, etc. In NY state, these bottles are now redeemable for a $.05 deposit, which will earn money kids could send to an organization of their choosing. Along the way, we have a prime way to teach them about petroleum, plastic, recyclability, water rights, the crazy story of bottled water, transportation, corporate (ir)responsibilty, and citizen action. We can tell them that if they fill a disposable bottle 1/3 full with petroleum, that’s how much of the stuff is required to produce the plastic bottle and ship the bottled water to the store. We can teach them about the alternatives to plastic, and ways we can live to minimize our plastic intakes.
And while none of these things will plug that hole or save the turtles, it will give us a glimmer of a chance to come out of this debacle with a raised consciousness.
And, if you haven’t yet seen this enlightening film titled “The Story of Bottled Water,” please take a few minutes to watch, because it’s packed full of incredible information:
Have you talked with kids about The Spill? If so, how did you explain things, and how did they react? Do you have other thoughts on ways to present this kind of information to kids?
[Image by Katrenshaw via Creative Commons]
Topics: Activism | 1 Comment »
Ok there is one thing that had me PO’ed about this spill (beyond the fact that is happened at all), and that is dispersals. Now crude oil is still oil and will come to the top of any body of water. Once there it can be scoped up, sort of contained or as a last resort burned. All of these options do have some cost to wildlife but nothing compaired to what they did in the first days of this ‘leak’. By putting these chemical disperal agents on the oil they not only added some weirdo chemical to the mix but effectively hid the extent of it for weeks (you notice the difference between a couple of 1000 barrels of oil versus 100 000 barrels mighty fast on the surface!). To make matters worse this resulted in this heavy non-refined oil to be in the whole water column from surface to bottom, resulting in a much larger loss of sea life and most likely resulting in a more complicated clean up and a longer recovery time of the ecosystem.
Of all the things that ‘we’ do when there is an oil spill or leak or what have you this has got to be the most stupid. It looks good in the short run as it is harder to see the giant oil slick but this has to be something that ‘we’ should never again use!