Green Living by Janet Marchant: Only You Can Prevent Oil Spills

Dear readers, forgive me if I'm a little scattered today. You see, I've had trouble sleeping since that oil spill started soiling our poor, innocent Alamedan shore birds. It seems like just yesterday that I was pitching in with my fellow earth-conscious Alamedans to help clean up our beaches and supply fresh plastic bags for waterfowl to nest in.

But there is a silver lining to this latest disaster. As I was burning the midnight oil the other evening (we've been trying to save electricity), dreading the sleep that would surely bring with it nightmares of formerly spic-and-span egrets mottled with black, I had a revelation. If only we Alamedans didn't use so much oil, there might be no need for huge tankers of it to be blundering around our bay, poisoning wildlife every time there is some slight human error. At first, I was overcome with remorse at this realization, but then my famous can-do attitude kicked in, and I vowed that I would make a difference in Alameda's oil dependency.

At once, I sought out every source of oil consumption in our household, which only amounted to a small can of 3-in-1 and something called Murphy's Oil. I loaded them into my hybrid S.U.V. and drove straight to the hazardous waste disposal facility in that other city that's not Alameda. Then I drove to Wal-Mart to look for an environmentally friendly alternative to those toxic products. I finally settled on corn oil, because there's no way that could be bad for our environment.

I know that getting rid of my family's small amount of petroleum products was only a drop in the bucket, but imagine how much better our world would be if everyone in Alameda were to chip in just that little bit. I wonder how many of those 3-in-1 cans it would take to fill a whole tanker. Just thinking about it gives me a feeling of awe. A journey of a thousand miles starts with just a couple of quick trips in the hybrid S.U.V. I felt energized to prevent future oil spills (there certainly won't be any in my home, now!), and I hope my story will inspire you to make a start today!