The Oil Spill: What to Do Locally and What NOT to Do

With the growing oil spill disaster close at heart to residents of Sarasota County, Sarasota Audubon is making several recommendations.

• Most importantly, do not attempt to clean the beaches by removing natural debris from the shoreline. This time of year our beaches provide the nesting sites for many different species of birds whose nests are often camouflaged. Eggs can blend in perfectly with the sand, are hard to see and are easily stepped on and can be inadvertently crushed. Moving beach litter from the shoreline into dunes and areas above the high water line will lead to impacts to nesting birds and could result in damage to the dunes.
• Connect with Save Our Seabirds to volunteer your time locally. This agency’s leadership is certified for work with birds and wildlife directly impacted by oil.
• Follow alerts issued by Audubon of Florida, coordinating funding and volunteer activities statewide that will help with oil spill impacts to our wildlife. You can also volunteer with them to help with the effort outside of Sarasota County.
• Consider making a donation to Save our Seabirds (http://www.savourseabirds.org/; telephone number 388-3010) or Wildlife Center of Venice (http://www.wildlifecenterofvenice.org/; telephone number: 484-9657) for wildlife rehabilitation

Sarasota Audubon's April Environmental Notes: Keep Informed

The oil drilling issue is still big, folks.

The report from the Century Commission for a Sustainable Florida has been released. Requested by the State Senate, it shows that drilling in State-controlled inshore waters of even the proven oil states of Texas and Louisiana brings each of those state governments less than $100 million a year. A State Senate report also estimated total petroleum reserves in Florida waters would supply the U.S. with less than a week of its normal consumption, having no discernible effect on gas prices. You may want to encourage our legislators to compare those returns with drilling's potential damage to the environment and to Florida's huge and vital tourist economy.

The Congressional Environmental Scorecard--check it out.

The League of Conservation Voters has just released its annual report of how US Senators and House Representatives voted on the eleven (Senate) and thirteen (House) issues that they defined as having clearly pro and anti-environment sides during 2009. Senator Nelson voted 100% of the time for the environment as defined by LCV, while Senator Martinez voted against the environment on all three votes he cast before his resignation, and his replacement, Senator LeMieux, cast a pro-environment vote only 17% of the time.
 
According to LCV, our local Representative, Vern Buchanan, voted pro-environment 29% of the time. Taking both houses into consideration, the most pro-environment state delegations were those of Connecticut and Hawaii with 100% each, the most anti-environment Wyoming (less than 5%) and Oklahoma (less than 7%). Details of the bills and individual votes are at http://www.lcv.org/. You may want to ask some of our elected officials to explain their votes.

Chevron & The Environment: Do You Buy It?

We thought this clever little marketing piece from Chevron would be a timely piece to share, especially with the debate heating up about oil in our Gulf.  We're curious about your thoughts. 


No doubt the company put a lot of time and effort into this marketing/ community relations opportunity. Do you buy it?  Leave your comment.