Fukushima continues to bring nuclear energy to the forefront of our minds. Now there is another (?!) spill in the Gulf of Mexico. Our leadership continues to say "Everything is fine. Nothing to see here." But we all know that everything is not fine.
As I've said many times over the past few days, as long as corporations have a bottom line to think about, there will always be an unresolvable tension between the financials and the human/environmental costs of energy production. I'm looking at the nuclear, oil and natural gas industry when I say this... Our current "what's the worst that can happen to us?" attitude has been challenged directly. We've seen the worst and it isn't pretty!
I posted a link to the recent Huff Po article http://www.huffingtonpost.com/... by Kelly Rigg about the survival of wind turbines in the quake affected area here and on my Facebook page. I was surprised when several of my more conservative Facebook friends asked me to write to the White House about their concerns about our current energy policy. (I'm pretty sure they think I have some direct access to the President. I wish I was that connected!) I chuckled and did write a letter to President Obama. I also encouraged them to do the same by giving them the link to write their own letters. To my surprise, they did write letters advocating for wind and solar and they reposted my links for their friends to see!
Now, if my conservative friends can mobilize to contact their elected officials and speak in favor of renewables, I'm asking all of us here at dKos to do the same. While this issue is in the forefront of everyone's minds, we need to make our voices heard.
Here are some ways to get in touch with the people who need to hear from us.
The White House is a good place to start:
http://www.whitehouse.gov/...
But don't stop there! Please contact your congresspeople, especially if you live in an area with a nuclear power facility or near the gulf.
http://www.congressmerge.com/...
If you are still motivated or wrote a really great letter, please consider making it into a letter to the editor to send to your local media outlets.
My talking points revolved around
1) development of a sustainable energy policy that looks far into the future
2) the need for REAL regulation and oversight in the current energy industries
3) the need to invest substantially in green technology. Take the money that was going to go to traditional nuclear energy development and put it into alternatives.
4) the need to stop and carefully revisit our current nuclear energy installations to make them safer than they currently are
5) my adorable 10 month old daughter who deserves clean air to breathe and clean water in which to swim without the fear of radioactive fallout or elevating cancer risk.
If you have other great talking points or good links on renewable/alternative energy sources, please share them here.