Do you eat food that is fertilized by petroleum products, sprayed with petroleum based pesticides, and shipped using gasoline or diesel?

Do you wear clothing made halfway around the world, with elastic, buttons, and sometimes fabric made from petroleum products which is shipped using gasoline or diesel?

Are you reading this on a plastic (petroleum product) computer shipped from Asia using gasoline or diesel?

We all are responsible for what is happening in the Gulf of Mexico right now, just as we are responsible for all the other much larger oil spills that have happened around the world, and all the oil wars.

I don’t think it is realistic to demand that people eliminate oil from their lives. It would be nearly impossible. We can, however, do as much as possible to use alternative transportation, eat locally and organically, buy clothing made in the US (or buy used), and recycle whenever possible. We can also demand regulation by our government of the oil producers who feed our habit, and we can pay the extra cost of such regulation. And we can demand and buy more efficient vehicles. If all of us act instead of just talking, we might just avoid destroying our environment.