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The recent Gulf of Mexico oil spill is leaking 1,000 barrels of oil into the ocean every dayLast week, a 600 million oil rig exploded and sank off the coast of Louisiana, killing 11 workers and injuring many others. It was leased by the petroleum giant BP.Currently, there is an oil slick 20 miles long and 30 miles wide making its way to the shoreline. It is leaving a wide and nightmarish swath of death and destruction in its wake.This is particularly bad news coming on the heels of President Obama's controversial decision to open vast areas of water along the Atlantic, the Gulf of Mexico and Alaska to offshore oil and natural gas drilling for the first time.Indeed, there is no single event that highlights the environmental danger of the oil industry than an oil spill.Fish, birds, marine mammals, coral reefs and beaches are all threatened by this man-made ecological disaster. Oil spills kill countless fish eggs, wreaking havoc on the normal population growth of many species vital to the entire marine food chain.Last month, the Department of Interior issued a revised 2007-2012 offshore drilling plan that surprised and shocked many environmental experts. The plan calls for increased drilling in areas that had been closed to development by a Congressional moratorium, including Alaska's Cook Inlet, the fragile habitat of the endangered beluga whale.If there is a silver lining to the oil spill, perhaps it will be the increased public concern about devoting more resources to the dangerous search for fossil fuel. As many rich countries move forward in renewable energy, the United States lags woefully behind. (Sweden, in particular, announced it will be gasoline- and oil-free by 2020.)President Obama made a concession to the "Drill, Baby, Drill" proponents. But it was most certainly a mistake. A long-term energy strategy must focus on clean renewable technologies that create new jobs for the future of America's workforce -- not expanded drilling in our oceans.Mr. Obama should take a close look at the sea of death that's currently growing in the Gulf. He'll see the past. Not the future.GET INVOLVED * Sign an Oceana petition opposing President Obama's new offshore drilling plan * Sign an Audubon petition urging Interior Secretary Ken Salazar to reject exploratory drilling in the ecologically sensitive waters of the Arctic Ocean, in particular Chukchi Lease Sale 193 * Sign a 350.org petition opposing offshore drilling, urging President Obama to stand by his campaign promises to make sure any climate bill before the Senate mandates at least 25% of our electricity come from renewable sources by 2025 and that we don't give free allowances to polluting industries like coal and oil * Sign a Defenders of Wildlife letter urging Congress to support the the Udall-Eisenhower Arctic Wilderness Act (H.R. 39) which will permanently protect the Arctic refuge (U.S. citizens) * Sign an Audubon petition urging American lawmakers to vote NO on lifting the crude oil ban in Florida's coastal waters (U.S. citizens) * Sign a Friends of the Earth petition opposing President Obama's drilling plan * Read the list of the largest oil spills in history * Find out more about the seven biggest environmental disastersRELATED POSTS * Obama: Offshore and Off Base (April 1, 2010) * Twenty-Six Ounces of Oil (And the Flesh from Several Cows) (November 9, 2009) * Oil and Water Don't Mix (October 7, 2009) * Environmental Showdown in the Amazon: Big Oil vs. Native People (July 21, 2009) * Atlantis Rising (July 12, 2009) * Polar Transcendentalism (May 11, 2009) * Selling the Arctic's Future to the Oil Industry (March 6, 2009) * Gray Whales, Meet Big Oil (November 22, 2008)image: Alternet
