Surfing Waves

The BP oil spill has shown us the sickening truth that offshore oil drilling wont do anything but hurt our beautiful oceans. Because of human error, another mistake like this one is bound to happen again, so lets go right to the source and STOP OFFSHORE DRILLING!
Write your congressman, urging them to reinstate the federal moratorium on offshore drilling! Tell your friends, pass on the message. We cant allow something this horrible to happen again, or surfing and our beautiful oceans as we know it may very well come to an end.
Here are a few sites you can visit :

Petition to stop offshore drilling in florida
http://action.surfrider.org/p/dia/actio ... n_KEY=1727

send a pre written letter to your congressman urging them to reinstate the moratorium on offshore drilling
http://action.surfrider.org/p/dia/actio ... n_KEY=1727

thanks for reading
we can make a difference!

So really, How does everyone feel about the whole stop offshore drilling debate??? I think it's an uneducated protest. People need to realize how many jobs hang in the balance! As bad as the economy is now you want to stop drilling and skyrocket transporting/fuel cost?? Do you have any idea how many taps run flawlessly? An accident or 2 after thousands upon thousands upon thousands of drillings is a pretty damn good record! If you want it to be safer allow shallow drilling and forget about the deep sea drilling we are forced to do now. That's a main cause for the complications! Tighter safety inspections and such could be implemented but to stop drilling off shore is just ridiculous IMO... Limit production by stopping off shore drilling and see how quick prices start to rise for almost every product you can imagine.... Just some thoughts for those quick to holler stop offshore drilling!

well hey, were all intitled to our own opinon and its totally cool we dissagree, but the way i see it, is were going to run out of oil to drill anyways. Yea, the chances of something this bad happening are very small, but theres still a chance, and the effects are no small fix. Alternate energy sources are out there, but people chose not to use them. Im an environmentalist, and i just cant stand the thought of how horrible this oil spill is for sea life. It destroys aquatic ecosystems in the blink of an eye, while effecting tons of aquatic industry's, fishing being the main one. Not to mention its runing the ocean for us, keeping us from surfing and even just being on the beach. Gulf coast states like new Orleans thrive off of their fishing economy, which right now is being totally screwed by this oil spill. So offshore drilling helps one sect of the economy, but threatens to completely destroy many many others. And btw, an expert study showed that offshore drilling isnt going to help the gas prices very much at all, so were the way i see it, were taking much too big of a risk for something that doesnt benifit us much in the long run.
Thanks for disagreeing hhahaha, its what makes the world go round

Six of one half a dozen of another...

as usual there is no true solution unless the human race give up its love affair with the internal combustion engine.

PapaW wrote:Six of one half a dozen of another...

as usual there is no true solution unless the human race give up its love affair with the internal combustion engine.

hahaha dig that brother

purplevinyl09 wrote:The BP oil spill has shown us the sickening truth that offshore oil drilling wont do anything but hurt our beautiful oceans. Because of human error, another mistake like this one is bound to happen again, so lets go right to the source and STOP OFFSHORE DRILLING!
Write your congressman, urging them to reinstate the federal moratorium on offshore drilling! Tell your friends, pass on the message. We cant allow something this horrible to happen again, or surfing and our beautiful oceans as we know it may very well come to an end.
Here are a few sites you can visit :

I don't believe you can single out this one balls up itself as bad as it is. There is a bigger underlying problem that effects everything way more.
Population growth! There are already too many people on this planet for the resources and until people realise this and stop having more than one/two children per family there are going to be continuing issues for the whole planet.
Unfortunately this problem never seems to be addressed and is just swept under the carpet.

KS

purplevinyl09 wrote:Petition to stop offshore drilling in florida

Yeah! Right on! BP, all the other oil companies, and many many governmenrs - yeah! They'll stop drilling because a bunch of surfers ask them too! Billions of pounds of profit? No, man, its all about the stoke!

I don't believe you can single out this one balls up itself as bad as it is. There is a bigger underlying problem that effects everything way more.
Population growth! There are already too many people on this planet for the resources and until people realise this and stop having more than one/two children per family there are going to be continuing issues for the whole planet.
Unfortunately this problem never seems to be addressed and is just swept under the carpet.

KS[/quote]

yea thats totally true. people complain about how deer are overpopulated, when were the ones who are overpopulating. nobody wants to admit that this world is going downhill fast. and the problem with nobody wanting to admit it, is nothing can be done if nobody says theres something to be done.

drowningbitbybit wrote:

purplevinyl09 wrote:Petition to stop offshore drilling in florida

Yeah! Right on! BP, all the other oil companies, and many many governmenrs - yeah! They'll stop drilling because a bunch of surfers ask them too! Billions of pounds of profit? No, man, its all about the stoke!

this country was built by the people, for the people. and its fleshin' up how corrupted our government has become. We, the people need to make our voices heard. Because without us, the government has no power. If we get enough people to say something, we will make a difference. Revolutions in the air, and not just about the oil spill, people are sick and tired of sitting on their ass, letting the government tell them what to do.
Nobody wants to see our oceans die from crude. Its not weather its going to happen or not, its when is it going to happen. Its impossible to guarantee any of these offshore drilling machines wont explode like deepwater horizon did.

Thanks, but no thanks, purplevinyl09.

purplevinyl09 wrote: We, the people need to make our voices heard. Because without us, the government has no power. If we get enough people to say something, we will make a difference. Revolutions in the air, and not just about the oil spill, people are sick and tired of sitting on their ass, letting the government tell them what to do.

Number of revolutions started by facebook/internet/surfsite petitions = 0.

Dont be so naive. The government couldnt give a toss about a bunch of surfers' petition, or even a hundred million users of FB. They care about money.

And these 'people' that are 'sick and tired' - well, get them onto the street to protest in front of the whitehouse. A couple of million protesters would make a pretty powerful image that might just - just - lead to the downfall of a president/government.

Ticking a box on an internet petition that says "I don't like this" will get you precisely nowhere.


Kids today, don't know nothing about protests, I remember when we used to march in the streets properly riot. and throw placards... bla bla bla....

purplevinyl09 wrote: We, the people need to make our voices heard.

I am doing my bit on what i believe matters thank you. I have no kids and plan not to have any and i run my van on recycled vegetable oil. Its all about doing something rather than shouting about something, signing a petition will achieve nothing.

KS

purplevinyl09 wrote: people complain about how deer are overpopulated,

Not round here they don't!

KS

drowningbitbybit wrote:

purplevinyl09 wrote: We, the people need to make our voices heard. Because without us, the government has no power. If we get enough people to say something, we will make a difference. Revolutions in the air, and not just about the oil spill, people are sick and tired of sitting on their ass, letting the government tell them what to do.

Number of revolutions started by facebook/internet/surfsite petitions = 0.

Dont be so naive. The government couldnt give a toss about a bunch of surfers' petition, or even a hundred million users of FB. They care about money.

And these 'people' that are 'sick and tired' - well, get them onto the street to protest in front of the whitehouse. A couple of million protesters would make a pretty powerful image that might just - just - lead to the downfall of a president/government.

Ticking a box on an internet petition that says "I don't like this" will get you precisely nowhere.


Kids today, don't know nothing about protests, I remember when we used to march in the streets properly riot. and throw placards... bla bla bla....

I like this

kitesurfer wrote:
I am doing my bit on what i believe matters thank you. I have no kids and plan not to have any
KS

HA! i agree with you 100% on this one, no kids means less hassles, lower populations and more surf time for me!

the only way that offshore drilling will ever stop is when the demand for oil becomes unprofitable, until then, or until a viable, profitable and reliable alternate energy becomes readily available to the mass market its something we will all have to live with.

so many products we use in surfing are petroleum based, from wetsuits made of neoprene, the fins, leashes, surf wax, resin.... if offshore drilling is stopped, these will increase in price dramatically.

if you want to encourage surfers to support the environment, then encourage them to buy eco friendly boards made from natural materials by local shapers, skate or bike to their local surf spot instead of driving, buy natural surf wax, help in local cleanup projects etc... thats what we should be doing to help the environment, not just signing a petition. as a SCUBA instructor ive also been involved in several beach/reef cleanups, you wouldnt believe the crap we find down there....


if any ones interested, Envirosurfer is an environmentaly friendly surf shop which stocks all kinds of eco-surf apparel, surf waxes etc...and are donating 5% of all sales to help with the cleanup effort. check it out http://www.greensurfshop.com/

Deepwaterdesigns wrote:

kitesurfer wrote:
I am doing my bit on what i believe matters thank you. I have no kids and plan not to have any
KS

HA! i agree with you 100% on this one, no kids means less hassles, lower populations and more surf time for me!

the only way that offshore drilling will ever stop is when the demand for oil becomes unprofitable, until then, or until a viable, profitable and reliable alternate energy becomes readily available to the mass market its something we will all have to live with.

so many products we use in surfing are petroleum based, from wetsuits made of neoprene, the fins, leashes, surf wax, resin.... if offshore drilling is stopped, these will increase in price dramatically.

if you want to encourage surfers to support the environment, then encourage them to buy eco friendly boards made from natural materials by local shapers, skate or bike to their local surf spot instead of driving, buy natural surf wax, help in local cleanup projects etc... thats what we should be doing to help the environment, not just signing a petition. as a SCUBA instructor ive also been involved in several beach/reef cleanups, you wouldnt believe the crap we find down there....


if any ones interested, Envirosurfer is an environmentaly friendly surf shop which stocks all kinds of eco-surf apparel, surf waxes etc...and are donating 5% of all sales to help with the cleanup effort. check it out http://www.greensurfshop.com/

great call. im on the site now lookin at a sweet pair of shoes
thanks for posting, cuz what you said really got me thinking on the smaller things like what you said. I longboard and bike if i have the option to, i buy eco friendly soy surf wax and I recycle. Now that i think about it, im doing more for the enviroment than i thought i was
thanks for the wise words!

its definately the way to go mate, Envirosurfer has some sweet stuff on the site, im really looking into the bamboo rainbow fins, i met a guy in portugal last year who was using something similar on an A-symetrical board he had made to take off on steep lefts, and he swears by them!

Deepwaterdesigns wrote:its definately the way to go mate, Envirosurfer has some sweet stuff on the site, im really looking into the bamboo rainbow fins, i met a guy in portugal last year who was using something similar on an A-symetrical board he had made to take off on steep lefts, and he swears by them!

its nice to find businesses that are all about the earth. so many people take whats under our feet for granted. its open minded people like those who run that business who can truly change the world

Hey,

I agree in theory with the original poster - in a perfect world there would be no offshore drilling (i like you am an environmentalist, working in marine bio), but as others have pointed out, much more succinctly than I could have, this is part of a much, much bigger picture, with no easy solution or quick fix. I'm actually planning on leaving the world of academic marine bio, as i've found it to be very hypocrytical...lots of conferences to fly to all round the world, 2 out of 4 of my supervsors drive sports cars and yet all of them lament about climate change in their published works....so it's not just the oil companies! Also because i'm currently working on deep-sea stuff which is very high tech and expensive, alot of the funding for my research group comes from companies such as BP.

Ultimatley I agree with Kitesurfer (no Chris, that doesn't mean you're right or you always win!), world population growth, combined with a culture geared towards mass consumption and the desire for lots of material possessions is the underlying cause of all of this. I should point out here, that despite my passion for the environment, i am a complete hypocrite I love clothes shopping, co-own a diesel guzzling surf mobile and travel by plane much more than I should. On the flip side, I walk to work (4 miles each way), or bus it if I feel lazy, i'm not going on holiday this year because I feel so guilty about all the travelling i've done with work, and

Oh and just to depress everyone further, a chinese company is going to start exploiting hydrothermal vent ecosystems soon (very diverse, most sp. so far unknown to science) for the heavy metal deposts. Stop having kids people, it's the only way! (Another hypocrytical disclaimer here- I really want kids, but no more than the replacement rate I promise!