Friday, May 28, 2010

Now THIS is punishment

http://money.cnn.com/2010/05/26/news/companies/boycott_BP/index.htm

NEW YORK (CNN) -- An online movement to boycott BP for its role in the Gulf of Mexico oil spill is growing at a rate of better than 25,000 names a day.
"I won't buy their gas any more. I won't patronize a company that's destroying our planet," New Jersey resident Patricia Jarozynski told CNN, one of 118,000 fans of the "Boycott BP" Facebook page as of this writing.



The truth is it's not as easy to boycott BP as activists might think because BP is one of the biggest companies on the planet with many different businesses. So, even if you're not buying BP gas you're likely a consumer. Your mechanic may be putting Castrol motor oil into your car, the soda you're drinking today may be in a can produced from Arco Aluminum and the next aircraft you board may using BP fuel and BP hydraulic fluid.


Oh really?  Well a .2 second google search alerted me to the group of 118,000 declaring their intention to boycott BP.  


http://www.facebook.com/pages/Boycott-BP/119101198107726




And right there on the front page it says


Boycott BP stations. BP brands to boycott include Castrol, Arco, Aral, am/pm, Amoco, and Wild Bean Cafe, Safeway gas. laissez le bon temps rouler pas chez Bp.http://twitter.com/bayouleeTheGrass roots Facebook page advocating a Boycott of bp




It's not that hard to find out which products BP profits from and punish them at a time when they are the most vulnerable.  


It's a shame that good people who work for BP and are insured by BP are going to be harmed by the fall out.   But just like with pharmaceuticals that do us more harm than good and/or are overhyped/marketed,   we have to be selfish with our health.   


Powering civilization with ancient carbon is poisoning our air and water.  Even without this spill we have to change our power source to survive.  


"There's not enough money"  


Absurd.   Money isn't real.  It's just one old concept in a medieval method of organizing society.  We wave a congressional magic wand and make 2 trillion appear to bail out financial institutions who somehow managed to lose at a rigged game.  


I'm all for punishing BP just to remind everyone how powerful a weapon the masses hold.  Especially in a consumer driven economy,  our mundane choices prop up the wealthy.   But I wish the boycott were more of an ultimatum....  


Something like "we will boycott BP until they begin applying their drilling expertise to geothermal heat mining"


Google that and look at the estimates from the US government about the potential zetajules of energy waiting to be mined in the US alone. 



3 comments:

  1. How can BP pay to clean up if we boycott them? [and why can't it be "girlcott?"]
    Oh, I forget; they aren't cleaning up anyway.

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  2. They can just borrow the money from the banks ....that's where all the money ends up anyway

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  3. What is a "zetajule"?

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