Addiction to Oil: A Parent’s Call To Action

Dr. Sarah Warren is psychologist and addictions expert who understands our addiction to oil and how to go into “recovery.”  She appreciates what it takes to move from denial to awareness into action, because she’s lived it.  She knows that change is difficult, but also necessary, possible and rewarding.

In her book “Fierce Love”, Dr Warren, as a mother and psychologist, addresses the questions “What can I do to make a real difference to protect the planet for  my children?” and “What’s in it for me?”.

It is time, as  mother, biologist, and cancer survivor Dr. Sandra Steingraber asserts, for parents to become fossil fuel abolitionists, for the sake of their children. Dr. Sarah Warren is an example of a mother who has heeded this call, and in her book she shares with us about “going green and getting happy, and doing the right thing by our children.”

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vK2WjyMiaBE&feature=player_embedded]

More links:

Spheres Of Influence

Climate Mama: I Need To Be In Washington This Week For My Children

Harriet Sugarman, a policy analyst and economist, is the Founder and Executive Director of Climate Mama which, according to its website, is:

…about the facts, about getting the straight scoop, about understanding Climate Change and Global Warming. We want to help you make the connections – to understand how you, your family, your friends and your community are impacting and changing our climate. Then, we want to show you what you can do to make your hectic, harried life more sustainable, for you, for your children AND for the world we live in. We will offer you simple, straight forward, and easy to understand ways to combat climate change as well as easy to implement options to reduce your carbon footprint! We want to make it simple for you, as a Mama and Papa, to understand that climate change is a part of your life. We at Climate Mama, like you, have enough day to day issues in our lives just managing the craziness of our families, our careers, our busy 21st century lives…so we aren’t surprised or disappointed if you ask why climate change should matter to you and if you question what you, as an individual can really do that will make a difference to affect this global challenge.

Harriet is also a New Jersey mom who happens to be originally from Alberta, Canada. Harriet chose to participate in this week’s Stop the Pipeline action in front of the White House in Washington, D.C. and was one of the nearly 300 people arrested so far this week in the largest civil disobedience action in the American environmental movement’s recent history.

Photo credit: Flickr/Creative Common TarSandsAction

In the video below, Harriet talks about why she felt she needed to be in Washington this week. She took a stand for a clean energy future for her, and all our children, even though risking arrest was a difficult decision to make:

My family in Alberta is not too keen on me getting arrested down here for this..It’s a very difficult road to cross.  I think that my children will be proud of me some day. I don’t want them to look back  in twenty years, because if we don’t do anything, all of our children are going to be looking back at us and saying, what were you doing,  why were you asleep at the wheel?…I’m doing this for them.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3wZ7ewYa3rY&feature=youtu.be&a]

More links:

Read more about Harriet’s experience on Climate Mama: Why A Bra Makes A Good Purse In Times of Imminent Arrest: The Tar Sands Action

To find out how to send a message of support for the brave folks sitting in at the White House this week and next, go to 350.org.

For the latest news on the tar sands action, and to find out how to donate, go to Tar Sands Action.org

 

10-Year-Old Challenges Canadian Politicians and Big Oil: “Protect Our Coast From Oil Spills”

Meet Ta’Kaiya.  She’s a ten-year-old girl from North Vancouver who, while learning about sea otters in her home-school, became concerned about the devastation oil tankers would cause to B.C.’s coast.

When she learned about Enbridge’s proposal to build an oil pipeline from the Alberta Tar Sands to the Great Bear Rainforest, bringing more than 200 oil tankers per year to this pristine coast, she got really worried.  Then she took action. This amazing young woman wrote a letter to Canadian politicians as well as a song that became a music video. Here they are:

March 24, 2011
Open Letter to Canadian politicians,

My name is Ta’Kaiya Blaney. I am 10-years-old. I live in North Vancouver and am from the Sliammon Nation. My name means “special water.”

I am writing to you because the Enbridge Corporation is planning to build a pipeline from the tar sands of Alberta to Kitimat, BC. I thought it would be very risky for our coast so I wrote a song, called “Shallow Waters” about an oil spill happening in the shallow waters.

You will be debating Bill C-606 soon, if an election is not triggered, which would ban oil tankers from our northwest coast. I am sharing my song’s music video and a personal message to encourage you to vote in favour of the bill.

Today is the anniversary of the Exxon Valdez oil spill in Alaska. Even today, 22 years later, oil still remains a few inches under the surface of the water.

With this song, I hope to encourage government officials, people of British Columbia, and people across the world will realize the dangers of oil pollution, replace jobs that destroy the environment with jobs that help the environment. I ask government and corporate officials such as yourselves change your plans stop oil tanker traffic on BC’s coast and in waters around the world.
Please feel free to share my letter and video with others.

All my relations,
Ta’Kaiya Blaney

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d9dBrlDXVsk]

Join Ta’Kaiya and TAKE ACTION:

More links:

Why Enbridge is Afraid of Ta’Kaiya Blaney

Enbridge Tar Sands Pipeline Threatens Canadian Wildlife

Michigan Oil Spill Among the Largest in U.S. History: Kalamazoo Spill Soaks Wildlife

Dangerous Goods: New Report Highlights Risks of Shipping Raw Oilsands