Have you seen X-Men the movie? There’s a scene in it where Dr. Charles Xavier in in a machine called Cerebro and he is able to ‘hear’ the thoughts of mutants everywhere. Sometimes I truly believe that our world is becoming like that. Turn on your tv, drive down the street, open your phone – tablet or computer – we are getting messages everywhere and the sad sad truth is that these messages are controlled and directed at you.
Do a search on your computer for a topic, activity or event. Now wait and watch. In the next 20 min (often less) advertizing related to your searches will start appearing on Facebook, Google and every web page you visit. When it comes to the digital world, marketing is tailored to you. Unfortunately, this isn’t the case when it comes to news of the world. There is so much tragedy out there today, most of us find it easy to tune out the nastyness Yesterday I watched a movie called, “Not Today” on child slavery in India. It is a really good movie that I believe everybody should see. However it’s one of a thousand topics regarding the horrific nature of greed and destruction here on earth.
Today, in America – something unique has happened this week. In the past seven days we have experienced not one, two or three but FOUR known oil and or chemical spills, some of them are small, but they are real. While this is happening, our news media has been keeping busy keeping our eyes averted so you wouldn’t focus on them. Why don’t they want you to focus on this? Well my opinion is that if we knew how much oil is spilling, we might not support XL pipelines crossing our country – exposing potential disasters to our water resources, our pristine protected lands or our communities.
Now hold on, I’m not exaggerating. This is not some far off conspiracy theory. These stories are real, and once you see all of them in combination, I hope you will do something more than read and share this post. I also ask you to share it, not just with each other, but post it on the Facebook and Twitter feeds of your elected officials, tell them your concerns. Email them your questions and have a direct dialogue with them. First the stories of these four oil spills.
One – Train March 27, a train derailed and spilled 30,000 gallons of tar sands oil in Minnesota via Bloomberg (@BloombergNews) http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-03-27/canadian-pacific-railway-derailment-spills-crude-in-minnesota.html
Two – A small rest area oil spill leaves firefighters with the cleanup and the culprit unknown. Also unknown – how much was leaking as it continued down the road http://www.austindailyherald.com/2013/03/30/firefighters-clean-up-after-semi-spills-oil-at-hayward-rest-area/ Via Austin Daily Herald
Three – over 300 gallons hydraulic oil spills in Michigan. http://record-eagle.com/statenews/x1413935908/Oil-spill-leaves-sheen-on-the-Grand-River-in-Lansing via Traverse City Record Eagle
Four – Mayflower Alabama, now a No Fly Zone as deemed by the FAA – is an inland tar sands disaster when an underground pipe sprung a leak. Most resident’s didn’t even know the pipe was flowing under their homes! American news media silent over for 3 days, minimal coverage since. Story by Russia Today (@RT_com) http://on.rt.com/gt0j6d
Wow. That’s a lot of mess. And this is just one area where we, are watching things get worse. Truth is if all we do is focus on these problems, how could we find any happyness in our world. As I consider getting some coffee before writing my representatives, I know I’ll be getting it out of a plastic container that was shipped to my grocer using fossil fuels to get it from another part of the world to my neighborhood. It’s a never ending battle, and some days well, it’s really hard to pick your battles. I’m hoping that today, this is one you’ll spend 20 minutes fighting with me. So go grab a coffee, or soda and then please use the following links to contact the president and your state representatives to voice your concerns.
http://www.usa.gov/Contact/Elected.shtml
As a concerned American, human and resident of planet earth, I thank you in advance.
UPDATE:
A 5th incident is being reported! Texas pipeline owned by Shell ruptures!!!
CutThePlastic 
One thing I’d suggest is to look at this problem from a broader context, e.g. a longer period and comparing pipelines vs oil transport via railroad. John Lott did that: http://johnrlott.blogspot.com/2013/03/the-environmental-cost-of-obama-not.html
I don’t believe this stance correlates well from where I think you are coming from. Where this piece points to an recent increase in incidents that are not being actively covered by the media, you point directly at a government for restricting and regulating the existing platform instead of making a clear pathway for new infrastructure. Leaks from improperly maintained equipment (leaking oil cars or leaking pipelines) are inexcusable, and part of the responsibilities of businesses to comply with existing regulation in order to earn the ability to take on more responsibility.
The cost of maintenance is part of the calculations in business operations. So financial ability to maintain the current infrastructure is not an argument available to companies that have posted record profits for multiple consecutive reporting quarters.
A zero spill policy is the standard American Citizens as well as Businesses and Government should strive to attain. Knowing that goals of our government include reducing our national dependence on oil, to increase sustainable mass transit systems and to maintain current air quality standards – building specific pipelines to transport mass quantities of new oil sources that present an increase in toxicity, not only in the refinement process but also in the potential impact in a future leak, seems counterproductive to attaining these goals. So, I ask directly, what broader scope should I look at?